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Table 5 Topic Guide – Qualitative Interviews - Employers

From: Obstacles to returning to work with chronic pain: in-depth interviews with people who are off work due to chronic pain and employers

Topic

Questions/prompts

Perceived obstacles to return to work for people with chronic pain (physical and psychosocial)

What do you think are the key things that stop people with chronic pain working/ or causes them to give up work or prevents them from returning to work after a period of absence?

Disclosure of chronic pain condition to employer

If people disclose they have chronic pain on a job application form or during an interview, are there any ways this might affect their chances of being employed?

Employing people with chronic pain conditions

What concerns might you have about employing someone who has a chronic pain condition?

Perceived facilitators of return to work for people with chronic pain

What do you think are the key things that could facilitate and help maintain a return to work for people with chronic pain?

Reasonable adjustments and willingness to make these

What kind of reasonable adjustments do you think might be appropriate for an employee who has a chronic pain condition?

Thinking of your current organisation how likely are you to be able to make these adjustments for an employee in your organisation?

Are there any adjustments that you can think of that you think might be appropriate but that in practice might be difficult to make?