Free Resources Library


Discover our comprehensive library of free resources designed to enhance your understanding and management of chronic conditions in the workplace.

Dive into our tools and insights today to support and empower your team effectively.

Free Resources Library


Discover our comprehensive library of free resources designed to enhance your understanding and management of chronic conditions in the workplace.

Dive into our tools and insights today to support and empower your team effectively.

RECENT ARTICLES

Written by our founder and CEO, these articles explore the impact of chronic illness on
work, leadership, and wellbeing, offering insights and practical advice
.

A New Story of Work and Chronic Illness

Mar 06, 2025

The Hidden Leadership Skill Gap That No One Is Talking About

Mar 06, 2025

Chronic Conditions: The Interplay of Work and Health

Mar 06, 2025

 

 

 

PODCAST LIBRARY

Conversations on chronic illness featuring personal stories, expert insights,
and strategies for flourishing in the workplace and beyond.

 

Chronic Truth

Guest: Michelle Irving

In this Chronic Truth episode Michelle shares her key tools for defining and acting from your core professional capabilities while managing a chronic condition. Plus how to curate your ambition so you value it, expand it and live it in ways that also work for your body.

 

 

The Pyjama Interviews

Guest: Fati Khatibloo

How do you manage your career while also living with chronic illness? In this interview we dive deep with Fatemeh Khatibloo, Director of The Office for Ethical and Human Use at Salesforce. You'll learn how to navigate a high profile career with authenticity. Plus the raw truth about depression, chronic illness and finding your way.

 

Sick of It

Guest: Michelle Irving

How do you manage your career while also living with chronic illness? In this interview we dive deep with Fatemeh Khatibloo, Director of The Office for Ethical and Human Use at Salesforce. You'll learn how to navigate a high profile career with authenticity. Plus the raw truth about depression, chronic illness and finding your way.

 

 

 

VIDEO RECCOMENDATIONS

Watch thought-provoking talks and essential discussions
from leaders managing career with chronic illness.

 

The Future of Chronic Illness at Work
Future Women Leadership Summit 2025

Michelle Irving shares a grounded and deeply informed perspective on living and working with chronic illness—drawing from her lived experience and her leadership in the field.

This talk speaks directly to the realities of navigating career, identity, and health—especially when the dominant workplace models fail to account for long-term conditions.

Michelle covers:

  • Managing a life-threatening diagnosis while in a leadership role.

  • The integration of capacity and sustainable work pathways.

  • Why the “bounce back” narrative is unhelpful—and what a more accurate model looks like.

  • Communicating with clarity —especially with leaders and peers.

  • Shifting from external performance to internal authority.

 

Video Poster Image

Navigating Chronic Illness While Building a Career
Interview from the PurpleSpace ‘Confident Conversations' Series, produced by LSEG

PurpleSpace Founder Kate Nash interviews Michelle Irving about the practical strategies professionals can use to manage chronic illness while advancing in their careers.

This interview covers:

  • How to approach difficult conversations about illness at work—what to say, when, and to whom.

  • Setting and holding professional boundaries that support your capacity.

  • Progressing a career of choice while managing emotional, physical, and mental demands.

 

Navigating Chronic Illness While Building a Career
Interview from the PurpleSpace ‘Confident Conversations' Series, produced by LSEG

PurpleSpace Founder Kate Nash interviews Michelle Irving about the practical strategies professionals can use to manage chronic illness while advancing in their careers.

This interview covers:

  • How to approach difficult conversations about illness at work—what to say, when, and to whom.

  • Setting and holding professional boundaries that support your capacity.

  • Progressing a career of choice while managing emotional, physical, and mental demands.

Chronic Illness and Authentic Leadership
Career & Chronic Illness Interview Series

In this candid conversation, Michelle Irving speaks with Nicola Pye, a seasoned leader—including 22 years at EY, where she most recently served as Global Talent Director.

This interview covers:

  • The rollercoaster of managing chronic illness over the course of a long career.

  • The often-unspoken fear of career stalling or being sidelined.

  • The cost of “performing wellness” and more sustainable alternatives.

  • How to approach disclosure in ways that feel considered and safe.

  • What authentic leadership looks like when illness is part of your reality.

Chronic Illness and Authentic Leadership
Career & Chronic Illness Interview Series

In this candid conversation, Michelle Irving speaks with Nicola Pye, a seasoned leader—including 22 years at EY, where she most recently served as Global Talent Director.

This interview covers:

  • The rollercoaster of managing chronic illness over the course of a long career.

  • The often-unspoken fear of career stalling or being sidelined.

  • The cost of “performing wellness” and more sustainable alternatives.

  • How to approach disclosure in ways that feel considered and safe.

  • What authentic leadership looks like when illness is part of your reality.

 

 

 

READING RECOMMENDATION

Our recommended reading list features valuable resources on
navigating chronic illness, leadership, and personal development.

The Invisible Kingdom

 

A silent epidemic of chronic illnesses afflicts tens of millions of Americans: these are diseases that are poorly understood, frequently marginalized, and can go undiagnosed and unrecognized altogether.

Renowned writer Meghan O’Rourke delivers a revelatory investigation into this elusive category of “invisible” illness that encompasses autoimmune diseases, post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, and now long COVID, synthesizing the personal and the universal to help all of us through this new frontier.

 

Unseen

 

Jacinta Parsons was in her twenties when she first began to feel unwell – the kind of unwell that didn’t go away. Doctors couldn’t explain why, and Jacinta wondered if it might be in her head. But she could barely function, was frequently unable to eat or get out of bed for days, and gradually turned into a shadow of herself.

Eventually she got a diagnosis, but knowing she had Crohn’s disease wouldn’t stop her life from spiralling into a big mess of doctors, hospitals and medical disasters. With chronic illness her constant companion, she had to learn how to function in a world set up for the well.

 The Anti-Ableist Manifesto

 

Tiffany Yu takes readers on a revelatory examination of disability--how to unpack biases and build an inclusive and accessible world.

As the Asian American daughter of immigrants, living with PTSD, and sustaining a permanent arm injury at age nine, Tiffany Yu is well aware of the intersections of identity that affect us all. She navigated the male-dominated world of corporate finance as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs before founding Diversability.

Organized from personal to professional, domestic to political, Me to We to UsThe Anti-Ableist Manifesto frames context for conversations, breaks down the language of ableism, identifies microaggressions, and offers actions that lead to authentic allyship.

 

 

 

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