Cancer sufferers are getting early-hours treatment before work to hide their illness from bosses. Now Publicis CEO is trying to remove the stigma after his own diagnosis and giants like Walmart and Meta are joining the cause

“When someone tells you you have cancer, you start by being scared for your life,” he begins. But then while waiting for your prognosis, niggling fears about whether “you’ll be able to pay the bills, if you’ll lose your health insurance if I get fired” creep in. 

Sadoun soon discovered he wasn’t alone. After going public with his diagnosis and surgery, he was overwhelmed with responses from “thousands of people” who shared similar fears. 

“People were basically all saying the same, which is, when they heard those three very tough words, ‘you have cancer’, they were first scared for their life. But then just after they were scared to lose their job”, he told Fortune. 

As well as worrying that cancer is career-ending, some revealed to Sadoun that they didn’t want to disappoint their team. To mask their illness, others disclosed that they were getting treatment in the early hours of the morning and then going to work, business as usual. 

In fact, a shocking 50% of cancer patients are afraid to tell their employer about their diagnosis, despite 92% feeling that support at work positively impacts their health. 

The “eye-opening” experience led him to dig deeper into what he calls a “perception” issue.

In reality, it’s illegal in most countries to fire someone because of a cancer diagnosis and employers must provide reasonable accommodations for employees who have cancer.

However, even with legal protections in place, there’s a lack of awareness of the support available to those working with cancer.

“The problem is not the realities of what is being done. The problem is the perception that it could happen,” Sadoun says.

He adds that while many companies already have policies in place to support employees, the problem is that people often don’t know about these and lose confidence in themselves after falling ill. 

“When you are diagnosed with cancer, your brain changes. You think differently, You can be the CEO of a company of 100,000 people — it’s the same, you lose confidence in many things. Our job as leaders is to regain this confidence and create a safe space for people that have been living with cancer and working.”

To help, Sadoun and the Publicis Foundation have launched “Working With Cancer”, a global cross-industry pledge to end the stigma of cancer in the workplace. The pledge was launched at Davos in partnership with the World Economic Forum.

Pledge to secure the job and salary of any employee with cancer

The initiative comes as 1 in 2 people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Meanwhile, death rates from cancer in the U.S. have fallen by 32% over the three decades from 1991 to 2019, according to the American Cancer Society—meaning that while fewer people are dying of the disease thanks to advances in diagnosis and treatment, more people than ever are working with cancer. 

For employers, this presents a need for tangible action and policies that support their workers as they seek treatment. 

For its part, Publicis has pledged to secure the job and salary of any employee with cancer for at least one year, as well as to provide emotional and career support for themselves or caregivers. 

However, there is no minimum criteria for companies to join the Working With Cancer pledge and Publicis says the language has been kept broad so that any businesses of any size can join and flex its support accordingly. 

Ending the stigma around cancer

Supported by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, MacMillan Cancer Research and the Gustave Roussy Institute, the initiative has already received pledges from around 40 organizations including Bank of America, Disney, Google, McDonald’s, Meta, Pepsico, Verizon, and Walmart.

Walmart, for example, supports workers and family members impacted by cancer with free counseling with a licensed therapist 24/7; treatment in the U.S. for many cancers at no cost in most cases; and travel expenses covered while receiving care. 

Meanwhile, Nicola Mendelsohn, vice president of Meta’s global business group, opened up about her own personal experience of working with cancer.

“I faced my own challenges when I was diagnosed with Follicular Lymphoma in 2016. Meta allowed me the flexibility to receive the treatment and rest that I needed, but also the support to continue when I was able to do the work that I love,” she wrote.

“This extends to all Meta employees around the world, not just those facing Cancer diagnoses but to anyone who is facing a personal health challenge. And for this reason, I and Meta are proud to support the Working With Cancer initiative and deeply believe in what it stands for: that companies must proactively work to abolish fear and insecurity for Cancer sufferers in the workplace.” 

Importantly, this initiative isn’t a one-time event.

Carla Serrano, chief strategy officer of Publicis Groupe and CEO of Publicis New York says that as part of its partnership with the World Economic Forum, the initiative’s progress is being “tracked and monitored”. 

“This is just the beginning. As companies come in with pledges or write up new actions, there’s going to be creative and interesting solutions to some of this stuff,” she said.

“This is a collaborative group of companies that are going to learn from each other and model the right actions, and ultimately create a movement within the workplace where this becomes really standard practice,” she added.

To further spread its message among the public and highlight the experiences of people working who secretly have cancer, Publicis Groupe is launching a campaign on World Cancer Day, Feb. 4.  

It ends with a call to action to “abolish stigma and insecurity at work for those with cancer.”

While it’s important for leaders of influential firms to join the pledge and create a safe working environment for smaller businesses to model, Sadoun says that the responsibility to support those with cancer lies with everyone.

“It’s important to give a wake-up call to the entire population for them to understand that as half of us will get cancer, all of us should support cancer sufferers,” he concluded.