Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello! I would really appreciate input from anyone who might have had some types of phone calls excluded from their job as a reasonable adjustment.
My job was changed without us getting the choice a few months ago. I am really good at my job but we were always told that we didn't need to get on the phone to strangers if we didn't feel comfortable doing so. This was repeated over and over.
Since the job role has changed for the whole department this is now mandatory. I find this type of phone call really triggers the worst symptoms of my autism including panic, anxiety and a lot worse. I sometimes lose the ability to talk and it causes me a lot of distress.
When I brought up I can't make this change due to my autism (which is well known about) I was told that it wasn't related to my autism, it's a personal preference and we all have to do things we don't like.
I would like to have this put in place formally as a reasonable adjustment, but I don't know if this is possible. I continue to be excellent at all other aspects of the job.
Any advice from anyone who has done this before or something similar would be really appreciated. Thanks!
I'm sorry to hear this. I don't cope well with phones either, but luckily I'm not required to use them much - I mostly use email.
Your request for an adjustment doesn't sound unreasonable to me, and the reaction is so typical of those who don't understand autism. I wonder what they think "difficulties with social communication" - a key identifier of autism - actually means, as using telephones is part of that!
I found an article about how phones can cause difficulties for autistic people - I can't seem to paste a link, but here is the web address:
life-skills.middletownautism.com/strategies/leisure/using-the-telephone/
Thank you! This is really useful. I am excellent at emails, I am frustrated they won't just let me use them instead :(