To what extent should you make accommodations for "time blindness"?

[ChedderGorgeous]

If a worker says they have "time blindness", what extent, if any, should you make accommodations for them in the workplace ? For example should they always have a 15 minute grace period for meetings and any agenda items involving them be moved to later in the meeting as a matter of course? Should you not be able to schedule meetings with them which are time critical ? My feeling is that if someone has "time blindness" then they should make changes in their day to day management to accommodate this in order to work as per their contract, rather like someone who gets the train, might get the train before , to ensure they get to work even if there are rail delays . AIBU ?

You are absolutely not being unreasonable! Time blindness, never heard of it, I'm pretty sure if declared time blindness for being late I'd be out on my ear. It's totally inconsiderate to be honest, do they think it's ok for people to 'wait' for this time blindness person to appear or arrange meetings in order to accommodate? No, I wouldn't even think of entertaining it.

I think allowing constant lateness to meetings etc isn't sustainable or practical. Assume they're supposed to be there and engaged with the full agenda?
Most calendar applications (like in outlook) will set reminders. In our workplace there's a default pop up 15 mins before a meeting, then 5 mins and then at the time the meeting starts. You can't miss them!

YANBU.
This is a gen z tiktok thing that doesn’t exist in the real world. It’s up to them to sort, not for society to change to accommodate them.

I struggle with this due to diagnosed ADHD, but I put things in place to keep me on track at work, it's my problem and I don't expect everyone else to alter what they're doing for me!

This is a thing now is it? My exH used to have "time blindness" aka refusing to wear a watch, refusing to look at it when he did submit to wearing one and believing everyone else's time was less important than his.

Pay them by the hours worked. i expect they would get some time specs soon enough

Thank you for your reply. What I don't want to do is to be unreasonable for someone who most probably has ADHD (not disclosed, but I assume) but at the same time, I started to feel like I was going mad thinking I needed to change a job plan because of time blindness.

My ex claimed he suffered from this. Turns out he's just incapable of managing his time except when it suited him (never ever late for a holiday, for example).

I would be putting them on a PIP tbh.

I think people with adhd suffer with time blindness, I believe it is a real thing. I would however expect the person who has it to make changes not the other way round. Reason being, one is a productive outcome ,the other is not. I'd expect them to make reasonable adjustments such as setting multiple alarms with 15 minutes/5 minutes warning for example.

This would thoroughly piss me off that a colleague was unable to manage their time and expected everyone else to work around them.

Pretty sure they don't find the affliction bothers them when they go to spend their wages on payday

It’s bollocks.
If you are “time blind” then you put in place the tools at your disposal to support yourself - meeting reminders etc.
If you still can’t be on time, pick a job that doesn’t require it as much - you could work on a packing line where you have to get yourself there, but no meetings, or run your own business where you set your own schedule.
I couldn’t be PM because I’m not smart enough (or ruthless enough). I couldn’t be an Olympian because I’m lazy. I couldn’t play first violin for the Royal Philharmonic because - well, because I don’t play the violin 🤷🏻‍♀️
Ultimately you have to choose the job you can do.

Is the employee actually asking for these accommodations?

If they have a diagnosed disability then of course you need to make reasonable adjustments - but as that isn't the case here I'd want to get them referred to occupational health. If the person refuses that, or engages but isn't found to have any additional needs then no I wouldn't be making adjustments and we'd be into performance plan territory.

I have time blindness and just being on time takes a huge amount of effort which impacts the rest of my work for the day.

Things that genuinely help are:

Having meetings at a regular time - I can follow a routine, so if I know that at 10.15 everyday I should check to see if I have a meeting and if so, go to the meeting, I can manage that.

Buddying up with someone, so getting someone to pop into the office or phone me up to tell me to stop what I'm doing and go to the meeting. Several people in senior roles in my workplace have ADHD and they tend to do the buddying thing and schedule mini-meetings where they meet with colleagues 5-10 minutes before a meeting to discuss what they want as as a team of the meeting.

And if there are any major changes to a routine, to discuss them the day before.

Maybe tell them 10-15 mins before a meeting is due to start either in person or Via email?

If you use f-ing Google Mail for work, then the calendar doesn't alert you to meetings and if it does, its only there for a flash and disappears again (so if you were on the toilet at the time of the alert then you will never see it).

It’s a common trait of ADHD and not something that is hard to opt out of.

I set 3 reminders for every meeting.

Would that same person have time blindness if the meetings were with the CEO?

I expect people to manage their calendars with whatever mechanisms they need built in. So if they're 15 minutes late I'd expect them to be ensuring the 15 minutes before the meeting are clear to prevent overrun of their task before and thus get them to the meeting on time.

I’m very much not Gen Z and extremely successful. I have to work hard to counteract my time blindness. Luckily most people understand if I’m a minute or 2 late.

I am C-suite. 99% of my meetings are with very senior people. They aren’t twats, luckily.

Don't be ridiculous. Each person should be able to find some sort of calendar with notifications that work for them and put in the minimal effort required to use them, not expect someone else to remind them. The op isn't his mum and he's not a schoolchild.
I work part time from home and am quite often not at my desk - so I put work meetings onto my personal calendar on my phone so I get alerts on my watch (as well as on the phone, obv, and iPad too for that matter). It doesn't take long to do.

Im awful with time. Didn’t know there was a term for it- I think it’s ridiculous to expect everybody to pander for you if you can’t stick to time no matter how hard you find it. It’s on them to set all their alarms, reminders etc and manage it themselves. This is what I have to do- I would never expect it to be my managers problem.

It's a very real thing in ADHD certainly isn't bollocks as a pp said.

If you have a diagnosed condition and want reasonable adjustments in line with that, you actually need to tell your employer about the diagnosis. There's not really a way round that.

Since your employee hasn't told you about a diagnosis of ADHD and you are just speculating, I wouldn't make any allowances for that person. If they have so called 'time blindness' (which sounds like a made up thing to me...) then they need to put something in place themselves to ensure that they aren't late for everything. You know, like a watch.

I'd be supportive enough to discuss ways they can work around it - reminders, etc as pps have said. If there are easy adjustments like a regular meeting being at a predictable time each week then fine. Otherwise, pp is right, you pick a job you can do. 🤷‍♀️

Their responsibility to get there on time. If they have a diagnosed condition and ask for reasonable adjustments through the proper channels, then it can be considered.
Otherwise they can fuck off. Piss takers.