Job application questions re health/special needs

1

i know we just saw a question about job interviews here but this is about applications. i am a teacher in spain and have spent my last two summers relaxing at home doing nothing. this year i need to work about a month of summer in england at an international summer school-saving for a flat! (yipee)
anyway, these international summer schools are always based at boarding schools and work you to death for 3-6 weeks. they are so much fun to work for, your workmates are usually great, and its a breath of fresh air to teach in a multilingual environment-the kids HAVE to speak english to communicate.
so there is class in the morning, activities in the afternoon and evening. so after lunch i may be leading a tour through the city centre or playing kickball or leading an arts and crafts class. every day would be different. add to this the normally dismal canteen fare. the food is usually the worst part. its usually pretty gross and the time to eat is pretty rushed.

on the application im filling out there is a medical part. below are the questions.

Working on residential summer courses can be extremely challenging.
Are there any special circumstances which may affect your ability to fulfil your duties?

Do you have any special health or dietary needs?

if yes, please give further details.

i have worked at these summer schools without diabetes, and it is really hard work. you EARN that money. would special circumastances, ie hypos, affect my ability to do the job? possibly.

do i have any special dietary needs? mm, i eat low carb and in any case i need to be able to carb count.

what would you put down as answers to these types of questions. i have to send the App in by the end of the week. im tempted to say nothing as i think saying something will put me at a disadvantage. how much of a lie is that?

2

I don't know about England, but in the US these questions cannot be used to deny you the job. But England may be different. So if you really want the job, I would answer this with a absolute minimum of the needed accommodation. If food is provided and you don't like it, will you be willing to take care of your own food? Is so, then don't ask for an accommodation. If you don't feel comfortable just testing and treating yourself wherever you are, then maybe you need to ask for regular breaks. And most importantly, if you feel you are at risk at all of hypos requiring assistance, list that.

Just my view.

3

I would say you have to plan to bring your own food, even if they have food, the availability, timing, etc. may not be entirely compatible with your BG and I suspect that for that period of time, it would be preferential to keep your BG very flat so as not to have to worry about ups and downs if whatever's for lunch is too hard to guess about the carb content, etc. Sort of like the other recent thread where Karate Joe bolused in anticipation of pizza but the ingredients were not acceptable to him. I don't ask for breaks but always have carbs up my sleeve at my (non-active) job and have also done that when I was involved in teaching Tae Kwon Do classes, before I had the CGM. I am not sure too if you might have some obligation to disclose health conditions in the UK.

If I needed to disclose it, I would likely try to spin it into being engaged with my environment and organized about it, to at least try to score some marketing points.