Advice needed on draft diagnostic report

@trainspotter thanks for the clarifications I had a feeling this might be in your area of knowledge.  I have an idea of the general process from work I've done in the past but not the specifics for employment disputes.

Hi there, good to hear from you too James,

I am feeling a lot better about my report now. It arrived at a difficult moment and reading it was probably always going to be a bit tricky. I have been reminding myself of all the amazing things I have experienced in my life as a result of being autistic. 

Sorry to hear you are still waiting for your report to arrive. Seven weeks is a long time to wait. The long delay made me think there must be a lot to it, but there isn't really. Funnily enough one of the autistic traits pointed out to me was difficulty getting started on a task. People doing ASD assessments clearly have a problem with this too! 

I noticed one of the clinics I looked up for my son promises to deliver the report within two weeks of the assessment - I can see why they make a big point of saying that now. Hope yours comes soon. You are quite right, our reports are very likely to be misinterpreted by people who do not understand autism. I shall only be sharing carefully selected information. 

To be honest I am quite inclined to abandon the idea of trying to get any changes made where I currently work. It's two years since I started so it's the point at which I typically get fed up and leave. I am more inclined to branch out in a new direction. A fresh start is really appealing as I can get things put in place from the start. The service I work for is bound to be cut back further in the next round of austerity - job security is an illusion these days. 

You are right about all the phoning around increasing anxiety - I had to take Propanalol this morning before speaking to the Union rep. Nothing is properly joined up - everyone seems confused about what is going on. The xmas break has made things much worse. If autistic people were in charge I am sure everything would run a lot more smoothly! 

Take care,

Best wishes.

Windscale said:

The only way to determine what is considered reasonable in any particular situation is for that question to be put to the appropriate court of law.

The 'court' in this case is an Employment Tribunal.  A 'reasonable adjustment' is not what you consider to be reasonable, or what your employer considers to be reasonable, but what the Tribunal considers to be reasonable.  And it takes a long time (about eighteen months) before all the stages are gone through.  I can almost guarantee that the case would be settled 'out of court' before then in either a settlement agreement or a COT3 agreement.

Windscale said:

Taking cases to court and getting judgement costs a lot of money

Taking a case to an employment tribunal will cost your employer a lot because of the lawyers they use.  Which is why they will want to settle beforehand.

Legal representation is not needed if you are bringing a case, although your Union may provide legal representation if they think the case stands a chance of being won, or you could go for a no-win, no fee solicitor.  Without representation the judge treats you very fairly and there are adjustments the tribunal will make for your autism, including frequent breaks and restricting the hours it takes per day. 

Do not take this to mean I am advocating taking an employer to a tribunal except as a very last resort.  It can be very stressful and the best solution is always one in which both parties can come to a consensus, respecting the law of the land (in this case Employment Law and codes of practice).

Look at what from the report that you want an employer to know. Get your GP to write a letter with just those details. There is no need for your medical records to end up in HR. 

I'm a little bit late seeing this post and putting my sixpence worth in, but I will share some of my thoughts with you.

First, you seem to think it would be improper to make suggestions as to what you would like in the report.  The psychologist who diagnosed me made it very clear that the person who knows best how things affect me was me myself.  He was more than willing to add things to the report using my suggestions and clarify things so there was no misunderstanding.  So I would suggest that you tell your psychologist/psychiatrist of your problems at work and ask for a small appendix to help explain your problems in the workplace and any suggestions to alleviate these. I don't see anything wrong with you making a draft of this yourself and sending as an example of what you would like to see.  I am sure that there would be something positive come from doing this.

I think a lot of us 'play down' our so-called inadequacies, and our need for help.  We look on ourselves as 'normal' (I know I do) and do not want to be put in the spotlight as needing special treatment.  And this is all to the good in some cases.

However, from my experience, I know there is a bit of a raging monster somewhere inside me that is waiting to get out and show itself at certain times, and when it does I have little or no control over it.  There is also a very meek individual inside, who wants to hide away from the world at other times, who wants to be left alone to do things he knows best how to do.  And I do know a lot of time the circumstances that will trigger these different persona and the way to help prevent their manifestations what has to be done, what adjustments should be made.

