Sydney Nathanael Peacock was 12 months into his first job out of university when he decided to reveal something he’d been hiding.
Peacock was diagnosed with Scheuermann’s disease, a condition that results in malformed vertebrae, at 12, and by 23 had developed a severe hunchback.
For the first year of his employment as an editorial copywriter and assistant editor at a digital agency, Peacock hid his disability.
“I think it probably goes back to when I was in high school, I didn’t really tell people about it, because there was part of me that was like, it’s something personal that I didn’t need other people to know about,” he told news.com.au.
“There’s a little bit of fear that when you admit that there’s something different or something wrong, you [could be] chastised for it or put down for mentioning it.
“The other side of that is I didn’t really want the sympathy. I didn’t want people to … take things easy on me … I wanted to feel like everybody else. And I think that there’s a little bit of shame in that.”
The now-32-year-old’s disability means he needs to be able to sit, stand and lie down to work, and manage pain and mobility throughout the workday with medication and exercise.
Peacock’s reluctance to disclose his disability is not uncommon. Data from APM Disability Employment reveals that 58 per cent of Australian workers with disability often feel anxious about disclosing their disability with employers, and 39 per cent have reported poor performance at work due to hiding their disability.
For Peacock, “things kinda hit the fan” when he needed another surgery for his spine.
“I knew I’d have to take time off work,” he said. “And I knew that I would have to do rehab again, because an unfortunate side effect of spine surgeries is that it doesn’t get easier the more times they do it … I had to learn to walk again, and move again.”
Though the surgery was non-urgent, it was inevitable, and Peacock’s surgeon advised that things were going to need to change in order to manage pain levels.
“I said to them [my bosses], look, there’s this thing that I’ve had for a long time, it hasn’t been an issue. So I haven’t needed to bring it up. But now I’m letting you know, because I feel like at some point in the future, it may become an issue,” he said.
“And I didn’t want them to change anything or do anything different. I just wanted that awareness so that if I did need to go into surgery, it wasn’t a surprise.”
After the conversation, Peacock claims “things really changed quite quickly”.
“Senior editors were given much more oversight over the work that I’d previously been doing solo … I immediately got passed over for a couple of decent-sized projects; there was a promotion that was initially suggested that I would get that was then taken away,” he said.
“There were a couple of other things where extra writers were put on to take over some of my work, and I wasn’t given other work to replace it. It was just little bits over about six months that things just started disappearing.”
Approximately six months after disclosing his disability to his bosses, Peacock was let go.
“I got pulled into a very similar meeting and was basically told that my work wasn’t up to snuff and that they didn’t need me anymore,” he said.
“I think I probably did make a couple of a couple of mistakes, but I think it was the pressure … I had all these people watching and always kind of being aware that now there was all this increased scrutiny.”
A Fair Work Ombudsman spokesperson says that “under the federal Fair Work Act, it’s unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an employee or potential employee because of their disability, whether physical or mental. This includes taking adverse action against employees or potential employees for having a disability.
“Everyone has the right to work in a safe environment, free from unlawful discrimination, bullying and harassment.”
However, with invisible disability, APM research shows that workplaces aren’t as swift to provide support.
Over half of employers (51 per cent) admitted to believing that some workers pretend to have invisible disabilities to receive extra benefits, 65 per cent admit to wanting proof of diagnosis before providing support and 31 per cent don’t think invisible disabilities are real disabilities, rather illnesses or health conditions.
Zoe Simmons, 27, lives with an invisible disability called Fibromyalgia, causing extreme chronic pain, nerve pain, numbness, brain fog, and light and noise sensitivity. She often needs the use of a wheelchair or walking stick.
Simmons also lives with post-exertional malaise, typically causing cold and flu symptoms when she over-exerts herself, while her chronic pain and fatigue causes her to feel “so tired that you literally can’t function”.
“When you’re chronically ill, you don’t have the energy levels of a non-disabled person and even small things are mammoth tasks.”
The disability advocate said that people with disability, particularly invisible disability, find it difficult to “exist in a general office space”.
“Especially when little things just aren’t considered like doors that don’t open themselves … and if you can, there’s a good chance it will slam into you and that really hurts,” she said.
“And carpet floors, it’s difficult to wheel on those if you have a manual wheelchair … and if you need someone to help you it’s not accessible.”
When Simmons first started at her own workplace, she was still on a journey investigating her health, and hadn’t yet been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.
“I knew I obviously had something that was affecting my body and my ability to work and think and move but I didn’t recognise that as a disability because of stigma and ableism.”
Working in the health industry, the journalist had disclosed her bipolar and anxiety with her workplace, and shared her experiences of investigative surgeries with her boss. She received support in getting a sit-stand desk, however in 2020, when she was made to work from home, the difference was astounding.
“I didn’t have the increased pain and fatigue from commuting to the office, I had extra energy because I wasn’t using it to commute.
“All my medications are here [at home], and all my pain relief things are here. So, it meant that if it was really bad, I could do what I needed to do to look after myself … I have to do stretches multiple times a day to help manage the muscular pain.”
When asked if she thought most Australian employers treat people with disability the same as without, Simmons responded: “I think a big thing is, they say they treat disabled people the same, but we are disabled, we need accommodations, we need flexibility, we need things that help us to engage better in the workplace.”
“It’s just a really big difficulty in the employment industry. And it spans across pretty much every sector … people don’t recognise people’s disabilities, and especially people with invisible and dynamic disabilities because people don’t understand them.”
Fiona Kalaf says that APM’s “findings this year indicate that many people with disability are still marginalised and as a country we need to do more.”
“People with disability typically need and seek the same accommodations and flexibility as other workers. When they find the right employer, their attitude is positive and there is a keen desire to stay; they are also loyal employees.”
Nathanael Peacock is now the communications manager for a video games publisher, and leads a group at his workplace called Different Abilities, which champions members of the team that need support in doing work, or changes to their ways of working.
Zoe Simmons now runs her own copywriting and editing business, and is an advocate in the disability space.
When asked how employers can better support workers with disability, Simmons says they must “create a culture of genuine inclusion; of genuine diversity and really caring about accessibility and making people feel safe.”
Peacock emphasises that “communication is the big one.”
“There’s nothing worse than knowing that there are conversations going on behind your back about you that you don’t have a voice in.
“It’s working with employees to ensure that you get the most productivity out of them and they feel like they’re supported and enjoy the job.”