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 ?

What steps have they taken to make it to meetings on time?

Were they late for the interview or did they make an effort to secure the job?

If someone else has time blindness, how much time will you allow for starting late / moving items around the agenda?

How does it impact the wider team if one person constantly misses important bits of the meeting, presuming you don’t just spend the first 15 minutes wasting time?

YANBU - is 'time blindness' an excuse for being perpetually late?

You would have to make reasonable adjustments under equalities legislation. One size does not fit all.

I agree.

Staggeringly ignorant comment.

As others have said, time blindness is indeed a "thing", and is particularly relevant for ADHD.

If an employee asks for reasonable adjustments then a conversation should take place to agree these.

The employee should also be given tools that help them manage their time.

In this example, a request to start meetings later is a no as everyone shouldn't wait for them. A suggestion to have their item further down the agenda so it doesn't matter if they're late as they won't miss their item, is reasonable so long as it fits with the business of the meeting. If it doesn't fit with the business of the meeting then the employee needs to find a work around to ensure they are there on time.

You can't just decide for yourself that you are ND all the same, and expect the HR staff and your colleagues to proceed on the basis of a self-diagnosis.

If it matters to someone to perform well and collaborate successfully with colleagues, then there is the possibility of paying for a private assessment.

We are talking here about people who are employed at a level where they attend meetings, not someone flipping burgers for a living. It's very likely they have the wherewithal to afford a private assessment.

I attend meetings and can't afford to go private. You often can't get NHS prescriptions when you've gone private either, so it costs hundreds each month.

I suffer from time blindness.- and it is absolutely my responsibility. Employers have previously offered some flexibility in start/end times of shifts of being there isn't time critical - for example being 5 minutes late means I work an extra 5 minutes at the end.

As for meetings - make sure it starts on time and not early! But it is absolutely your employee's responsibility to get there.

It isn't really about not seeing time and not knowing what time it is, as underestimating how long certain tasks take - starting them before I need to be somewhere or do something else, and overrunning - so if I had a meeting I would plan for this the day before to make sure anything else I had to do before was done.

Thank you for all the replies. Very interesting to learn more about something I hadn't considered before.

This

You still can't self diagnose.

If success at work is a priority, then you find a way to make an assessment happen.

In the meantime, if you're aware it's a problem, you figure out ways to mitigate it.

Just tell them that the meeting start time is 15 minutes earlier than you've told everyone else.

I do wonder if those supporting those with "time blindness" also support docking them 15 minutes (or whatever ) wages to pay for the person that is in a situation were they are having to cover for them?

Even if your employee does have ADHD , they still need to develop strategies to cope with tasks like attending appointments, meetings etc. and that's what I would focus on more, rather than allowing them just to be late.

I don't like heights, I get wobbly about five rungs up a ladder. I know this about myself, and it would be unreasonable for me to take a job as a window cleaner and only expect to clean ground floor windows.

It's unreasonable to allow a person who knows their timekeeping is terrible to be late to meetings. It is their responsiblity to use the many tools at their disposal to ensure they're on time, or find a job where knowing what time it is isn't a required skill.

Some of these replies are insane. I have ADHD and time runs away from me. For that reason, I have reminders and other mechanisms to make sure I'm on time for meetings. In my organisation people are generally pretty flexible, and understand that things can run over or we can be pulled away from something to deal with a client etc so if someone is late we leave their part and come back to it later. We don't go over what's already been covered.

Having a disability doesn't mean absolving yourself of responsibility. But it might mean that a reasonable adjustment is recording a meeting, or putting the part someone contributes to later in the agenda, as long as they aren't disruptive to the proceedings.

I'm curious if people think that people with dyslexia should also just get on with things and not expect their employer to make any adjustments. Because there is a very big overlap, and I notice that the British Dyslexia Association suggestions for reasonable adjustments includes giving people reminders about upcoming meetings, events and deadlines, building planning time into the work day and giving time to practice going from one place to another, all of which are also useful for time blindness.

I struggle with this. I get completely engrossed and forget I have a meeting. Luckily line manager is great, they attend all my meeting so pop in and scoop me up usually.
I also set phone alarms and reminders on laptop

I found most useful to have a calendar on my desk with physically written in

I know you shouldn't self diagnose, it's just not as easy as getting a private assessment.

Would you tell someone’s who is blind to read off a screen? No

ADHD is a disability and time blindness is real

I host a work meeting most days. It starts on time, not even one minute late. People know this and can join early, time keeping is good.

Inability to be on time does happen for some people, just as some have no sense of direction. However, I think it is a small minority of those who are late for meetings and other things. Every single Covid press conference started late, regardless of who the host was, which showed the contempt of the cabinet minister for others.

Teams and other reminders are useful to take away excuses.

I can recommend accommodations like:

Booking the meeting space 10-15 minutes early and asking your member of staff to meet you early. Advise them this is to prepare for the meeting, or to write notes down to discuss X topic, or research Y. Ask them to get coffee or water for the table before the meeting if they’re junior. If needs be and you can afford the time, ask to see them 5 minutes before the meeting starts.

If setting a meeting, email in the morning when you check your calendar with a reminder of the meeting and its start time.

if you have a shared calendar like Google, set a reminder notice to the appointment of 15 minutes beforehand

setting a meeting right at the start of the day before person has the chance to get into 10 different tasks they are balancing, eg 9.30 or at the end of the day so they can wrap up work and attend the meeting.

dont forget the value of the FEAR in helping people be on time - so don’t be afraid to show disapproval of being made to wait or waste 30 minutes or if you have management responsibilities over them, to make it an area they need to work on.

BUT disabilities like these can really benefit from support, and alongside the shit you get with something like ADHD you get a lot of valuable positives and encouraging neurodiverse thinking in your workplace can be a big net gain. Problem solving, creativity, emergency support, multi project juggling etc - all big benefits to something like ADHD.

i will get a lot of snippy feedback to this post about how no one has time to make meetings accessible - but if you’d spend 5 minutes before a meeting sorting out the hearing system for a colleague who has a hearing aid, or always book the ground floor meeting for someone in a wheelchair, or if you print off slides as well as showing them on screen for a colleague with a visual impairement - there are some disabilities you are more welcome to support than others, and you need to think a little bit more about fairness.

I have time blindness with suspected inattentive adhsd, but teams pings you into meetings if they're online and in a workplace you use reminders/alarms etc so you don't forget. I don't miss important meetings and don't expect anyone to help me.

There's also the issue of egocentricity at play.

I've got AuDHD. When it's already taken me almost all of my functioning skills to get myself up, showered, dried, dressed appropriately, caffeinated, to work, in work, recaffeinated, pick up my stuff, evade distractions, not getting distracted by whatever shit is blowing up over email or outside my office door, avoiding conversations, people 'popping in' for a whole load of information/questions/requests - there is no way on fucking earth that I am also going to pick somebody up like a nine year old for a violin lesson and escort them to the meeting room on top of all that.