\n<\/p>\n
It is estimated that one in four Singapore residents is at risk of developing cancer in their lifetime. With cancer incidence rising among younger age groups, more employees will be navigating treatment, recovery and long-term health challenges while in the workforce.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A cancer survivor may be medically cleared to return to work, yet continue to struggle with \u201cinvisible\u201d symptoms like fatigue, reduced stamina, and cognitive effects sometimes known as \u201cbrain fog\u201d. Simple tasks like processing emails now take much longer, leading to concerns about being perceived as less capable than before. Cancer can also become more of a chronic condition, meaning some treatment effects may continue for many months or years.<\/p>\n
Illness is only one reason employees may become temporarily less available to their employers. Similar challenges also arise in pregnancy, injury recovery and caregiving for elderly parents. The recent National Day Rally announcement of expanded childcare leave is, in effect, an acknowledgement that employees will become temporarily less available to their employers at various points in life – and that this is a normal feature of a working life, not an exception to be managed away.<\/p>\n
For employers, this means accepting that some tension between operational demands and employees\u2019 needs may be inevitable. Yet, reasonable accommodation to the latter is not about employers automatically saying yes. It is about engaging in a genuine problem-solving process.<\/p>\n
The ECT\u2019s findings in the recent case illustrate this. While the international school was not obligated to approve the administrative assistant\u2019s work-from-home request, the magistrate found that the school showed no genuine willingness to consider or discuss her concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A range of outcomes might have emerged from honest dialogue: one work-from-home day instead of two, temporary coverage during absences or a time-limited trial arrangement. Yet, these were not meaningfully explored, according to the judgement issued on Aug 12.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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WHEN EMPLOYEES BECOME \u201cTEMPORARILY INCONVENIENT\u201d It is estimated that one in four Singapore residents is at risk of developing cancer in their lifetime. With cancer…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--_pYNz4ZG--\/c_crop,h_684,w_1216,x_318,y_0\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/08\/30\/sad_employee_at_desk.jpg?itok=oSlMG1eO","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[280,596,1126,27327,29195,2745,5197,2396,8867],"class_list":["post-80915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-cancer","tag-case","tag-commentary","tag-dismissal","tag-employeremployee","tag-relationship","tag-survivors","tag-tells","tag-wrongful","wpcat-2-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/80916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}