Hey im based in UK just incase anything i say seems foreign
My wife suffers from huntingtons disease, our first real taste of how difficult balancing the illness and employment came from when we tried to notify her work (back when she worked) about how her illness would affect her. it was infact her manager who first noticed that there was something up so she went in to tell them what was going on and it was an horrible experience. despite them saying they understood on numerous occasions i picked her up from work in tears, she was getting berated by other members of management for going slow which lead to her not taking tea breaks in order to keep up, she was being left on the shift by herself, and getting left the hardest jobs, basically then made no effort to accommodate.
At the time i made good money and the hours she worked wasnt that much so when we claimed disability benefits it kinda meant we werent losing anything, so she quit, no big deal.
Over the last 18 months her conditioned has deteriorated to a point where she cant do anything by herself, i still tried to keep up my job which was essentially a middle management position but informed my work i wanted to give it up in decemeber, they were ok with it and on january 3rd they demoted me to a previous role of supervisor (i wanted more of a demotion but i was happy to be free) they however never replaced me which led to a month of continuingly asking to go back to do my old job which i refused.
Even in the reduced role i struggled with 5 days a week, when im off we have more of a structured routine, she gets up early, she eats 2 or 3 meals a day (essential to combat weigh loss) she sleeps at the usual time and i can sleep in the same bed, when im working she has to sleep until im home, she might eat dinner with me, i then need to sleep on the couch as she will be awake all night in bed, in the morning i get up to get ready for work and make her food.
a few weeks ago i got heavily ill and was off for two weeks, despite feeling like death it was such a better situation, i had been back at work and was sick again on sunday night, im starting to feel like it might be stress, i am constantly feeling run down
we have applied for other benefits (or welfare) for some strange reason there is a 3 months grace period, that should be up next month, once they are through i should be able to quit work and still earn around the same amount
however every time i start to feel like giving up work completely i talk myself out of it, i feel like i will be better in employment and everytime i talk to people about it they always say something along the lines of “i could never not work” or “i dont know what i would do without work”
i genuinely feel like work is a stress i dont need right now, i wasnt even meant to work on monday and agreed to go in as a favor and i know im going to get moaned at tomorow when i go back, i literally dont care and feel like im only going in because of a strange feeling that not working will be a negative thing in my life
i feel like just handing in my notice tomorrow, i have enough saving to last until the other benefits are through
help make this an easy decision