My psychologist included several appendices, one of which was what he considered to be workplace practices which antagonised my autism and the adjustments which could be made to help me.  Besides anything else, this helped me considerably in my visit to Occupational Health, who on two previous occasions (pre diagnosis) had taken little notice of the fact I was suffering from extreme stress, anxiety and depression because of my workplace practices.  And immediately I informed my employer of my diagnosis (before I had the report) I was referred to Occupational Health which I managed to defer until I had received the appendix to the report.  The way Occupational Health then behaved was totally different, saying I was disabled under the Equality Act and suggesting that all the adjustments recommended by the psychologist were implemented.  (I should add that two years later I only had the final one of the adjustments put in place and I am now so much happier at work.)  Remember that failure to implement reasonable adjustments is against the Equality Act, and is grounds for a grievance and can also act as evidence in an Employment Tribunal should the need arise.

Part of the spiel in the Appendix was that I should be involved in meaningful consultation in any changes needed to my work, and my views should be considered seriously. 

Sunflower said:

My main difficulties at work have been changes to timetables and office accommodation, resulting in increased workload, limited access to information, and nowhere quiet to retreat to at break times. There was huge uncertainty over the changes being introduced and the impact they would have. 

This was one of my problems at work as well.  It was not only the changes, but the lack of control I had, things being put into place that I was not even asked about how I would feel about them.  A reasonable adjustment should be to give you frequent breaks and the permission to retreat somewhere quiet for short periods to prevent stress.

Sunflower said:

A better way of approaching this may be via an Access to Woek assessment which I applied for today.

I could not speak too highly of my experience with Access to Work.  They suggested adjustments, funded a support worker for two sessions a month (one with my manager and one as a general chat about not just work but anything and everything else as a means of helping my well-being) and funded some training for the managers and work colleagues about autism and how it affected me.  I must add though that the managers did not take what they said seriously and once again this would help in a grievance and ultimately in a case to an Employment Tribunal.  Do not forget that the purpose of Access to Work is to keep you in your job, and their suggestions are invariably upheld in cases at an Employment Tribunal.

There should be consideration given by your employer to adjusting your working day, including your preferred arrangements for lunch breaks at a meeting - this is not a big thing to organise and it is part of autism that a structured day helps prevent problems.

Sunflower said:

'The Union want me to submit a grievance but I don't feel I have the energy to do this currently. I think I might have to ultimately as without a formal complaint nothing is being done to resolve matters.

My expectation is that if I do complain I will probably end up having to leave. I am not sure that my manager would be open to mediation - funny isn't it as we are supposed to be the ones who lack insight and are inflexible! '

Unfortunately, grinding someone down is all part of many a manager's or company's method of preventing trouble.  And employment laws unfortunately often favour the employer.  But remember there are probably time limits for grievances in your firms grievance procedure but these could be relaxed.  The only other sanction you would have is via the Employment Tribunal which is a very long process with strict time limits for applying and can be a very stressful period with the employer in the meantime.  So that is something that should be avoided if possible, although I ended up going down that route ... and I may add that it eventually did sort everything out and I kept my job, something I felt at many points along the route would not happen.

If you feel that your manager is not giving you adjustments, send an email asking if they consider you to be disabled as under the Equality Act and if not why not.  Their reply could be the one thing that incriminates them!  Keep all emails and even keep a diary of problems and the thoughts you have (if you do this electronically do it in the form of an email to yourself which you keep adding to, that way the dates will automatically be added and it could be used in evidence at a grievance.)

I do hope everything works out for you and in a far smaller timescale than for me.  Good luck.

I think it's awful there are so many people on here who talk of employers refusing to accommodate them when it is a legal requirement

As I understand it, the employer is obliged to make reasonable adjustments.  So it all hinges on what adjustments are considered reasonable or otherwise.  What is reasonable depends on the employer's situation and other things, like what they think is required for the job role etc.

The only way to determine what is considered reasonable in any particular situation is for that question to be put to the appropriate court of law.  Basically the court process will make an adjudication on what is reasonable, or not, and will issue an opinion where they explain their thinking for this particular case.

Since we have a common law system, as courts make various adjudications, then a body of decisions ("case law") builds up, and if you have a similar issue to an already decided case, then you can get an idea of whether what you are asking for is reasonable or not, based on other similar judgements.  But you don't know for sure if that's the case or not, because if your case was taken to court, it may be that the decision in your case was different for whatever reasons the court decides.

