Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello
I'm curious to know your experiences with making reasonable adjustment requests in the workplace.
Did you succeed with your request?
How long did it take for your request to be 'listened' to?
The consequences of making your request.
I've recently made a reasonable adjustment request, and at the moment, nothing has happened other than being told that it is 'still being looked into' and told that 'these things take time'. It is now well over a month since my request and I am wondering whether or not I should take it to the next stage.
Your experiences would be greatly appreciated.
I’ve had mixed experiences - with one employer I made almost 60 requests (I kid you not, I had to keep making the same requests as they never did anything!) over a period of a year and a half, and I never got a single adjustment from them, nor did they even look into if they could make any. They seemed rather irked at me asking too. They were a terrible employer though, broke so many laws in how they treated me, and I did bring legal proceedings against them because of this.
With my current employer, they told me they would be happy to make reasonable adjustments when I interviewed and indeed, the two things I have asked for have been accommodated immediately with no fuss at all. In fact, my employer even apologised to me for not thinking in advance that I would need one of the adjustments. They are very proactive and even created my job role with my needs in mind.
So I think the likelihood of getting adjustments and how easy that is for you depends on your employer.
As for your own request, a month does seem quite some time, though it really depends what you are asking for and how simple that would be for the employer to implement. They should make the adjustments as soon as they can though, provided they are reasonable. If you feel they aren’t doing anything with your request then I would suggest that you set our the adjustments you require in writing, explain why you need them and ask them to respond to you in writing telling you what will be implemented and when. Also, if some adjustments can’t be accommodated, ask them why.
That way if they don’t comply you have a record and you could take legal action, or at least threaten them with it, if you wanted to. It would also put more pressure on them as they would be aware that you could use the correspondence as evidence against them in a legal claim if they don’t do make any reasonable adjustments.
My experiences have been similar to NAS36609. I am about to start a new employment. I disclosed pre-interview ans when they offered me the post they asked me to come in so that I could find a suitable spot to work in case I had any issues with noise or sound. I do have issues with noise so I was really happy with this. When I came in they asked what other RA I might need and have agreed to accommodate and fund them all.
I need the same adjustments everywhere I go. I've found they either provide these quickly and with no fuss otherwise, it's an uphill battle that you're likely to lose.
NAS24859 said:otherwise, it's an uphill battle that you're likely to lose.
How did you deal with losing your battle? Did you just give up or leave the employer?
I am in this horrible situation.
I cannot leave. How am I going to keep then my budged in balance?
Therefore, I cannot just give up.
I am trapped.
I simply do the minimum, stay in the background, keep low profile and to survive with least possible damage to my health.
Every day I imagine all the time that it is my last day there. That helps me.