injections at work

When i was first diagnosed 12 years ago I worked in what was then known as the Benefits Agency. I was told that i could not inject at my desk -even though members of the public did not have access to the office, and would have to use the loo!! At the time I didn't feel that i was in a position to argue - when you are first diagnosed everything seems new and confusing!

I am now a teacher and always tell my class that I have Type 1 diabetes, explain that I may need to take some glucose tablets etc but obviously I don't inject in the classroom!!

Unfortunately I think that there is still a lot of ignorance out there

Your employer is actually obliged to provide you with a private place to inject that is not a toilet. It's on the diabetes website about your rights at work.
I do mine at my desk just do it matte rid factly. Sometimes people ask me a out it but I think that's natural curiosity.


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I used to work in a large retail shop, I hadn't been there long and was getting used to bein on a new insulin. i injected in the staff room at lunch one day which was followed up by a complaint to management. I was told that i had to use the toilets to inject.... as you can imagine i had to hold my tongue to what i wanted to say :silent: so i politely told then that i wouln't use the loo's but if the gave me an area i could use that was hygenic and out of peoples why then i would by all means use that area instead. i was told that they would not (for various reasons) be able to do that... :***: ??? so i addressed the staff and told them that if they didn't like it then don't stare at me while i take my insulin, problem solved. needless (haha) to say i didn't work there very long after. :thumbdown:

I don't inject, but I do test my blood.... I do it at my desk.

One colleague takes issue with it, she can go whistle! The way I see it, it's her problem not mine.... If she wants to go to the toilet or walk away from her desk when I do it that is FAR more appropriate than trying to make me bleed myself in a grotty toilet!

The Equality act states that employers have a responsibility to provide a private room for injections etc, whilst I don't feel the need to mention this, I would In preference to a toilet!

I have had two people voice their disgust when I tested in a restaurant , I thought very serupticially but they obviously thought differently. I just get on with it.

kathyfardell said:

I have had two people voice their disgust when I tested in a restaurant , I thought very serupticially but they obviously thought differently. I just get on with it.

Click to expand...

And so you should
Your health is more important than other people's narrow minded ness


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13 years ago I was undergoing part of my training with a 'big supermarket' post university. I had been there a few months when I was taken aside by my manager........to be told somebody was 'offended' by the fact that I injected myself, HIDDEN UNDER THE TABLE, THROUGH my clothes! Being so young at the time I promptly cried, especially when my argument in response to my injections being analogised to breast feeding failed! I just couldn't see how exposing some flesh to feed a baby was anything like a discrete pen like device being used without removing any clothing. I could even inject tactically maintaining eye contact if mid conversation without people noticing so I really couldn't understand their logic. Despite my protestations at being told to inject in the toilet and then be allowed to the front of the dinner queue to prevent a hypo, I needed my training and so had to do it. I remember being soooo upset but it did steel my resolve! Once my training was completed and I accepted a job, I completed a single hour before explaining exactly why I now wished to resign! I had already lined up another job luckily but I swore to myself never to go back and I haven't.

Small victory maybe but it has lived with me a long time and those who bother to get to know me have no issues with my diabetes albeit now I 'pump'.

After almost 30 years of type 1 I have no stronger wish than for a cure like anyone. I don't even wish for non-invasive delivery methods or testing.....just something that can promise complications prevention as with time we all now know, even with the tightest control, things still continue to 'go wrong'.

Anyway just wanted to let others know of yet more prejudice out there! We stand together here and that can only be a great thing!


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Oh and just remembered something perhaps more shocking.....my own in laws refused to come to our wedding as having met me once in the six years prior to our getting married, decided they didn't actually 'approve' of me as they didn't 'like' the fact I had to take insulin or test my glucose and why couldn't I 'take tablets and be done with it' like the other diabetic they knew! They even went as far as to say to my now husband that he should find himself someone without a 'medical condition' as I would surely become a 'liability'!!

Needless to say my lovely husband didn't take that narrow minded view and we had a lovely wedding day without them! Funnily enough we never see them now.....


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The work environment can be a tad boring. Having someone routinely stabbing themselves makes for some free entertainment :lol: Seriously I've never had any problem and never felt awkward. I'm a teacher and I've injected and tested in front of colleagues and students. It's often stimulated good discussion re disease and the way in which people with medical conditions need to be allowed to manage them, get on with life etc.

What's the difference from us testing & injecting to someone swallowing pills or using inhalers to assist breathing? Tell them to get a life. I've been injecting for 48 years now and never been approached or question. Just do it automatically and quietly. Mothers breast feed in public on occasion. With the vast increase in diabetes albeit type 2 more of us will require too. It's sheer ignorance on some people's part.

I have a friend who is needle-phobic. We have an agreement; I warn her before I inject, and she looks away. Sorted


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i dont work but i to attend school.
they are very supportive and they find me a spare room to take my enjections in without any hassle.
they agree that it's too un hygenik to take it in the toilet

I have no problems testing at work. In fact all my colleagues have been tested to. When i am out its another thing - i take byetta so if i am in a restaurant i inject in the loo - making sure i touch nothing. The thought of someone seeing me testing and injecting and thinking no wonder she is diabetic, she is fat ! Makes me very upset and agitated

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I don't care where I am or who is around me. If I have to inject or do a blood test then I will do it. Health should always come first. I have had type 1 diabetes for 8 years so I am used to it.

If anybody asks me to go to the toilet to inject I reply with "can you please go and stand in the toilet while your pancreas is releasing insulin...."

On a serious note though - I do inject in public, but I also try not to offend anybody and will be as discreet as possible. But when I gotta do it, I gotta do it!!!

Can't believe CJLD999's in-laws. My husband doesn't like needles but have told him he may need to do it for me one day. We're going to start practising on oranges before I let him near me! There is a great deal of ignorance regarding T1 and I think I've heard most of it over the 47 years I've been diagnosed. Others illnesses such as epilepsy and asthma were always covered by courses at my workplace but when I suggested one on diabetes no one thought it would be useful.


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