Taking cases to court and getting judgement costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time.  People therefore develop "best practices/recommendations/advice" etc. that people can use as a way of trying to codify/decide what may or may not be reasonable.  Those things however have no legal standing, although compliance with well regarding versions of those may be used as evidence of due diligence, trying to be proactive etc. etc.

Thank you!!! 

Your employer may demand to see a copy to prove your diagnosis - just give them a copy of that page with anything they don't need to see blanked out.

Mine had lots of private information that i didn't want them to see - photocopy the page, black out anything sensitive and then photocopy again so they can't see through.

They can like it or lump it - they have no further right to your medical history.

It is clear.  The criteria for diagnosis is the definition of what is required in order to be diagnosed.  They say that you meet all the criteria for a diagnosis. Hence, by definition, you have been diagnosed.  (Maybe it's a maths/computer science/logic thing!)

Hi Sunflower its great to hear from you, I hope you are OK

I'm still waiting for my report. I was told it would take 2-4 weeks. Its been over 7 and still no sign. I started chasing it a few days ago, They don't seem to answer the phone, Ive left a couple of messages on the answer machine but no one has got back to me yet. I seem to have spent the last 6 months chasing various NHS departments and waiting around for calls that never materialise. It has had its toll on me and has made my anxiety issues a whole lot worse.

I got a letter stating that I had Aspergers/high functioning autism and I gave a copy to my employer. My employer has then been able to liase with Occupational Health regarding adjustments

When my full report turns up I wont to giving my employer a copy, I intend to keep it private. I don't see any benefit in sharing it with anyone without a high level of expertise in this field, they just wont understand

James

If they agree to an acceptable level of confidentiality, then sharing it with occ. health might be useful for you, because the better and more complete the information they have, the better they can advise.  The occ. health people my current firm uses always used to send me a copy of their report that I could comment on before they sent it to work.  As it happened, it was always a very fair and balanced report so I was always happy for it to go as was.  It was nice though to have the opportunity to influence it if necessary.

(Also, I only ever saw a Doctor there so I assume it would be covered under patient/doctor confidentiality.)

Yeah, I'm very naive as well, so I know what you mean, and, without realising it I wear my heart on my sleeve, as someone once told me. I didn't know what they meant at the time, but I do now, and it's just the way I am so I don't want to put myself in a situation where it's not good to do that. Which makes me realise even more that I need to work for myself because if I can't be myself, what's the point of being at all and I know I'll never be able to work out when I'm being naive etc, so the workplace is not for me. 

I thought HR were there to support employees, I didn't realise they were there to avoid litigation! You learn something new everyday. Thanks for that. Although thinking about it, now you've told me that, I guess they are there for the employers, because afterall, they employ them. 

Is that a reliable method for understanding somebody? Judging them by observing their behaviour? People do that to me and I can tell you, they get it wrong almost all of the time. 

I don't think I could have dealings with people I didn't trust. I wouldn't know where to start and even if I did, I wouldn't like it. It would feel like I was playing some kind of dishonest game. I could do it, but I'd find it very stressful. 

I've had what could be called a very disjointed career path, but I don't see it like that. Pre-diagnosis I was simply living in the wilderness so the fact that I had a job at all is amazing to me, and I haven't worked yet, since I got my diagnosis. 

And yes, I know exactly what you mean in your last comment. When I left my last job, it was put into action after a co worker was so horrible and I was so grateful to her as it made me put in my notice, something I had wanted to do for weeks but didn't know how to do it. So I was really grateful that she was the way she is. 

Yes, the smoothie is delicious. 2 tbsp cacao powder, 2 tbsp almond butter, a cup or so of coconut yogurt, about the same amount of porridge oats, a frozen banana and some hazelnut milk. It's divine. I don't like chai tea, I wish I did sometimes, it sounds lovely. Maybe one day I'll come to like it. I've been working on liking dates for years and I'm just getting to be ok with them although I made a raw vegan chocolate brownie the other day which was also to die for (made with dates) but I loved it so much I ate the whole lot, which means I ate a massive bag of dates! I want to make it again, and give some to other people, but I don't trust myself yet, to not eat the whole lot again. 

I'm a brownie connoisseur and honestly, these are amazing and so easy to make. 

I got two reports: a full and very detailed one, which contained more personal stuff and the details of how/why I met the ADOS/ICD criteria for diagnosis, and a "summary report" which is designed to be shared with employers and the like.

