Guest Writer Laura

Hey, I’m Laura, I’m 23 and I have ulcerative colitis. I’m going to talk about how I’ve balanced my IBD and my career so far, but first, a bit of back story...

I developed (and was diagnosed with) IBD when I was 19 years old. I was at university studying geography, at the beginning of my second year. IBD definitely affected my time at university but it was more my social life that temporarily suffered rather than my grades! When I had a flare up I stopped going on weekends away with the mountaineering society and would only occasionally go on a night out with friends due to tiredness, long queues in the toilets and embarrassment over my steroidal moon face! The positive side of this was that I had loads of time to stay in and work on my university assignments. I remember doing most of the revision for one particular exam sitting on the loo – good times! Luckily I had really supportive lecturers and friends who were happy to share their notes with me from the lectures I missed.

My super flexible university timetable was great from an IBD point of view but at some point in my final year I realised that this wouldn’t always be the case and soon I would have to get a job and live in the real world! I ended up applying for a job at a charity based in Oxford. I got the job and am still working for the same organisation two years later. When I turned up on my first day, I remember having a number of worries about how my IBD would affect my work. I’m pleased to say that these days I rarely worry about this so I thought I’d share my seven steps to achieving work-IBD zen...

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      1. Consider your commute to work

I’m currently looking for a new place to live and my number one priority is finding somewhere which is easily commutable from my workplace. It isn’t always possible to live next door to work but a short commute can really help reduce anxiety when your stomach isn’t feeling great. Actually I lied, this is my number two priority, my number one is to find a house that has two toilets.

 2. Consider your place of work

I work in an office which is really perfect for anyone with IBD. I imagine that driving a lorry or working in a customer-facing role might be much more difficult to deal with when you’re having a flare up. When I was particularly ill last year I did have to cancel a lot of meetings but I still got loads of work done because I could chill out in the office or even do my emails from home.

3. Try not to get frustrated with people

If you’re like me, you might occasionally get annoyed with people who don’t understand exactly how you feel. For instance, you might start thinking things like “this meeting is so long, everyone is so insensitive for not realising I feel really tired and my stomach hurts and I might need to run to the toilet any minute!” No-one is psychic, so just ask for a break instead, or see step four...

 4. Let everyone know

The best thing I ever did was tell everyone I work with about my IBD, this has made my life so much easier. It can be difficult to talk about IBD because no one likes to discuss their bowels(!) but it’s so worth it. If you just say you’re ill that’s okay but colleagues will expect you to be feeling better the week after. It can take much longer to get out of a flare up so it’s really important that people know this. You just have to find the right way to do it. For my direct line manager and our HR representative this was a long email explaining all the gory details that can be hard to talk about out loud. For other people in the office, I have perfected a way of casually mentioning my IBD without using the word “bowel” once. I.e. “I have this colitis thing, my colon is inflamed so my stomach hurts and can be a bit dodgy etc etc”. I also enjoy mentioning famous people who have IBD such as Sir Steve Redgrave or footballer Darren Fletcher!

5. Have a laugh with your colleagues

Once you’ve accomplished step four, this is the next thing to do. When I had a flare up last year, two courses of steroids resulted in a pretty epic moon face. This usually gets me down but I was weirdly cheered up by my colleague singing “moooon face dot com” whenever I walked into the office! So much nicer than everyone skirting around the issue.

 6. Take control of your calendar

Once I’d been working in a proper job for a few months, I realised that I could make my calendar work to suit me. This really reduced my IBD-related anxiety. Obviously you need to do this in consultation with your boss. I don’t know how it goes for other people with IBD but when I’m flaring up my symptoms are particularly bad during the morning. So I arranged with my boss that I would work from home each morning and come into work in the afternoons for meetings if I felt like it. Flexi-time means I can have a lie-in if I’ve been unwell during the night too.

 7. Check out Good Desk, Bad Desk

Finally, Crohn’s & Colitis UK have a great website called Good Desk, Bad Desk which has some useful resources and interesting statistics on employment and IBD. I sent a link to this website to some colleagues when I first started and I think it really helped them understand things.

