Employees returning to work after cancer must be given a voice  

People returning to work after cancer need more tailored support and more say in shaping it, according to research from NEOMA Business School. 

Professor Rachel Beaujolin worked with Associate Professor Pascale Levet at IAE Lyon on an action-research project involving 25 organisations and nearly 200 people affected by cancer. They explored what it is like to return to work after a diagnosis or treatment and found that common support mechanisms fail to reflect how much the experience changes a person’s working life. 

The study shows that measures such as disability recognition, therapeutic part-time roles and remote working provide structure but do not address the deeper impact of a cancer diagnosis. Many people experience lasting fatigue, cognitive challenges, reduced concentration and a shift in how they think about time and their own bodies. Returning to work is rarely a simple reset. For many, it is a process of relearning how to work. 

Participants described the period of absence as a form of “abduction” – being taken out of their working lives and returning to a landscape that feels unfamiliar. Tasks that once felt easy can become unexpectedly difficult. The researchers suggest that this disruption can become a driver for learning, encouraging people and organisations to rethink established work practices. 

Using narrative accounts of people’s experiences, Beaujolin and Levet created workshops that turn individual reflections into collective learning. They argue that, because every return-to-work journey is unique, universal solutions are unlikely to work. Instead, employers should adopt a more reflective, listening-led approach. 

“It is not about proposing a standard protocol, but about learning to think from real situations, to recognise the knowledge being built there, and to create spaces where this knowledge can circulate,” says Beaujolin. 

The research, published in Revue Française de Gestion, suggests that employers wanting to better support people returning after cancer must be prepared to hear and act on what individuals say they need – even when those needs do not fit existing HR processes