Published on 12, July, 2020
What are the reasonable adjustments I can ask for at work?
I started working for a new company in January.
I disclosed my diagnosis at the beginning of my employment to HR, the occupational health nurse and my manager (who is a director of the company).
I asked for a quiet space to work, and was given an office to myself. But I constantly have people coming in to ask me questions which distracts me.
I later disclosed to the other managers who are at the same level as me, I wasn’t comfortable doing so but I got pushed into it. Anyway, I thought it would help me and I gave out a list of my communication needs. But they have been ignored, I am not getting any support. I’ve become the pawn in some office politics game I don’t even understand. I am constantly trying to mask because I am being treated exactly the same as everyone else. My manager has even told me it would be a good idea for me to spend more time in the open plan office with my team. If I do that I will never get any work done.
In my case reasonable adjustment is that nobody makes any stupid comments about me wearing earplugs in certain situations at work and I get warned, whenever my colleagues have something noisy to do, to cover my ears. I sit in the office with my colleagues and it has some pros and cons. The pros are that I have some contact to people (yes, everyone needs it, autists too to some extent) and that I can ask my manager directly whenever I have question or problem to solve. Cons are other people chatting while I have work to do, but there again I use earplugs. If anyone asks me, I just say , sorry but I have things to do and I need to concentrate. another reasonable adjustment is having breaks at same time everyday, not always possible, but often manageable. in my case it’s not a problem, I can take my break whenever I want, but my problem is hyperfocus on my tasks and forgetting meals, even with alarm.