To feel like some reasonable adjustments are actually unreasonable

I work for a very small, consultancy style business. The work is fast paced.

We had a hire a bit like this and we just couldn't keep him. It was adding too much to everyone else's workload.

I think the problem is a lot of companies are acared to say no to adjustments as gping to an emplpyment tribunal costs money and if the emplpyee wins I've seen payputs as high as 100k!

I have a couple of reasonable adjustments at work. I'm an incredibly experienced member of staff with excellent knowledge and skills. My reasonable adjustments are that in the first hour of logging on I only take calls and respond to emails from my manager, head of department and Director. I use that hour for planning out my day, ensuring I've picked up any outstanding work from the previous day and then scheduling any phone calls.
My other adjustment is being able to request a more frequent one to one with my manager to go over my targets, caseload and issues with the staff I manage. I manage 6 people and over see a team of 12 of which 4 have their own reasonable adjustments and one probably could do with them but can't or won't discuss her needs as she is (to me and others) very clearly autistic.

But the person in this case isn't disabled, they're just been off for 12 weeks with 'stress'.

Reasonable adjustments are there to remove barriers for disabled people. They aren't there to reduce actual workload so that someone else has to pick it up. It might mean they need to be creative with allocating tasks and responsibilities among the team. It doesn't mean they do less work so someone else has to do more.

I think I live in a bubble

Where I live, if you cant take the heat, you get out of the kitchen

How are Reasonable adjustments working if the one "able to" person is having to pick up the slack?

It is reasonable for staff with additional needs to request reasonable adjustments (doesn't always mean they should be approved - it depends).

It is unreasonable for management to put other members of staff in a situation where they are pressured to work overtime or have increased workload (for any reason). If this is your situation, it is entirely reasonable for you to raise the issue of your workload with your manager.

Re assured they got the help they needed

If you knew that your doctor had required extra time in all of their medical exams
due to 'adjustment'
would you feel reassured or concerned ?

In principle yes.

But if someone's adjustment is not getting up to go to the printer then they can't hire someone on standby to walk to the printer once a week...

If the workload isn't manageable you need to speak to your manager and tell them that it isn't manageable. Reasonable adjustments for disabilities shouldn't even come in to that. Just focus on yourself and what you can/cannot handle.

I think the problem is that the law is missleading. For example removing the need for someone ina wheelchair to take out the trash (ie removing 5 mins of thir job) by nature means someone else has to do it. Obviously this is a silly example but if something is removed so.eone else has to.do it

“What you’re saying is actually discriminatory and could get you or the company in serious trouble. Treating someone differently because they have reasonable adjustments for a disability is against the law under the Equality Act.
Not including someone in something like a birthday card because of their disability isn’t just unfair — it could be seen as harassment or discrimination. That kind of comment could end up in an Employment Tribunal, or even lead to dismissal.
People don’t get adjustments to ‘take the piss’ — they get them because they’re legally entitled to a fair chance to do their job. Whether you agree or not doesn’t change the law

It is the employer who should be making the reasonable adjustments, not the rest of the staff.

If the adjustment these staff members need is to work less, your employer needs to take on more staff, not rely on existing staff to pick up the slack.

But if I say my adjustment was that I need to do 30% less work, that work still needs to be done by someone.

I wouldn't want to be paid the same to do less work

But what the heck is the limit with this?

An employer needs x things done, they hore a team of say, six people to do them. Now three need "reasonable accomodations" and the other three, while getting paid, are working flat out, and in the end can't keep up.

So now the employer has to hire extra people to do the job he already hired for? What does that do for the bottom line?

My feeling is that in general, if the reasonable adjustment means that you need to hire other people to do the job, it's not a reasonable adjustment any more. It just means you can't do the job.

And an awful lot of "reasonable adjustment" now seems to be about paying some people the same wage for more work, and that is supposed to be fair. But why should they feel it's fair to do more for the same pay?

I disagree. I have a neurological condition and need reasonable adjustments. I would never expect that to mean an increased burden on my colleagues.
That's not reasonable

I have a back condition that means I can’t do heavy lifting (about 10% of our role) they can’t hire extra staff so my co worker has to do the heavy lifting but that means I do more of other areas of our role. So I’m not slacking but the role has been adjusted to fit my need.

if A person is unable to do their job due to disability they either need their role tweaking but they still should be working to the same level as everyone else. Or they need moving into a more suitable role.

Totally agree OP. I have Autism (diagnosed Asperger’s in the old days!) and even I think the reasonable adjustments thing is getting ridiculous,
particularly if it impacts on other people in the work force.
I think reasonable adjustments like not travelling too much around a building if physically disabled etc is absolutely understandable.

Your employer needs to do one of the following:

1. hire more staff
2. accept less work will be done
3. say the adjustments cannot be accommodated.

From an ACAS point of view a reasonable adjustment must

• Enable the employee to perform their work and reduce disadvantage (work, basically)
• not incur disproportionate financial burden
• not negatively impact others

Your workplace seem like they have interpreted it as let people do what they want - do you have a proper HR department? I wonder if they are scared of getting sued and that’s why they are being too soft

You're right, disabled people can't win, but no-one will come up with an answer, they will just keep insisting they get back to work, but not where they work, not with adjustments, not with equal.pay, even though it will be harder for the disabled person to do the same job, at the same speed in the same way.