To feel like some reasonable adjustments are actually unreasonable

She’s being enabled to take the piss. No birthday cards for her then. Honestly don’t know how she doesn’t feel embarrassed that everyone has to carry her. And she’ll no doubt be paid the same as everyone else for doing less work.

You are confusing different issues.

People with disabilities having reasonable adjustments in place does not mean that you should have to pick up extra workload.

My reasonable adjustment is working from home. That does not mean that anyone has to take on some of my workload.

It is a poor management problem, not a disability one.

Also it seems that disabled people can't win: they are told to work rather than claim benefits but when they are in the workplace and need reasonable adjustments people resent them.

I hear you over the stress of it all on you but some believe people with disabilities should just be fired/managed out, what are people who are disabled/need adjustments to work and "keep up with" colleagues supposed to do? If people don't work and are on sickness benefits, often the line of thinking is you're lazy and can't be that ill so "get a job" so what is the overall solution for everyone? What should people with disabilities "do"?

Well frankly, it shouldn’t be placed on the shoulders of the employer. But unfortunately it is. Very easy for the government to pass the buck to the employer, some of whom don’t have broad enough shoulders to cope with all of these expectations, and increased costs (employ another person?) to work the gap. YANBU OP.

I can see offering to pay someone with a disability less because they aren’t working as quickly going down like a lead balloon!!!!

It’s the same issue in education. A classic reasonable adjustment suggested by EPs is ‘give more time to complete the task’ - obviously when it’s a test that’s fine, but if I teach something then give them 20 minutes to do a task, then it’s break, where am I supposed to get the extra time for the child to finish off? Take it off their break? Get one of the time turners out of Harry Potter? I cant magic extra time out of nowhere.

And the issue with both workplaces and schools of course, is that reasonable adjustments are often very reasonable when only one person needs them. But, as the OP has identified, it becomes impossible to manage when it’s many people in the same place.

Public sector by any chance?

This, it is madness.
I agree with reasonable adjustments within reason, however, when colleagues are unable to provide the services, it falls onto other staff.

I agree with that too - if you're talking about actual deadwood. But we are talking about people with additional needs which is different.

But they consciously hired one of these people and I think it was part of a scheme for hiring staff with disabilities. I support that. I just think it's a bit bonkers not to spend the money on extra help when they've actually got the money. And yes, I do know, because I see the accounts as part of my work for them.

I really don't understand how so many companies fuck up common sense things.

Similar, my adjustments are - wheelchair accessible building (well, that was already in place to be fair), and an ability to work from home as needed (but my job can be fully done from home, this doesn't impact on others). I am still expected to do full time output, if I couldn't work full time I would work and be paid for part time

Nah, if you have people underperforming, you shouldn't have to employ an additional person.

Get rid of the dead wood!

I totally see your point

However, in the case of the two clients I mentioned, they are very much in the black. They absolutely could afford to employ someone else.

One of the new hires actually has so many reasonable adjustments, I'm not convinced he can do the job, that's a whole other issue in itself.

@Tiredjusttired I agree with @PermanentTemporary that you should focus on what's happened to your workload. It's become unmanageable.

What I've noticed in the two cases that I mentioned is that they were simply told they had to add it to their job.

Being honest, I was particularly interested in this because in both cases I wonder if I could pick up with those clients by supporting those people in their roles. And it seems much fairer because I then get paid for it!

in general, I'm not sure that managers understand reasonable adjustments. Telling somebody else that they have to add to their workload by helping out is not a reasonable adjustment.

It isn’t as simple as “hiring more people”. That pushes up costs to the end user - will the end user accept it? If not, the the economics fail as does the business.

If someone needs reasonable adjustments, fine, but they still have to produce the same/do the same amount of work, if they want the same pay.

It is not a reasonable adjustment to allow someone to work less for the same pay; it is reasonable to allow them more time to do the work, or pay them less if they want to produce less .

There is someone I work with who I honestly think just lacks resilience. She has adaptations in place that mean everyone else gets more than their fair share of things. She can only travel for one hour (the job involves travel and sometimes over night stays) so that she can stay at home. She can’t do any more on site days than 2 so other team members get more than their fair share of 3 day events which takes us away from home for longer. She is allowed to use AI for some tasks (we are not) as it is quicker and means she doesn’t have to sit down for as long. She was off for 12 weeks with stress and these were all put in for her.

Agreed. What you also can't do is ask one cleaner to do the work of one and a half cleaners while the other cleaner does half a job

I have incurable cancer and disabled because of it and Im on chemo for life. I am.expected to have a full workload the 2 days Im in work. My reasonable adjustments are I can work on the ground floor, Im not expected to walk across the site for multiple meetings and I can tale a few minutes mini breaks.
Thats it.

Why do posters say “employ more people”? Do all employers have a bottomless pit of money to hire extra staff? If you were in the position to hire a cleaner, would you expect to pay for two cleaners because the first one couldn’t manage? I think not.

interestingly you are also able to access this fund if you are self employed, as I have just been assessed and will have some computer software to help me, and a new desk, as currently working in a very unsuitable place. It takes quite an age to get to you, but once they do the process is pretty speedy.

your employer is at fault for not employing enough people.

it’s not the fault of those with disabilities or medical conditions.

your are blaming the wrong people.

Welcome to Britain 2025 where everyone has a GP issued script saying how they can't work in some way shape or form.

the government scheme Access to Work can help fund additional resource to cover these reasonable adjustments but it seems to be the governments best kept secret as it is not widely advertised. we have had staff with Personal Assistants and Taxi's funded from this post of money.

There's some good advice here. If the adjustment is impacting the workload of others then it's by definition not reasonable

I do think focusing on what is happening for your colleagues and adjustments for them is the wrong route.

You need to go to your manager about your own work conditions with evidence about why you’re struggling more and what has happened to your workload. I wonder if a part of your self identity is ‘coper’ and you are separating yourself from ‘people who need to ask their managers for help’. But just like people with a diagnosis, currently your managers are asking for more than you are reasonably able to do. So you need to talk to them about it.

Even our disability network lead at work, who also has disabilities, says that reasonable adjustments aren't an excuse for substandard delivery.
Everyone suddenly needs to wfh due to medical conditions and won't consider any other measures in between.

I'm freelance and a couple of my client companies are doing this

So I'm hearing from people on the permanent staff that they have got to help people quite extensively. So for example, they will have someone who regularly needs the contents of committee meetings explained to them and to have someone go through all the action points with them afterwards.

That's really time-consuming for people who are already being pushed too hard. It only works if they're prepared to increase staff numbers, basically.