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 ?

Perhaps you don't know everything and could learn something new then.

Time blindness, hyper focus, the joys of ADHD, yep. Live that reality.

And I set alarms for damn near everything. Steeping tea? Set an alarm. Need to be at an appointment? Calendar alarms. I’m so anxious about it that I’m ALWAYS 15-20 minutes early anywhere, sipping a coffee in the waiting room.

I have NEVER expected anyone to accommodate my time management issues. And, as it happens, get REALLY ticked off when people are late, because I put effort into ensuring I’m not. And if I think they’re important enough to be on time for, I expect the same in return

I don’t know. In our office we have core hours so as long as you’re in for 10 o’clock you just work until you’ve done your daily hours.

I think it’s much more difficult these days, especially since Covid. When I started out in the world of work you might have one meeting a month. At our place we can have five or six meetings a day.

We do have roles that are output driven, rather than meeting based.

Part of the reason diagnosis/difficulties increase is because modern life is just becoming more and more incompatible with ADHD.

its incorrectly named as a deficit of attention, when it’s better to be thought of as an inability to direct attention appropriately.

3 smart devices at our work station, multiple meetings, emails, priorities, responsibilities, social media, gaming apps, both adults at work, financial strain, home ownership stress etc etc

I have time blindness - I’m diagnosed autistic. I used to cope with it really well, and would deal with it by setting alarms and basically being early for everything. Since having kids I’ve really gone backwards with it, I think so much of my brain is taken up with them I don’t have enough mental capacity to deal with the time blindness. I struggle to estimate time - for my job I see people in half hour slots and always drastically over or underestimate the session time during the session and either run out of time or have to think of other things to do on the fly. I can plan out how I’m going to leave the house in the morning and at what time and the minutes just seem to suddenly fly away. Luckily my work is flexible enough to deal with a few minutes here or there, and because I’m working in institutions nobody notices if a session starts a few minutes either side of its start time. I’m very conscientious and make sure everybody has their full 30 mins, it just might not be exactly when it was supposed to start.

It sounds ludicrous. If the employee has 4 meetings a day with different groups does someone have to be assigned as the escort to pick him up for each meeting? Say it's with someone external, who is going to remind him to go and meet a client?

It's really up to the employee to work out a system of alarms and reminders, as many of the people with ADHD in this thread do. And indeed those without ADHD, no-one magically knows how long it takes to get somewhere or that it is now time for a meeting.

"It is a shame my child died, but the ambulance driver has map blindness and got lost. Can't be ableist and expect him to work a different job so what can you do?"

• half the people on this thread apparently 🤨

Does their pre employment health check reveal anything that might result in difficulties managing their time?
No?

Either it's genuine and you should have declared it because the job offer was dependent on satisfactory medical, references etc
OR
When did this come on? We need to see the diagnosis & treatment recommendations

Either way everyone has a PC on their desk with calendar software, use it and set 30 - 15 - 10 - 5 minute warnings to any meeting etc there is no excuse for persistent ongoing lateness

@mrmagpie you don't need disclosure. A person has a performance issue, the driver behind the issue is immaterial. They could hate their job, want people to wait for them, think other things are more important, or have time blindness with a neurodivergent cause. A support plan should aid them either improve to reasonable levels, or get to a stage where they aren't passing the plan and have to leave. Either way, the support was given and you can't discriminate if nothing has been disclosed. They may not know why themselves.

Funny, lots of parademics have ADHD. It’s a great job aligned to their skill sets.

Congrats you’ve cured my disability 👏

If they're always 15 minutes late, then it isn't time blindness is it? It's learned. They could set off 15 minutes earlier. They can set an alarm.

Errrrrr

This is what alarms and reminders are for

They're taking the proverbial

My mil has "time blindness" and is trying to get reasonable adjustments for work as she is facing the sack.

Does she own a watch? Nope.

Does she have a clock anywhere in her house? Nope.

Does she use the alarm features on her smart phone?
Nope.

She is always full of excuses, every single time. I spilt my coffee! I had to wash my hair! The time ran away with me! The bus was late!

And yes, she is looking at getting assessed for adhd.

She gives no shits about being on time because her time is more important than anyone elses.

They just need to set alarms, then they are not blind to it any more.

I mean in the case of missing the start of a meeting or whatever.

This is how everyone who gets to a meeting on time, gets to a meeting on time, surely? Or am I missing something?

Thanks, everyone. I can see where I've been going wrong, now. I'll buy a watch, set an alarm on my phone and never struggle with time again!

Well, those two things would be a start wouldn’t they?

I think it absolutely is an issue for people I struggle with organising time and due to dyslexia am terrible at maths/time telling etc

However I am also a nurse so I need to be at work on time, run my clinics on time etc so I am extra careful about setting alarms and being on time, to the point I’m usually far too early, fine for work not so fine for drs as I end up waiting for agessssss but rather than rushing and feeling out of control. I have a son with autism and adhd so I know it’s not that simple for a lot of people but trying strategies and techniques is important to demonstrate you are trying.

No. They don't work.

I think without at least those two things anyone would struggle to be on time.

YANBU. Time blindness is real and is a feature of ADHD. I have it, there is only now and not now. I am a terrible judge of time, both of how much has passed and how long things will take.

When people ask me how long I'll be, I just say a time that sounds acceptable, because nobody will ever accept my truthful answer of "I don't know, my estimates are never correct".

That said, if you give a grace period or automatic extension of all deadlines, this new deadline will just become the "not now" time of the future, so the employee's lateness will just shift even later.

People with time blindness need more accountability, not less. For example, you could support them by scheduling them in earlier for things, not later, or arrange for reminders to be sent.

The employee needs support and may benefit from reasonable adjustments such as a 15 minute warning, for example, but ultimately they do need to put some effort in to managing their challenges. Some people use multiple alarm clocks for example.

Time blindness my arse. Never before have I heard of such a thing. I’ve known plenty of people for whom time management is a struggle, but it was something that was on them to deal with, not a label we all had to dance around.