Epilepsy and work

[bonfireheart]

I have an office based job. All was well before covid but we are all working from home now. It's constant meetings via MS Teams. from 9am to 5/6pm some days. Often there's texts out of hours. But it's the constant meetings - most days I am lucky to get a lunch break. Tbh not every meeting is that urgent. Most of these meetings are set up by my line manager. My brain genuinely cannot think straight after three meetings with no breaks. I feel like even if someone asked me what day it was I would struggle to remember. I never used to be like this, don't know if it's my epilepsy or the medication I'm on. I set myself a limit of 3 meetings a day but then they all started creeping back in. As epilepsy is a disability would it be too much if I went to HR or occupational health and asked as 'reasonable adjustments' I had it officially on my record that I can give my line manager that clearly states that I need to have regular breaks from laptop and time for my brain to catch up?!

Absolutely you can and should. Also have epilepsy and I have it as part of my reasonable adjustments.

Do you have access to OH ? You should have an appointment with them first.

Thank you @DuvetDayIsEveryDay this is so great to hear. We have a big OH team but I've never spoken to them. Our HR is all outsourced so not great, want to approach OH with as much info as possible. Do you mind me asking what your reasonable adjustments are stated as?

I rarely talk about my epilepsy at work, only when I have a seizure and need time off. I think they'll see me as weak, but I work hard and have been promoted twice so my work ethic isn't up for question. It's just that there's people on my team who have worked through difficult illnesses and in comparison to them I might look like I'm making a "fuss" but then I think that was THEIR choice and I have to do what is right for me. The last two seizures I've had have been due to being pulled to breaking point at work.

You really should have been see by occupational health by now. They are usually very helpful with their recommendations.

My reasonable adjustments are to fold because I also have MS.

They are:
Extra breaks.
Working from home when I need to.
Flexible hours if needed.
New light fitted in my office (more natural) and helped with the headaches.

Any disability related sickness not to count as normal sickness and so will not trigger thresholds.

You can talk them over with the OH who can put them forward. You are not automatically entitled to reasonable adjustments and they need to be reasonable for your work to agree and implement them.

You are definitely entitled to reasonable adjustments. I have a disability and health problems. I’ve found that people will assume you’re fine unless you actually speak up about what you need - and I work in the NHS! I would definitely contact OH. I would also ask if your workplace has any type of arrangement for work based assessments (I know you’re WFH but they could still assess your set up and arrangements. My workplace has an agreement with Access to work. Initial contact with them is made by email. They get the details of your circumstances from you then contact your manager. There’s a fee but if they refuse they could be classed as discriminating against you.

I get that it’s tough to ask for help - my disability and health issues have only been diagnosed as an adult, I often just try to plod on. But ultimately life is tougher when you have underlying problems and if they value you as a member of staff they’ll make the adjustments. They should want to facilitate your work so it’s maximising your ability to stay well. You shouldn’t be worked to the point it’s triggering your seizures, not if adjustments can prevent it!