I hope these tips are helpful for people with IBD who are just about to begin their career after school, college or university. I realise that I’m pretty lucky to have great employers who allow so much flexi-time but I think this is becoming more and more common, especially now so much work is done online. It must have been much trickier to keep up with work for people with IBD before the internet existed! If you have any tips of your own I’d love to hear them so please post in the comments section below.

Employment and IBD Part 1 - Telling Work About IBD

If you have Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis – conditions collectively known as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) – you may be concerned about your employment position. You may be employed or looking for a new job. You may be on benefits and are thinking about returning to work. While IBD is a chronic condition, with appropriate treatment it is often possible to remain well for long periods and many people with IBD are able to work full-time. 

This series of articles sets out to answer some questions you may have about your possible options and how you may be protected by law. The quotations that are included are all from people who have IBD who responded to a 2011 Crohn’s and Colitis UK survey on IBD and employment.


Who should I tell about my IBD? 

If you are applying for a job you may be concerned that you will be at a disadvantage if you declare your IBD during the recruitment process, whether on an application form or at an interview. The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful for employers to ask invasive questions about your health - including previous sickness absence - before making a job offer. This applies to questions that are included on an application form as well as questions asked during an interview. 

Employers should consider whether or not you can do the job rather than ruling you out early on in the process because of your health condition. A job offer may be conditional on a medical examination or satisfactory completion of a medical questionnaire after the job offer stage. A conditional offer should only be withdrawn on medical grounds at this stage if it can be shown that you would not be able to do the job once reasonable adjustments have been made. If you deliberately withhold information at this stage and it comes out later, you could risk being dismissed. You may also find it helpful to show any prospective employer our leaflet ‘Employment and IBD: a guide for employers’.

If you are already in a job when you are diagnosed with IBD, or if your condition becomes worse, you may wonder whether to tell your manager about it. There is generally no legal requirement to disclose a medical condition - but it may be required in your own personal contract of employment. 

There can be some advantages in telling your manager. Firstly, hiding symptoms can be a strain and it may be a relief to talk about your IBD. Also, if your employer knows about your IBD, they should make reasonable adjustments for you if you fall within the definition of a disabled person in the Equality Act 2010. Generally, employers will deal sympathetically with an honest approach, and sometimes a lack of understanding can create more problems, but it has to be your decision.

“I think it is important to explain to your 

employer about your condition. Being 

open and up front, in my case, has 

helped, and if they are good 

employers they will understand.”

If you want some support when you tell your employer, you could ask someone else to accompany you, such as a colleague, an occupational health worker or a trade union representative. Even if you tell an employer or prospective employer about your IBD, you may not wish it to become public knowledge. You also need to decide if and what you are going to tell your co-workers and colleagues. Again, there can be advantages in letting others know about your IBD. If fellow staff know that you have a chronic condition and what it means, they are more likely to give you the support and assistance you need, helping to create a better working environment. If they do not know, they may draw the wrong conclusions or believe you are getting preferential treatment if your employer makes adjustments for you. Being more open could also mean that you wouldn’t, for example, have to hide taking your medication or that you have painful stomach cramps.


It is common for people to feel embarrassed when talking about bowel movements, so you may find it difficult to explain your symptoms, especially urgency and the frequent need to rush to the toilet. You may find it helpful to give your manager and/or your colleagues some of our information sheets or booklets such as Understanding Colitis and Crohn’s Disease. Explaining that IBD is not infectious is often particularly helpful, as this may be a concern. It may also be useful to make it clear that IBD is different from Irritable Bowel Syndrome. 


The 2011 Crohn's and Colitis UK survey found that 81% of employees had told their employer or HR department about their IBD, and 77% had told their coworkers. Most employees said that they felt comfortable about discussing their condition, but two in five respondents said that they worry their colleagues may think that they do not pull their weight at work because of their IBD symptoms. A quarter said that they worry about being discriminated against in the workplace as a result of their IBD.

In Part 2 - Employment Rights, Disability, Equality and Discrimination