“When I decided to use Access to Work, my confidence, and job performance, soared. I found it hard accepting that I needed support, and even harder to share this with employers. I feared discrimination, bullying and being passed up for promotions, but what occurred by not sharing my needs was low self-esteem and depression, which then led to bullying and poor job performance, and even being fired. However, when I finally felt ready to share my needs with potential employers, I was astounded. Not only was I awarded every job I applied for, I was also given the support I needed to perform well too!

When is the best time to share your mental and physical health needs with employers? For me, it depended on the interviewer and the role, sometimes I shared at the interview, and with others it was after I got the job.

I learned a lot about how to manage my wellbeing at work at New Leaf Recovery and Wellbeing College. Their courses helped me take control of my situation and their employment courses and seminars gave me some strategies that were easy to implement into daily working life; especially the employment and self-management course. I'm hoping my story will help others to do the same, but if not, the 'employment: pros and cons of telling employers about my health needs' seminar could give them the confidence they need. 

In the end, I decided if an employer was going to discriminate or take back the job offer, then I didn’t want to work for them anyway. The college helped me see that and I’ve not looked back since”.