Support from line managers can make all the difference in bringing an employee with long Covid back into the workplace, a new guide from SOM, the Society of Occupational Medicine, has argued.
The guide, Long Covid: a manager’s guide, emphasises that line managers have a significant impact on successful return to work following long Covid.
Workplaces, and managers, need to be aware that Covid-19 can cause a wide range of health problems. Symptoms may therefore vary over time and can be unpredictable and fluctuate.
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Self-evidently, reasonable adjustments will help workers with long Covid to perform their job well, the guide highlights.
It advises managers to stay in touch while the worker is absent from work, to schedule in regular catch-up meetings, to plan the worker’s return, to provide support during the early days of the return to work, and have a regular review and ongoing support process in place.
The guide also outlines that the most effective workplace adjustments for achieving a safe and sustained return to work after Covid-19 are:
- preventing re-infections at work;
- a prolonged phased return (in other words, returning to work tasks and hours gradually);
- a return-to-work (RTW) plan detailing the job adjustments, which consider day-to-day variations in symptoms; and
- ensuring employees are not working beyond their energy capacity, as this can cause deterioration.
Most people with long Covid need an extended period of return-to-work support, a process that will normally involve input from HR. Referral to an occupational health service will often also be helpful, the guide makes clear.
Dr Clare Rayner, SOM’s 2023 award winner for Global Contribution to the Development of Occupational Health for her work on post-Covid conditions, said of the new guide: “I am delighted that SOM has produced this timely package of advice and guidance on what can help people with post-Covid conditions get safely back to work and stay at work.
“In my mind, the key factors are early healthcare and workplace interventions, an individualised return-to-work Plan, and prevention of reinfection.”
Separately, SOM’s journal, Occupational Medicine, has put together a themed edition focusing on post-Covid syndrome and the lessons learned from the pandemic.
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