In a interview granted to Brut, Arthur Sadoun, president of Publicis, testifies to his throat cancer, due to the papillomavirus. Besides the fact that he encourages everyone, men and women, to get vaccinated against the papillomaviruses, he testifies to his patient journey as a member of a companyand calls for measures to be taken to protect and support employees who experience the same situation as him.
In this testimony, he recounts having benefited from a preventive treatment combining chemotherapy and radiotherapy. At that time, he realizes that “his body will change and that he will be limited in his movements”, then against the advice of some who advise him to keeping his illness at work a secret on the grounds that it is an “act of weakness”he decides to make it public through a video sent in April 2022 to all employees.
It was then that he received a wave of messages thanking him for daring to address the issue of chronic illness at work. Many testify that they never said so, did radiotherapy sessions before working hours, or even took time off to have breast cancer surgery… Others say they hid the their child’s cancer. Their fear? No longer being at the level, seeing their career diminished, or even for the United States, losing their job and at the same time their health insurance.
A global initiative to be safe at work when you have cancer
Listening to these stories, Arthur Sadoun explains that it is not acceptable to be afraid for your work when you have cancer. “We all have to be there to support people who are sick and especially in the workplace,” he points out.
To fight against the secret of chronic diseases at work, was launched a “Working with cancer” initiative, which calls on the world’s largest companies such as Google, Facebook, Walmart, Carrefour… to commit to becoming places where you feel safe when you have a pathology. On the one hand, it means having the assurance of not being fired for this reason, in countries where it is very easy to be fired in a week, such as the United States.
But also to offer people individualized coaching and explain to them that their illness is not a condemnation for their career. The objective being that the charter broken down into several points to help patients and caregivers in this ordeal can also be adopted by small businesses.
There are already initiatives to mobilize the business world in the fight against cancer in order to take better account of the reality of the disease in the professional environment, such as that of “Companies against cancer” .
Source: Raw
