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 ?

How late are they? Tbh extra time would not help me. My brain would just think I have extra time so there's no need to stress and I'd just move slower or later then end up being late anyway. I think you should stick to the normal time but expect them to be late. Provide them with notes of the meeting before/after (or whatever you would do for anyone else with learning difficulties).

Given that technology exists to help people with time blindness, but does not exist to help paralysed people walk, its a bit insensitive to put them in the same category

I have a repeating alarm but tapping it does not work for me. For exactly the reason you say, I just go back to what I was doing.

I need to stop what I’m doing as soon as it goes off. I mean actually stand up / walk around the room and check WHY it’s gone off.

Then I have to start getting ready for the schedules event EVEN THOUGH I know it’s far too early and I’ve got loads of time to just continue doing what I’m doing.

I can’t go on saying

” oh I’m a terrible judge of time “ and then go on making instant , split second judgements about “ do I have enough time “ and then being surprised that I’m wrong.

So I don’t rely on some magic interval sense of time ( that everyone with AHDH seems to think that NT have but very few actually people do ) .

I rely on the systems and routines that I have set up.

So I’ve timed myself for how long it takes me to get up, showered, dressed etc for work. I’ve timed it for fastest possible, average and relaxed. So if I know that my average is 30 mins and when in stressed it takes 40mins, I need to leave a MINIMUM of 40 mins to do that.

Otherwise I will be late.

There’s no point in hoping that I will be FASTER on a busy day, because I won’t. There’s no point in hoping that the bus / train will be late , the traffic will be clear or my boss will happily keep the everyone waiting for me.

There’s no point in moaning that everyone else in office can do it in 10 mins and that my brother can do it in 5 mins. Or indeed being grateful that it only takes me 40 mins because it takes some people with other disabilities 3 hours .

So I need to plan my life around that 40 mins. Or do other things to set up a new routine, such as showering at night.

There's no point in me adding other tasks into that 40 mins, such as checking my email, choosing what to wear, loading the dishwasher. They are EXTRA tasks that need their own time. Because I can’t multi task.

I also need to built in contingency time and plan to be early. Because I’m shit at judging time.

Does this make sense? I’m shifting my reliance from somethings I’m bad at
( guessing time and making split second judgements under pressure ) to something I CAN do ( planning by using a pen, paper and the internet when I’m NOT under pressure ).

I'm not sure comparing Paralysed Barbara (nice) who uses a wheelchair and suggesting she could leap out of it, and someone who struggles to prioritise meetings and wants repeated lateness overlooking and an inability to prioritise and manage their own time at work can be compared, and I think it's distasteful at best to do so.

This.

The irony of you claiming the comparison insensitive is clearly lost on you.

Some people are so impacted by certain neurological disorders they wouldn't be able to remember to use any such technologies. I don’t understand why this is such a difficult concept.

With time blindness it isn't all about setting an alarm to provent being late! There is more to it, I can get up at a reasonable time and still manage to get my daughter late to school, its an inability to perceive time so I will think time is going slower than it is, and struggle with other adhd issues like Executive disfunction and not be organised or prepared to be able to leave house on time, to reduce it to just using technology ur dismissing all other aspects and adhd is absolutely a hidden disability and not insensitive at all I would say u was being insensitive with ur complete lack of acknowledgement of how adhd presents itself!

It's not a difficult concept, but those people aren't suited to jobs where turning up to meetings on time is a crucial element. Or am I missing something?

Wow, right again. Only visible disabilities are valid. Well done you

I think it's distasteful to mock hidden disabilities too by trying to insinuate they don't exist.

Not half as distasteful as comparing them to paralysis

It appears to be a difficult concept for the poster I directed the initial reply at unfortunately.

So you are saying neurological disorders can never be as disabling as physical ones?

Seriously?

ADHDers, don't waste your time trying to explain it to people who don't want to understand it. ADHD isn't willful, but ignorance is. Let them get on with it.

If you read my posts you will see that I haven't mocked hidden disabilities once. I have a fairly good understanding about how they work, there is diagnosed Dyslexia in my family and I am very likely to have undiagnosed ADHD should I wish to pursue a diagnosis.

There is an idea that people without hidden disabilities just wake up in the morning and ping they're gliding through the day. Watch free, alarm free, not a care in the world, appearing in the right place at the right time as if on rails. This isn't the case. It's not reasonable to throw your hands up and say, well I find this really hard so this is where you need to step in Boss, I want fifteen minutes flexibility at the start of my shift, you need to not be too fussed about if I'm back late from my lunch hour and don't put any of the good stuff at the start of the meeting. I'd also like you to employ a PA who costs as much as me per hour, to come and get me and physically walk me to the conference room, make my coffee and open my mail so I can focus elsewhere. That's board level, because you're making the money that pays everyone. Everyone would love and benefit from that set up.

OK, I think you're just trolling now 😂

It wasn't you.

It was the poster who stated it would soon disappear if there was a million pound cheque.

I want fifteen minutes flexibility at the start of my shift, you need to not be too fussed about if I'm back late from my lunch hour

In a lot of jobs these would either be completely standard, though, or if not a perfectly reasonable thing to ask for!

Erm. Not in this one ! Hence my original qs!

Well if it’s a genuine job requirement (rather than inflexible management), it’s a job requirement.

.... then those are the jobs for you.

And I have one of those.

I still need adjustments around time / meetings though!

It is depressing how many people on this thread (and I am not saying you are one of them) seem to be completely against any form of adjustment. Just because they don’t see why it would be needed.

If you're going from one meeting to the next how is time blindness affecting that? A meeting finishes, you go to the next.

@NotMyFirstChoiceofName yes particularly the last paragraph reframing things, that's really helpful. I guess this comes with practice and a lot of trial and error.

The failure to get there for a million pounds is true. It's absolutely bloody infuriating from an outside perspective. My Ds regularly misses out on good stuff and even financial gain (just this week £90 a relative promised if he did something by a certain time. Something he has been needing to do for ages. You guessed it, he failed!) From my point of view it's so avoidable. From his, it is a lot more complicated.

The clip linked by pp explains this too.

Assuming there are no distractions on the way, you don’t suddenly get an email you need to read, you don’t need to open a different set of papers and get distracted by something similar…

Worst thing for me is actually when I have about 30 minutes between meetings .