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 ?

No need for any accommodations. This day and age there are soany tools to help them manage. They're actively choosing not to do it. If you want, you can have a discussion on their needs and send an extra reminder or something and whn it does happen you can be understanding if they've shown effort for controlling it.

Although we have a new team member who finishes at the same time as me, so when he's there, I'm more likely to make it out on time, in much the same way that buddying up with someone else helps me get to a meeting on time.

Surely people know their weaknesses. Mine is spatial awareness so I don't apply for jobs that involve that. DP's is computer based so he doesn't do that. Why do a whole team have to work around people who either need to get their shit together or should they go for different jobs.

What jobs would those be?

Just keep the hyperbole up to try and deflect.

We see you.

Do you know of many jobs that don't require time-keeping?

Basically they are paying you, that's their end of the deal. Your end is to do what they want.

Actually, the best jobs are ones with admin support where someone else can make sure you get to your meeting as part of their job.

there are plenty of different prompts and tools someone can use to help them with scheduling

I would offer a referral to occupational health and subside a tech solution

I would not tolerate persistent and numerous missed meetings or deadlines after this had been implemented

Sorry I don't understand your comment earlier about finishing time. Your job finishes at 6pm, your alarm goes off at 6pm that says 'finishing time'.
What do you need three alarms for? I think your exagerrating and it's derailing.

Yep, people think OH are scary, but actually they are really useful re coming g up with strategies, have benefited in the past from them.

Fair enough, limits people to pretty basic jobs with no responsibility.

Imagine calling the fire brigade if your house was on fire and they turned up 4 hours later because the driver has time blindness.

Buy a watch and take responsibility for your timekeeping.

I've seen this is ND tiktok a lot. I thought everyone does this. Maybe it is too differnet extent when ND but this is how we all plan things?

Yes, people who won't make an effort to change their behaviour might earn less. C'est la vie. Or they can put things in place as previous posters have said.

I set an alarm 15 minutes before I'm due to leave, 2 minutes before I'm due to leave and one 10 minutes after I'm due to leave. If I'm thinking about going home, the first one reminds me to finish the task I'm on, the second one reminds me to start shutting down my computer and the last one is a reminder in case I'm still at work. But what usually happens is I start a new thing just before the first alarm goes off and then I'm busy working and don't notice the alarms because I'm too focused on what I'm doing, or someone will ask me to do something and I'll do it, and then i look at the clock and realise I should have left.

You know the video shown earlier with the guy who went fishing? My inbox is full of tasks that are basically the equivalent of fish.

@Thatladdo "Imagine calling the fire brigade" 😂

I'm brilliant in an emergency! Emergency means drop everything NOW, focus ENTIRELY on the present situation, come up with solution, do that and ONLY that. Forget everything else.

Wouldn't be a reasonable approach to meetings at work, but a fire crew's primary job is doing exactly that.

If you were constantly late for stuff at my place, you would find yourself with your P45 in your hand.
I'd bet they'd make the meetings on time if there was a million quid cheque waiting for them.

Deflect from what, your incisive criticism?

I feel so debunked :(

Time blindness 😂🤣
FFS heard it all now lol.
Piss takers

Disbelieving replies are getting ever more ridiculous.

If there were such a thing as a job that consisted entirely of going to meetings, I'd probably manage okay. Just as long as it was all I was expected to do - nothing else requiring attention, no need for preparation. But there isn't, and you're all being silly.

Rather than taking the piss out of people with executive dysfunction try educating yourself on it rather than passing judgement.

YANBU
My DS2 is Dyspraxic and has problems with time management as a result, so he sets alarms on his phone. Not difficult to do.

Meanwhile a friend is always late for work and meet ups, siting 'time blindness' as an excuse.. funny how she manages to get to dentist/ GP/ hair appointments on time!

Yes, don't the emergency services have a ridiculously high proportion of people with ADHD?

Hahaha!

Imagine if there were actually people in the world who were so ignorant that they thought this was how ADHD worked (that it limited people to basic jobs with no responsibility and meant they couldn't respond to an emergency). And then imagine they were so proud of their ignorance that they spouted it on a public chat forum. They'd be an absolute laughing stock and look like a complete idiot.

Coming at this from someone who has been in a relationship with someone with ADHD (and thus has read a lot of the ongoing ADHD threads on MN too) as well as having worked with them, I think that it’s an incredibly difficult condition for both the person with it and those around them.

Employers must make reasonable adjustments but the key is ‘reasonable.’ It is rarely reasonable to have another member of staff acting as someone else’s personal organisational tool. It would be cost prohibitive for a start. This is why adjustments need to be assessed individually. Is it a pain for a colleague sitting in the same room to remind the person with ADHD to attend a meeting once a month? No. But four times a day, absolutely.

Another issue is that it’s rarely just time blindness, but a whole host of executive functioning issues. It’s all very well and good suggesting setting alarms and to-do lists but if the alarms are ignored and automatically turned off without conscious awareness and the person forgets to check their to-do list because creating habits relies on consistency and executive functioning issues means an inability to be consistent in organising things, then they do not work.

In my (limited, but I’ve also read widely) experience, those who have ADHD often end up plugging all their energy into one thing. The aforementioned MN relationships threads seem to indicate that’s often work. They are able to scrape through at work and have nothing left for their home life, often pushing relationships past the point of repair.

I’m not sure what the answer is. If the condition is severe enough, then I suspect lower responsibility jobs or part time work may be partly the answer. Disability doesn’t mean absconding personal responsibility. It means that unfortunately, sometimes with all the reasonable adjustments in the world, the person is still unable to perform their job.