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Those consequences have been examined by scholars at the University of London whose research is due to be published next month in the Qualitative Health Research journal. Dr Laura Thompson and her three colleagues interviewed employees diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which can be both visible and invisible insofar that some people display no signs of it at all whereas for others it’s much more obvious.
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Take, as an example, one participant who was told “Oh, you look well” from a surprised co-worker, clearly in response to the illness’s invisibility. In contrast, another participant was told “Oh well, you’ve got MS” by a presumptive colleague who saw her limping even though the limp had nothing to do with her illness.
A third participant explained his situation in the office in this way: “I don’t go round saying ‘Oh I’ve got MS’ but they know about it.” And another paraphrased the prevalence of sympathy in his workplace like this: “There’s certain staff I work with and they go ‘Oh you can’t lift that’.”
Have you noticed a theme in each of those four quotes?
It’s the word “oh”.
The researchers refer to it as “Oh-prefaced direct reported speech”, otherwise shortened to OPDRS. It occurs when people summarise what others say in the context of their own frustration and annoyance by prefacing that person’s statements with the word “oh”.
Further examples that emerged from this study include:
- Upon hearing the news: “Oh, what’s that?”
- After learning about surgery: “Oh, you’ve had your hip operation now.”
- After contemplating the situation: “Oh yeah, well I read about this really interesting [paleo diet] … I really think you should look into this.”
Are the participants overstating the dialogue a little? According to the study, possibly, but the parody is part of their survival mechanism. In a sense, they’re resorting to ridicule to temporarily overcome the “foolish”, “offensive” and “ignorant” responses of their colleagues and managers.
This unique research is one more insight into the challenges faced by people with chronic illness in terms of deciding what to disclose about their condition (and when), in terms of dealing with negative reactions, and in terms of navigating the social rejection and stigmatisation that frequently ensue.
As the scholars note, making the workplace comfortable and welcoming for people with chronic illness is dependent on employees being open about it, but it’s important to bear in mind they’re “more likely to inform their manager about symptoms if they have felt secure enough to tell colleagues”.
As this research demonstrates, that’s often not the case. They instead frequently feel disempowered, which warrants the biggest “oh” of all.