The summary states the diagnosis, then explains what that means and how it may affect me (for example, communication deficits, processing style etc). It also contains recommendations for adjustments at work as a bullet-point list of "XXXXX would benefit from ....." It doesn't just focus on perceived deficits, but is balanced out with things that I do well with precisely because of my Aspergers. I would be OK with showing the summary to the folks at my current workplace, but they are already very accommodating so I haven't needed to. I do understand the reticence though if the people you work with are not nice, and possibly conniving and manipulative. I wouldn't give people like that any ammunition either, and I can fully see how they could use the knowledge against you if they were that way inclined.

I think that creating your own summary containing the information that you are willing to share is probably the best way to go.

I trust people I know and love but when it comes to work, experience has taught me that it is very risky to be naive and share sensitive personal information.

At the start of my career I thought HR were there to help employees but now I understand their main role is to protect employers from litigation.

I judge people on the behaviour I observe and if I see a pattern of harmful, malicious, cruel actions to myself or others I withdraw my trust.

Having an open heart in such a situation is very dangerous. I always give people the benefit of the doubt, and feel compassion for them, but I am not willing to place any trust in them. 

There comes a point when I decide I would rather move on than risk being harmed any more. This has made for a somewhat disjointed career path but I have protected myself this way and continued to grow as a person.

i look back sometimes and see colleagues cowering -  too frightened to confront the bully and too scared to move on. I always say this silently to myself as I leave: "thank you for making my life so difficult that I am embarking on another exciting adventure". 

Your chocolate smoothie sounds delicious! I am drinking spicy chai!  

But how can can anybody trust you if you don't trust them? That confuses me. If they have been found to be untrustworthy, I would simply trust in that, that they're untrustworthy, and do my best to conduct the relationship on those grounds, but it wouldn't make me be an untrustworthy person by guarding myself and not trusting anybody and I wouldn't think the other person is always untrustworthy, I would be sure that they're trustworthy in many areas of their life, just not this one because maybe their need to run their office (or whatever) is greater than the need for making adjustments for me.  The way I see it, we are all untrustworthy in lots of areas. Or maybe we see the word differently. For example, I recently joined a local church and told them from the off that they can't rely on me to turn up each week etc, due to me being in burnout and also due to my nature, sometimes I need to rest on that day, depending on what other commitments etc I have or depending on how I'm feeling. I said I can't be trustworthy in that respect. 

Rather than seeing this as a huge battle and you can't trust them at all, narrow it down to the specific areas that you can't trust them, so your vision isn't clouded by the issue of trust. 

Anyway, I'm probably just rambling and I need to leave my house or I'll never get my routine going, so I'm gonna make me the best, most delicious, most chocolatey  smoothie in the world, seriously, it's delicious (I made it yesterday for the first time) and toddle round to my aunties house cos my mums gonna be there, so I'll go n spend some time with them, seeing as I got up too late to go for a walk. 

I am very lucky in the fact I work in a school for children with autism so all our staff are autism trained. Generally they do seem to be understanding of me although I've never actually disclosed, I think they know anyway. There can be the odd issue where something unexpected happens but this isn't regular. I would struggle in a job that isn't timetables and structured like mine.

Rant away. I always find rants helpful. Your situation sounds very difficult. I'm going to be very honest. I think reasonable adjustments can only go so far. If you have a manager that isn't understanding or a job that doesn't suit your needs then it will be frustrating for you.

Thank you for this. I am sure I have been diagnosed - the feedback meeting was unambiguous and the letter I was given is for the purpose of confirming my diagnosis. My brother has not seen the letter, just the report. 

As I am not gong to share the report I think I will stop agonising over it. This is probably all part of me coming to terms with being autistic. The best diagnostic report I have seen was written from an autistic strengths perspective - trying to find it again, but failing to... think it's somewhere on Twitter! 

My main difficulties at work have been changes to timetables and office accommodation, resulting in increased workload, limited access to information, and nowhere quiet to retreat to at break times. There was huge uncertainty over the changes being introduced and the impact they would have. 

I have also had problems with colleagues - a visiting tutor regularly lets her sessions overrun. This means I can't use the loo, make a drink or take a break. Tried to resolve the situation myself and failed. Asked my manager for help but she sided with the tutor. Gave up. 

