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Original poster

How many is a ‘handful’?

52 replies

BlackRoseRed · 11/08/2025 00:01

If someone has requested ‘a handful’ of something, assuming they are talking figuratively as the thing in question can’t possibly fit in anyone’s hands, how many do you think they are expecting?

OP posts:

BertieBotts · 11/08/2025 11:40

BlackRoseRed · 11/08/2025 10:12

I was trying to avoid asking for clarification at work as past experience tells me people think I’m just being deliberately awkward.

It’s basically an admin based task that often gets neglected by the team as it’s low priority but if left can build up to an unmanageable level so if everyone does ‘a handful’ daily it will keep the number down.

Have you disclosed your autism to your supervisor/manager? That ought to enable you to ask for clarification without it being seen as annoying. I know that is not necessarily the case in reality, but anyway.

If that's still not an option, can you possibly work it out by figuring out how often it needs to be done, or how many of these tasks typically come in (or are created) a day, and then divide that by the number of employees who are supposed to be doing them?

So e.g. if the task comes in about 15 times a day and there are 5 employees, you would want to aim to complete 3 a day (4 if you want to be extra efficient, or if it will look good to your supervisor or manager).

BertieBotts · 11/08/2025 11:46

Aspidistree · 11/08/2025 10:35

It's not as simple as "wishy-washy is annoying, a specific number is better". Sometimes the task that's been delegated includes using your judgement on the day.

I had this conversation with my autistic son just yesterday. I offered him "a few" pieces of my sushi. He wanted a number, I didn't actually have one in mind, and we talked through the decision process of how he could judge what would be a suitable amount. If he were having a terrible day I would have to do the extra steps myself and just give him a number, but I felt he had capacity that day so we worked it out together. In this case it was practice for him and confidence building in making his own judgement, but in a work setting it might be that the judgement is being delegated as well as the task. If you are not specifically told 5 times a day, it's probably because it doesn't need to be done specifically 5 times a day.

Actually this is a really good point (and I love the way you talked it through with your son!)

It might be that what they mean by "everyone do a handful a day" is that because some days it needs doing 20x and some days it needs doing 10x, sure that averages out at 15x a day, but there might not physically be 3-4 tasks for everyone to do every single day, so they just want people to keep an eye out and when they notice the tasks are waiting, take 1-2 from the pile and complete them, rather than what people are perhaps doing now which might be ignoring it and hoping someone else will deal with it.

I assume it's a rather tedious/boring task which is what makes it build up.

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