Trapped in time: the problem of crip time in the workplace for chronically ill and disabled people

In this paper, the relationship between the meaning of time and employment from perspective of Black disabled people with an invisible disability is examined. The qualitative study was co-produced with people living with sickle cell. Two focus group discussions and forty-seven interviews were conducted to explore barriers and enablers to employment. The problem of crip time in employment is a long-standing issue for disabled and chronically ill people and arose as a barrier. We found that temporality was experienced as uncertain and impacted on disclosure and requests for reasonable adjustments. Secondly, time was experienced as a problem at work in how it was informed by ableist norms. Lastly, participants gave examples of how they were successful at work by organising time flexibility. We argue that to focus solely on flexibility to work is ‘double think’, as wider policy and legislative changes are needed to tackle the issue of ableism in time.