My son (20) works for a large company that provides various services within a larger organisation, both are national and well known. My son applied, interviewed, and has a contract for a specific job role within the company. For reason that have not been disclosed, they have moved him from the role that he has being doing for over 2 years, to a similar titled, but very different role. His old role was not public facing at all, behind the scenes in a small team, the new roles is entirely public facing, communicating with people is probably 90% of the job, but its working with the public in its entirety. They have told him he has 2 options, he either does the new position, or he quits.
My Son is diagnosed ASD, has been for over 15 years. The company he works for are aware of this. I attended a recruitment event with him when he was just turned 18, and at the informal pre interview i was sat with him. They allowed me to attend the formal interview in order to help him complete paperwork, however i didn't go into the actual interview with him. They were aware at recruitment stages that he wanted a non-public facing position, as he didn't want to have to communicate with 100s of different people on a daily basis, that he wanted the job role he is contracted to do. They are also aware that my son likes routine and struggles with change that is thrusted on him without prior warnings. As such he does a set 4 on 4 off rota, instead of random shifts and has stayed in the same area of the organisation for the whole 2 years (the role he has covers about 8 different areas within the large organisation, my son does 1 of the areas every shift).
This change being unexpectedly forced upon him this morning has caused him to have a huge meltdown. I was on the phone with him for close to an hour as he was having an anxiety attack about being forced into a job role he isn't suitable for, because he doesn't have any say in the change, because this is a 2 year routine that he is in, going in and doing the same thing every single week. He cannot cope with this change. His emotional maturity is much younger than he actually is. But he has done so well in this role, he loves his job, he doesn't want to leave it. He has spoken in the past about how this is a job he can do for life and how pleased he was to have found a job he loves that fits his needs.
In the circumstances, would IBU to try and meet with his line manager with him, to communicate the things he cant? There's no union or similar, HR are not based in our city. The company is notoriously poor to work for, however up until now, barring some issues he was able to fix, they have been supportive of my son.
(Part of me is wondering as he is close to turning 21 if this is a way of getting rid of him before they have to give him a sizable pay rise)