Chronic illness is already at work.
We’re here to help make it better for everyone.
WHAT WE DO
We provide a New Way Forward empowering people leaders and employees with the Chronic Confidence needed to navigate work with clarity, purpose, and authenticity.
Our Chronic Confidence Framework enables you to create optimal work experiences grounded in collaborative communication. This ensures both the employee is supported and professional work is delivered.
WHY WE ARE DIFFERENT
We are experts in the lived professional experience of managing career and chronic physical conditions.
We don't shy away from the pragmatic reality of chronic conditions, nor the sensitivity of confidential conversations you are having.
At Chronic Illness At Work, we believe in a transformative approach that values authentic contribution, trust and leadership.
Our goal is to foster environments where everyone can flourish, even in the most difficult of personal health times.
Our Chronic Confidence Framework normalises chronic illness at work, and supports you in optimising how work is delivered throughout the Chronic Cycle.


Chronic Confidence
Empowering people leaders and employees to confidently manage, discuss and plan for work throughout the Chronic Cycle.
This includes navigating fluctuating health conditions while maintaining work performance and authenticity.

Authentic Leadership
Supporting leaders to manage teams with chronic illness, fostering a culture of collaboration, deepening trust and tangible outcomes.

Optimal Work Design
Providing training and self-management tools that enable employees to tailor personal solutions.
Optimising work experience to meet individual needs, ensuring work is designed for sustaining workflow with capacity fluctuation.

Practical Collaboration
Promoting inter-dependence between employer and employee, ensuring that there is a clear pathway for integrating the organistaional objectives and the work design for the individual into the workplace structure.

Existing Policy and Design
Integrating into current systems and processes, enhancing them to better support employees with chronic conditions.

Integration with Capacity
We build on reasonable adjustments to enhancing the talents, expertise and contribution that employees with chronic conditions bring to the workplace.

Dynamic and Evolving Workspaces
Supporting work environments adapting to the challenges of the human experience, including the prevalence of chronic illness at work.
A shared understanding,
tools and language to make navigating chronic illness in the workplace easier.
EMPOWER YOUR ORGANISATION TODAY
OUR STORY
Chronic Illness At Work was born from a deeply personal journey. When our founder, Michelle Irving, was diagnosed with a life-threatening autoimmune condition at 35, she faced an overwhelming challenge—how to continue her career while managing a chronic illness. Feeling isolated and torn between her ambition and her health, Michelle navigated years of balancing her professional commitments with the realities of her conditions.
Over time, as Michelle developed confidence in managing her illness at work and she realised she wasn’t alone. Colleagues began confiding in her, seeking advice on how to talk to their managers, manage workloads, and avoid the stigma of being seen as the ‘sick person’ at work. Through her experience, Michelle saw the need for a better way—one that enables vulnerability and professional expertise to co-exist in people with chronic conditions and work approaches that acknowledge this.
After 18 years of learning, leading, and helping others, Michelle founded Chronic Illness At Work to transform how organisations and employees navigate chronic illness together. Today, we provide the tools, understanding, and shared language needed to create work environments where everyone—regardless of health—can flourish.