Living with chronic pain at work: Supportive managers can help, but they can’t solve everything

Many people continue working while managing chronic pain, often adapting their tasks and environments to reduce its impact. (Unsplash+_) Living with chronic pain at work: Supportive managers can help, but they can’t solve everything Published: September 20, 2026 9.13am EDT Share article Print article “I don’t want the pain to define me. I want me to define me.” This was how one employee described working with chronic pain in interviews conducted in 2021 by one of us, Duygu Biricik Gulseren, and co-researcher Kevin Kelloway. The employee wanted colleagues to understand their experience without pain becoming the centre of every conversation. For many workers living with chronic pain, disclosure is complicated. Some interviewees worried that revealing their pain would make them seem less capable or put their jobs at risk. Yet keeping it hidden can make it harder to explain why previously manageable tasks suddenly become difficult. When pain persists or recurs for longer than three months, it’s generally considered chronic pain. Many people continue working while experiencing it, and may have chronic pain-related needs. As Duygu’s earlier work argues, understanding these needs requires looking at how employees experience their jobs and what they need to participate fully. Our new research examines the role supervisors play in shaping that experience. The findings suggest supportive leadership may help employees’ psychological well-being, but this pathway weakens as pain becomes more intense. Pain is not only about intensity Two concepts are key to understanding our results. Pain intensity describes how much pain hurts, while pain interference describes how much pain disrupts activities. At work, interference can mean difficulty concentrating, completing physical tasks or interacting with others. The distinction is important because working conditions can affect how the pain limits activities, even when its intensity changes little. In Duygu’s earlier interviews mentioned above, employees described adjusting their pace, rescheduling meetings or changing tasks to reduce pain’s impact. But those options depended on how much control their jobs allowed. The interviews also showed why standard solutions may miss the mark. Employees all have different needs, even when they have similar conditions. Sitting aggravated one person’s back pain, while standing was difficult for another. Understanding what helps requires listening to the person doing the…