Managing Diabetes at Work
Reviewed by CDE Mehandi Sharma · Updated
A working day is where good intentions usually come apart — meals at unpredictable times, whatever the canteen is serving, and no obvious moment to check a reading.
Keep something at your desk that treats a low, if you take insulin or a medicine that can cause one. Glucose tablets or a small juice, not chocolate. Keep it where you can reach it without going anywhere.
Have a default lunch you can get reliably rather than deciding fresh each day. If the canteen food is heavily rice-based, ask for less rice and more sabzi and dal, or carry lunch two or three days a week.
Long commutes and skipped meals are a genuine risk if your medicines can cause lows. Do not leave home without eating if your tablets are timed to meals, and keep something in your bag for a delayed journey.
Shift work is harder and deserves a specific conversation with your doctor, because medicine timing may need to change rather than just being shifted.
On telling colleagues: you are not obliged to. But if you take insulin or a sulfonylurea, one or two people knowing what a low looks like, and where you keep your glucose, is a sensible precaution rather than an admission.