19 Ways to Make Working with Chronic Pain and Fatigue Easier

Last Updated on January 19, 2022 by melissanreynolds

How can you work with chronic pain and fatigue? Working when you are in pain and when you have a chronic illness is no easy feat. Actually, it’s pretty darn hard.

Sometimes fibromyalgia, chronic pain and fatigue are defined as a disability. That depends on your location in the world. This post assumes you are able to work, but need some support to do so. This may mean rethinking what work looks like.

In this series I am sharing ideas to manage fibromyalgia, chronic pain and chronic fatigue at work and my story in case it helps you in your journey. For some context: I have had chronic pain and fatigue for the entirety of my working life, so I have had to manage pain and fatigue every single working day of my life.

I won’t share about legal requirements of companies and employers because it differs from country to country. But do check your rights.

This article from Harvard Business Review states that “over one-third of Europeans aged 15 years or older and nearly 60% of adult Americans are living with at least one chronic illness. Chronic illness can last from several months to a lifetime and can take many forms: arthritis, musculoskeletal pain, diabetes, asthma, migraine, blood disorders, cancer, heart disease, irritable bowel syndrome, autoimmune disease, and a range of mental illnesses like depression and debilitating anxiety. Each year, depression or anxiety account for up to 50% of chronic sick leave in Europe.
Despite this omnipresence, leaders are overwhelmingly unprepared to support chronically ill employees.”

So it is high time to start supporting those who are chronically ill in their efforts to remain in the workforce. Or there won’t be a workforce.

As a person who has worked in full time office jobs, worked part-time, worked from home and created my own business I can tell you that none is easy when you have a chronic illness. They are especially hard when your employer doesn’t understand your condition and is not/cannot accommodate you.

The good news is that there are many things we can do ourselves to manage our work and our illness so I will share some ideas for you.

Of course, how well you manage at work will likely be a reflection of your overall health. Bookmark these posts to come back to:
Ultimate guide to managing fibromyalgia
Managing chronic fatigue
My Favourite Supplement for Fibromyalgia

Ways to work with fibromyalgia, chronic pain and fatigue?

• Modifications to your work station (ergonomic assessment)
• Using a discreet heating pad
• Have healthy snacks and loads of water
• Appropriate breaks – you tea breaks but also micro breaks. Productivity research shows the ideal work to rest ratio is 52:17 (52 minutes work to 17 minutes of rest), but I doubt that will go down well with your boss. So at least 5 minutes every half hour during sustained computer work, stretch and look away from the computer. And a couple minutes here and there to stretch fingers and gently shake out your hands.
• If you usually stand for work, try to sit in your break (and raise your legs if possible). If you usually sit try to walk for part of your break.
• Stretching- discreet regular stretches and full stretches where possible (if it’s not possible at work then at home).
• Meditation- during longer breaks and/right after work
• Breathing – regularly! Feeling tired, sore or stressed? Inhale for four, pause for two, exhale for six.
• Use your sick leave when you need it.
• Use the physical therapy that works for you (I highly recommend a gentle version of dry needling by a physiotherapist, but check out this post on saving money on Physical therapy).

Flexible work options to negotiate:

• Reduced and/or flexible hours
• Set yours hours to earlier or later according to your best energy envelope.
• Working reduced hours – as an example I did well on an 8.30am-2.30pm schedule prior to children. Even earlier than this, and when I was not earning enough to work much less I reduced from 40 to 37.5 hours (to 9am-5pm).
• Reducing one day a week (as an example, when I first went back to work after my first child, I had Wednesdays off with him which helped a lot. Though its not exactly a day off to be with a busy toddler, but the switch helped).
• Condensed workweek may help some, if you’re already getting ready for, and going to, work, then you could work your hours across four days and have three days for rest.

See also: Ways to Make Money Online with Fibromyalgia

After work

• Rest
• Get to bed at a decent hour
• Do Yoga Nidra guided meditation either straight after work as a rest or right before bed to encourage relaxation and good sleep.
• Use your coping mechanisms (warm bath, heat pad etc.)
• Do some restorative yoga to reset the body and relax.

The benefits of working from home with chronic pain and fatigue

• Using what you need more easily to manage pain such as aromatherapy, heating pads, topical ointments etc
• Using your breaks to meditate or sit with heating pad
• Reducing fatigue from commute
• Setting up the work station exactly as you need including lighting levels and other sounds/lack of

Some countries have organisations that will assist you with equipment to set up a work from home situation.

Yoga for chronic pain and fatigue at work

• Meditating in your breaks and/or your commute (if you are not driving)
• Taking regular stretching breaks (these seats yoga breaks from my YouTube)
• Breathing breaks

Obviously I have a load more to say about using yoga to help you manage chronic pain and fatigue at work, but this post got quite long. This post is a bullet point, cliff notes to get you started today.

If you need help creating your plans, enacting them and short and simple yoga practices for your workday – then join us here. This is the guide I wish existed back at the beginning of my journey, in those days I was desperately trying to manage with high levels of pain and fatigue.

Your turn:

Tell us what helps you manage at work in the comments.

And pick at least one thing I’ve offered here to try this week.