Mentors for disabled people in work

Lalavcook

Hello,

I would be interested in hearing from other disabled people about balancing work and life. I work full time in London and have a 1.5 hour commute each way so I tend to be pretty exhausted all the time. I'm lucky I can work on a local office twice a week but I am still tired and have less energy for the fun things in life. At the moment I am considering what I could do in the future using my skills but travelling less. As we all know it's not just a question of getting a new job just like that!

jsh1988

Hi,

Since graduating from University, I've held down full time jobs coming up four years now. Over the last two years I've been doing 40-70 hours varying per week.

40 hours generally basic in the office and the rest either from home or in office.

What i found in early days after graduating was not so much demonstrating my skills, but finding an employer who would give me the chance.

Depending on skills and experience pretty much anything would be possible within reason if you find the right employers.

In my area of work there are quite a few roles available that are home working with occasional visits to the employers office and their clients offices.

What area of work would you be looking at? also I'm assuming you commute via public transport?

Lalavcook

Thank you for your reply. Wow, what kind of job do you do that means you work 70 hours a week?

I actually work in the voluntary sector in public policy and have been with my current employer for 4 years. I really love public policy and realise that this will always be a London-centric role. I am very lucky that I have managed to buy my own place, but that does also mean I have financial obligations which I must consider. I do use public transport, including taxis paid for by Access to Work for part of the journey. I wish it was as simple as seeing an appropriate job advertised in a more accessible part of London to my home and getting it!

To be honest, though, I have never met one other disabled person who has reached a senior level in public policy who I could look up to.