Hi! I am Marjorie Aunos. And I was the perfect employee. As a psychologist. Manager. Lecturer. Supervisor. And I was the single mom who could do it all. Until a car accident rendered me paraplegic.

In one second, I had become the single parent of a rambunctious 16 months old boy, sole breadwinner of my family, trying to comprehend what life would be like as a mom on wheels. All my responsibilities weighing heavily on my shoulders. 

If the accident seemed to have destroyed my life it didn’t change me at the core. My skillset hadn’t change neither. I even had an additional untapped beneficial new perspective. I just needed accommodations. And this did not mean I needed a ramp to be installed (even though I really did)! What I needed was for my boss to think completely outside the box.

And she did! We looked at the specific tasks. Identified who in my team would be best suited to do them. Remodelled our role descriptions and made it work. When she was promoted to a new job – it all fell apart. And when it did, I tumbled into Major Depression and Post-Trauma.

This experience taught me two things:
1) How an open-minded, flexible management style can make everyone become a valuable contributor to a team – no matter their role or job;
2) How a lack of openness & creativity can make you pass on qualified and valuable assets.