If you have a condition, such as Endometriosis - has your employer made any adjustments for you?

[Canwegetanothercat]

I have endo and suffer from pain all throughout the month. I can usually get by okay, but when I am in the office I feel very ill. The reason for this is that the pain affects my sleep, I’m up a lot in the night which makes me very tired and exhausted. The exhaustion, plus the pain make being in the office pretty unbearable because I have to get up so early and spend 8 hours under harsh lights etc which then cause migraines because I’m already tired and suffering and it just progresses into awful headaches. I spend the days in the office telling myself “just make it through this day. All you have to do is make it through the day” I’m pretty miserable with it and it’s affecting my mental health now.

Work know that I have this, but I haven’t had an occupational heath referral or anything because I am only in the office two days a week so figured that it’s already pretty good! I am just wondering if it would be reasonable to ask for any adjustments, but I don’t really know what these would be. Has anyone else had any adjustments made at work for this condition/a similar condition? A lot of the time I feel so ill in the office, headache, feel sick, utter exhaustion, pelvic pain - that I have to ask to go home early. But then I stress myself out thinking I can’t just keep asking to go home every week, when I’m only in the office two days! I honestly don’t know how I’d cope if WFH wasn’t a thing. I truly don’t think I’d be able to hold down a job without it

Hi OP, so sorry you’re struggling. One of my colleagues has endometriosis and has reasonable adjustments, she had to be quite specific about what was needed & why, but she has been given the flexibility to work from home where needed and had changes made to her working hours on her request. So if you can think of specific things that would help you can always ask x

It’s not the same but I have chronic migraines and had to tell my employer that I needed reasonable adjustments. All they did was up my absence trigger. I think you need to figure out what you want and then go in with the legal info to support.

Yes my absence triggers have been increased and I can take extra toilet breaks as long as I let my manager know on the day I need them

Thanks for replying. I will have a think about what will help and talk to them. I just wondered what were reasonable requests and what other peoples arrangements are

I think most employers now are pretty good & receptive to people asking for genuine reasonable adjustments and very rarely would my employer say no. However if you were going to ask to essentially never have to come in the office, that would be a no for example. It does need to be reasonable & justified.

You should ask for an occupational health referral - you don’t need to be in the office at all for that to be worthwhile.

I have endo, have an OH assessment and adjustments. I teach at a uni so there are some specific things I need (not teaching back to back for certain amount of hours without access to toilet / pain relief), not a hot desk so I can keep medical equipment (sounds grand but basically heat blanket) in same place, understanding about time off and on/off nature of condition which may mean I am off sick for individual days / have to go home early or start late.

Don't suffer in silence, I found employer to be very understanding and those adjustments were very easily come by. I'm sure I could have asked for more and it been considered.

When I went to speak with my manager I took a fact sheet / info sheet from
Endo uk with me - I sent it by email just as a - I know this condition isn't hugely common but here's some information in case you haven't come across it. She said that was appreciated. I know it's more talked about now but I think probably quite a lot of people think 'painful periods' and not all the other (often far worse!!) symptoms.

This is super helpful, thanks so much 💗 sorry that you suffer with this too x

Could you ask to work in the office more on your good weeks and work at home all week on your bad week?

These help me too

amzn.eu/d/duq76N9

Most employers would be happy to make a reasonable adjustment but you'll need to be clear what you will need e.g. a slightly shorter day on your office day and time made up on a home working day, time to walk outside for 15 minutes in an office day so you can get away from the harsh lights/stretch out etc.

Is there anything you can do to help yourself e.g. sunglasses or coloured glasses if the lights are too harsh, a walk outside, anything that will help sleep the night before an office day, splitting office days apart in the week e.g. going in Monday and Friday.