The after effects of Covid-19, is long covid and many people are affected. The symptom list seems endless, this is what the NHS are deeming the most common symptoms of long COVID are:
- extreme tiredness (fatigue)
- feeling short of breath
- loss of smell
- muscle aches
- problems with your memory and concentration (“brain fog”)
- chest pain or tightness
- difficulty sleeping (insomnia)
- heart palpitations
- dizziness
- pins and needles
- joint pain
- depression and anxiety
- tinnitus, earaches
- feeling sick, diarrhoea, stomach aches, loss of appetite
- a high temperature, cough, headaches, sore throat, changes to sense of smell or taste
- rashes
Because of this very long list of symptoms and the fact that there is little research at the moment into long covid, it becomes very difficult to manage employees absence and illness in relation to long covid.
Acas recommends that employers focus on the reasonable adjustments they can make rather than trying to work out if an employee’s condition is a disability. This needs to start with an open dialogue about their condition and a sufficient understanding of long Covid among managers so training is key.
Because older people, women and certain ethnic groups are more likely to experience long covid, treating those with long covid less favourably than other employees with long-term health conditions or adopting rigid or unjustifiable policies about, for example, attendance at the workplace, could give rise to direct or indirect age, sex or race discrimination claims, as well as claims of disability discrimination.
Please let me know if you have any long-covid issues in your workplace.