An interactive workplace health screen exploring common chronic conditions, pain experiences and fatigue. Read about possible work impacts, browse practical adjustment ideas, and build a gentle conversation starter to explain what support might help. Save your plan privately on device.
Space to Breathe Therapy
Disability at WorkExplore how selected long-term conditions may affect work, understand different pain and fatigue experiences, and prepare a gentle conversation about support.
Choose a condition to see a short fact summary, possible work impacts and ideas for a supportive conversation. These are examples, not predictions about any individual.
No matching condition in this selection. The conversation planner can still help you describe your own work needs.
Pain can be described by its pattern, location, quality or the way the nervous system is involved. These descriptions are not a way to diagnose yourself, and more than one mechanism can contribute at the same time.
Pain associated with actual or threatened damage to non-nerve tissue, such as a joint or muscle. It may be described as aching, sharp or tender, but descriptions vary.
At work: movement, lifting, repetitive tasks or staying in one position may be difficult.
Pain associated with a disease or lesion affecting the somatosensory nervous system. People may describe burning, shooting, tingling or electric sensations, though not everyone uses the same words.
At work: touch, clothing, temperature, movement or sustained concentration may be affected.
Pain associated with altered pain processing when there is no clear evidence that tissue damage or a nerve lesion fully explains it. It can occur alongside other pain mechanisms.
At work: pain may be widespread or variable, and several ordinary demands may add together.
Pain may come from internal organs, be felt away from its source, or involve a combination of mechanisms. These words describe different aspects of pain and are not interchangeable categories.
At work: urgent breaks, posture changes, travel or uncertainty may affect the day.
Pain may change movement, focus, sleep, confidence or the amount of time a task takes. A person may use strategies to keep going that colleagues cannot see. Pain words such as aching, burning or sharp describe an experience; they do not identify the cause by themselves. Pain mechanisms can overlap, and a person’s words may change over time.
Consider walking distance, stairs, lifting, reaching, grip, sitting still and repeated movements. A different workstation or a chance to change position may reduce one barrier.
Managing pain can use attention. Extra interruptions, time pressure or switching tasks may add to the effort. Clear priorities and pauses between demanding tasks may help.
People use "fatigue" to describe more than one experience. The descriptions below are everyday patterns, not separate medical diagnoses. A person may experience several at once, and rest may help some kinds more than others.
A feeling of heaviness, weakness or reduced stamina. Repeated movement, standing, walking or a long journey may take more effort.
Work idea: consider task changes, access to seating, position changes or planned pauses.
Thinking may feel slower or harder to sustain. Concentration, memory, decision-making and finding words can be affected.
Work idea: reduce avoidable task switching, use written priorities and allow focused time.
For some conditions, symptoms can worsen after physical, cognitive or emotional effort, sometimes after a delay. The amount of activity that triggers this varies.
Work idea: plan with the person around their known limits; do not assume that pushing harder is helpful.
Someone may wake without feeling restored, or experience fatigue linked to illness, appointments, treatment or medicine. This is individual and may change over time.
Work idea: ask what timing, breaks or temporary flexibility would be useful.
Energy may vary across a day or week, or change during a flare. A person may need to adapt plans even when the change was difficult to predict.
Work idea: agree which tasks can move and how to communicate a change in capacity.
It does not tell you how committed, capable or motivated someone is. The visible amount of work may not show the effort needed to complete it.
Work idea: focus on barriers and options rather than assumptions.
Fatigue can affect stamina, thinking, movement, communication and recovery. It may not be visible, and it may not improve after a short rest. The person is best placed to describe what they notice and which adjustments are useful. A manager does not need to identify the medical cause to discuss a work barrier.
Avoid assuming that fatigue means low motivation, that a good morning predicts the whole day, or that more activity is always the answer. For conditions involving post-exertional symptom worsening, ask the person what is safe and workable for them.
A helpful starting point is the work situation and its effect. You can share only the health information you feel comfortable sharing. It is fine to ask for a conversation without having a complete solution ready.
Which part of the day, work task or environment has become difficult?
Explain what happens to pain, energy, concentration, movement, attendance or recovery.
Ask about a practical change, such as a planned break, clearer priorities, flexible timing or a different setup.
Ask when you could check whether the change is helping and who should be involved.
Choose a person and format that feel manageable. You could ask for a private meeting, send a short message first, bring notes or request questions in writing. You may take someone with you if that is helpful and appropriate.
Describe one work barrier at a time. Explain what happens, what you have already tried and one change you would like to explore. It is fine to say you are unsure what would help.
Check what will happen next, who is responsible for each step and when you will hear back. Ask for a written note of any agreed change if that would help you remember it.
Set a date to discuss whether the change helped, needs adjusting or should be tried for longer. A review is part of learning what works, not a test of whether the person deserves support.
If you are not ready to name a diagnosis: "I’m managing a health condition that affects this task. I’d like to talk about the impact at work and a possible adjustment."
If you need time to think: "I’m not sure what the best option is yet. Could we look at a few possibilities and agree to review them?"
Your conversation starter
I’d like to talk about a work task that has become difficult. Could we explore a change that may help and agree a time to review it?
Make a private note of what is difficult and what you might want to explore. You can leave any field blank. Your notes are saved on this device only when you choose "Save my plan".
If you use a shared device, avoid saving sensitive details in this browser. "Clear my notes" removes the saved plan from this screen.
Condition summaries are short, general descriptions based on NHS information. Pain mechanism descriptions follow the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). This screen is educational and does not diagnose or predict what a person will experience.
Every person’s needs are individual; use these as starting points at work.