A job coach to act as a buffer between me and my manager would be helpful. Also training on ASD for immediate colleagues might help to reduce negative reactions and conflict. 

This manager is angry with me most of the time. I am off sick with work-related stress and dreading going back. It started when I applied for another job. I have also reported security breaches and risk factors, and insisted on health and safety procedures being followed which has made things far, far worse for me. 

My colleagues complain about this manager behind her back - two of them got the Union involved when she tried to force unacceptable changes on them. To her face they are fawning and sycophantic. I simply don't understand how they do this. One of them came into work saying she was very ill and felt dreadful. When he manager phoned she said she felt on top of the world. I am constantly confused. 

One of my colleagues spends all day emailing her husband, arranging mortgages, booking holidays and having inappropriate conversations about service users. This is all perfectly ok with the manager. My desire to focus on work-related tasks and keep my private life to myself is not!

My manager keeps trying to share personal photos with me - awkward because I am not really interested and I feel uncomfortable pretending. She also wants to talk at length about her relationship problems. This seems inappropriate to me. I get upset when she talks disrespectfully about colleagues and calls them things like 'worry wart'. 

Only meant to leave a short reply - as you can see this situation is causing me lots of angst. Not sure what can be done to make it possible for me to return to work. The most difficult thing of all is that my manager refused to make adjustments for my existing disabilities (Dupuytren Disease and Hearing Loss). Just before I went sick she tried to bully me into agreeing to take minutes at lunchtime meetings when I find this extremely difficult and it makes my hand cramp. She also stated categorically, prior to my diagnosis, that I cannot possibly be autistic. 

One of the adjustments I need is not to have to miss my lunch break due to team meetings. I work from 8am to 6.30pm and I need a proper break. I tried to explain the impact this has on me before but got a hostile response. My manager said lunchtime is the only time everyone else is free. I asked if I could take an early break before the team meeting starts but this was vetoed too. 

The Union want me to submit a grievance but I don't feel I have the energy to do this currently. I think I might have to ultimately as without a formal complaint nothing is being done to resolve matters.

My expectation is that if I do complain I will probably end up having to leave. I am not sure that my manager would be open to mediation - funny isn't it as we are supposed to be the ones who lack insight and are inflexible! 

I feel a lot better for having written this down. I am getting no response from my Union rep as she is too busy working on other cases and attending meetings. I am feeling increasingly frustrated and isolated. I emailed and phoned for urgent advice the yesterday but no one got back to me. I am going to try again now. 

Thanks again for your reply and for prompting me to write all this down. I should keep a journal as I am sure this would help to calm my mind. 

That's weird it isn't clear. My report has a conclusion stating I was diagnosed with ASD using DSM and ICD due to difficulties in social communication, social interaction, flexibility of thought and unusual sensory experience. The report is in sections and goes into detail about all of the above and then has sections on other features (like sleep problems), special skill, family history and early development. After the conclusion there are sections about recommendations which suggests their post diagnostic support group as well as books, videos and websites that are useful. There is a section about reasonable adjustments but it just states what reasonable adjustmens are rather than suggestions for myself. We only briefly discussed work and I said that generally it is okay. There are only occasional misunderstandings and confrontations so we didn't discuss this in great detail. I don't know whether this section would have been different if I had said work was a problem.

I personally don't feel I need adjustments as such, just understanding when it does go wrong, which I do think most of the time I get. What reasonable adjustments do you think you would need?

I think it's awful there are so many people on here who talk of employers refusing to accommodate them when it is a legal requirement

I redacted all of the personal information from my report-  bluntly, most of it was none of their business. What I gave them was basically, a 'this man has Aspergers' statement and all the specifics about reasonable adjustments were discussed with me rather than them blundering off and implementing things that were of no use to me.

Yes, I would need to feel very safe about disclosing personal information to employers and, in the absence of that, I would pare it right down to very brief, factual information that is targeted towards the results you'd like to see.  E.g. if you'd like a coach then maybe a brief outline about how this would help you and, in turn, the organisation too.  

I guess the bottom line is that I don't feel very safe with employers though.  To my mind the employer - employee relationship generally suffers from a huge power imbalance and I wouldn't trust them not to misuse their power.  This also means that i'd be very guarded against giving them (or their henchmen in HR) anything which could later be used as ammunition against me.