Looking for Lived Experiences: Redundancy & Equality Issues

Catherine said:

Did your employer acknowledge your needs?

No, they claimed to know little about autism but said they would "look into it" and this lasted about 6 months until they offered me a big pay bump to work as a consultant for them where I only need to be in the office 2 days a week - but that meant I no longer had job security.

I was not aware of them having any other autistic employees.

Catherine said:

Did the process feel fair or was it complicated by misunderstandings?

There was no process - they acknowledged the diagnosis but that was it.

i have evolved coping mechanisms for my autistic traits over the decades so was quite capable of enduring the stress of the job and using all the tools available to me to destress and cope with the discomforts though, so for me it was just business as usual.

Catherine said:

has anyone here ever taken an Equality Act issue to an employment tribunal?

I long ago learned to build up a portfolio of evidence against my employer so that if they tried any shady stuff I could easily threaten them with it, whether calling the police, releasing damning info to the press or passing evidence of affairs to partners of the people trying to get at me.

Is this unethical - yes. Would i use it - yes, on 2 occasions and it quickly resulted in a very healthy redundancy settlement and paid gardening leave while I found another job.

I could not recommend others use the same approach but it is a very fast way to avoid the uncertainty of using the official channels which are stressful and (from what I have heard from those who used them) not very reliable.

Having worked as a manager for decades I know have had to deal with other managers who try to get rid of employees who, in hindsight, were clearly autistic but they had difficulty in doing their jobs, often caused social conflict in the office, required a lot more training than most and often took a lot of stress related sick leave.

To most managers these were just a millstone around the companies neck so they spoke to HR and agreed a way to "manage them out" - it create an environment where they would want to leave or ended up breaking a company rule so badly that they could be dismissed.

When done "right" it is an effective way to protect against litigation as all legal boxes are checked in the process. Is it ethical - no but it is common practice because it works for them.

Catherine said:

Did your employer acknowledge your needs?

No, they claimed to know little about autism but said they would "look into it" and this lasted about 6 months until they offered me a big pay bump to work as a consultant for them where I only need to be in the office 2 days a week - but that meant I no longer had job security.

I was not aware of them having any other autistic employees.

Catherine said:

Did the process feel fair or was it complicated by misunderstandings?

There was no process - they acknowledged the diagnosis but that was it.

i have evolved coping mechanisms for my autistic traits over the decades so was quite capable of enduring the stress of the job and using all the tools available to me to destress and cope with the discomforts though, so for me it was just business as usual.

Catherine said:

has anyone here ever taken an Equality Act issue to an employment tribunal?

I long ago learned to build up a portfolio of evidence against my employer so that if they tried any shady stuff I could easily threaten them with it, whether calling the police, releasing damning info to the press or passing evidence of affairs to partners of the people trying to get at me.

Is this unethical - yes. Would i use it - yes, on 2 occasions and it quickly resulted in a very healthy redundancy settlement and paid gardening leave while I found another job.

I could not recommend others use the same approach but it is a very fast way to avoid the uncertainty of using the official channels which are stressful and (from what I have heard from those who used them) not very reliable.

Having worked as a manager for decades I know have had to deal with other managers who try to get rid of employees who, in hindsight, were clearly autistic but they had difficulty in doing their jobs, often caused social conflict in the office, required a lot more training than most and often took a lot of stress related sick leave.

To most managers these were just a millstone around the companies neck so they spoke to HR and agreed a way to "manage them out" - it create an environment where they would want to leave or ended up breaking a company rule so badly that they could be dismissed.

When done "right" it is an effective way to protect against litigation as all legal boxes are checked in the process. Is it ethical - no but it is common practice because it works for them.