AIBU to think dismissal during probation was unfair given autism adjustments?

[SereneRoseRobin]

I’m looking for honest views because I’m not sure whether I’m being unreasonable or whether this was genuinely unfair.

I was recently dismissed from a graduate/analyst role after my probation was extended. I am autistic, and my employer knew this. I had raised the need for clear written instructions, defined objectives, examples of similar work, timelines, and timely/direct feedback. Some support was put in place, including coaching, but I don’t feel the actual adjustments were properly embedded or reviewed before the decision was made.

The difficult part is that the concerns raised about me seemed mainly to focus on communication style, professional behaviour, asking for clarification, Teams messages, and quality assurance under pressure — rather than on whether I could actually do the analytical work. Some recent written feedback said my analytical skills were good, that my work did not contain relevant errors, that I was taking ownership, and that I sought support appropriately. Another person said I had picked up on a complex project well.

The project I was criticised on was not straightforward. I was a first-year graduate with no prior experience in that sector, and I was assigned open-ended/data-heavy modelling work with a lot of ambiguity and short deadlines. Some outputs were expected within hours or by the next day, so there was not much time for structured review. I also didn’t always get timely feedback while I could still act on it. Some feedback came months after the work had ended.
My probation extension was meant to allow support and coaching to take effect, but I was dismissed before the extension period had fully ended. I had submitted evidence of improvement the day before the decision, but I don’t feel it was properly discussed or considered.
The coaching report apparently said the benefit of coaching should be assessed after a longer period, because performance can dip while new strategies embed.

I’m appealing because I think they didn’t properly separate disability-related communication issues from actual capability, didn’t give recent improvement enough weight, and didn’t consider alternatives such as letting the extension run, providing clearer QA/communication frameworks, assigning more standard analyst work, or redeploying me to a more suitable team.

I’m not saying I was perfect. I know there were areas to improve. But I feel like I was assessed against unclear expectations, on complex work, without the timely feedback and structure that had already been identified as necessary for me.

AIBU to think this was unfair and potentially linked to disability discrimination/failure to make reasonable adjustments? Or is this just how probation works, and I should accept it and move on?

I disagree. She is.

In response to your original question I think, yes termination of employment during probation is reasonable.

Please ignore this if you don't want to share, but what sort of disabilities relate to not being recorded? I can see how if you have social anxiety for example a reasonable adjustment might be to not turn your camera on, or that some people cannot be recorded for safe guarding issues. I would never record a meeting without people's permission but am curious as I often attend webinars which are recorded. You give your permission to be recorded but I am now wondering if that excludes some people (whilst simultaneously widening access to others as you can listen at any time).

Why is having autism a free rein to be deliberately rude? No one should get away with it so dont use it as an excuse

I have a rapist who attempted to murder me and for a long time I had to be safe and not have any clues as to where I was put online. And I had and have extreme anxiety around him tracking me down.

Im really trying very hard not to be. But I accept you may feel that I am.

Shit OP, I am so sorry. That must have been terrifying. A very salient point to why people should not be recorded without permission, or photographed, or have names etc given out. It must be so much harder now to be and feel safe with everything online and people sharing photo's / video's from everywhere.

Poor op, the environment doesn't sounds right for you. Almost feel like they struggle to offer the amount of adjustment they thought they could offer. It would be easier to dismiss you now than after your probation. May be look for another job now or and try to make some adjustment from your side? Remember, not all employers or managers are on your side unfortunately.

No she isn't.

So many people on this thread, and both of the OP's other two threads she has started today about the same thing, have been really helpful. The OP is completely unwilling to take on board any of the advice offered. You think she'd appreciate posters with a lot of experience offering advice.
There comes a time when it is worth trying being a bit more direct in the face of an OP being both rude and also unwilling to consider any advice offered.

Sorry, I meant Taztoy not OP.

OP, I was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome as a female teenager, back when it was accepted wisdom that Asperger's syndrome mostly affected males. In retrospect, I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome despite my sex, because my social skills were simply that bad and my male-typical special interests made me a walking caricature of AS.

With all that in mind, are you flipping kidding me? Your posts are coming across as socially inappropriate to me, the worst masker ever! If I am not on your side reading your posts, that says it all.

As for your insistence that you deserved better/more detailed instructions at your workplace, what on earth would be the point? People on mumsnet have given their time up for free to post advice, and you visibly failed to engage by replying with one line answers. In one case, you responded with a single initialism. It's incredibly disrespectful. If that's how you treat people volunteering their free time, I rather suspect you came across as entitled to colleagues who were supporting you during their working hours, and technically being paid to mentor you.

There is a difference between reasonable adjustments and expecting to be babysat while being paid the same as your babysitter.

Have some dignity and look up the term self-improvement. Then engage in some. If you need detailed instructions on how to do that, start by researching where the shift button on your keyboard is. Then use it to consistently capitalise the beginning of your sentences. Do you see many other people in this thread abbreviating you to "u"? It's clearly a social norm on MN to type our words out in full, and you're not picking up on that. If you're missing that, what subtle social cues are you missing in the workplace? What social norms are you breaking there that you haven't noticed?

Oh, and work on developing the stamina to type multiple paragraphs without using AI to write for you.

You’ve responded quite bluntly and unhelpfully to questions in this thread OP, questions that people have asked to help them understand the issue.

Did you respond like this in the workplace? In a somewhat argumentative/closed manner?

When you responded “wdym” to a detailed and reasonable question from a PP I thought blimey I hope she didn’t respond like that in the workplace. The question was detailed and said what it meant. It suggested that you hadn’t actually read the question properly.

In the workplace, if you do something wrong or against policy, even if you didn’t realised it was the wrong thing to do - you apologise.

The way you’ve responded to people in this thread show that you may be quite difficult to communicate with.

If you don’t understand something, re-read it. Re-read it again. Try to process and understand it independently.

The kind of adjustments you’ve asked for would not be possible in my job. The people training and helping you also have their own jobs to do. They will not have time to take away from their own days to constantly give you very specific targeted and curated support and feedback.

If you’re not sure how to do something, do you google it? Search YouTube? Independently look for your own examples and research? Are there no examples of similar work that you could find on the work database?

Thank you. The thing is, the op might not know that there’s someone with an adjustment on the call.

and yes, it restricts my life professionally and in my personal life.

Was it extended to give you another chance to meet expectations? And you still didn't. Isn't that the point of a probation to see if you fit and if you don't they can get rid? Otherwise many people wouldn't get a chance at all.

It's becoming quite clear why they don't want to keep you.

Your attitude is rude, you can't do the job and you think the world owes you a favour.

Op, did you use AI to write your OP? Your writing style in your OP and in your replies do not really match.

Did you use AI in your role? Do you rely on it to communicate?

It sounds like they gave you a lot of support and you still did not perform. It sounds like you need to be told what to do, rather than being able to work independently. This is fine in some roles, but it may be the role was not suitable for you.

You can expect reasonable adjustments, i.e. adjustments that are reasonable for the employer to accommodate. Having to dedicate staff to telling you how to do your job day to day in the long term is not reasonable.

Its gross misconduct and is a usually would be grounds for dismissal outside probation. Your company will have a code of conduct for meeting and use of recording equipment that you will have had to have signed which will say recording or photographs without express permission is not allowed and will be a risk of been dismissed. The fact you were asked to say sorry and didnt is really bad

@SereneRoseRobin this is layout third or fourth thread today on this whole job thing! You need to stop!

It sounds like you have been done a disservice during your education. The adjustments that were made for you at school, college and uni and any pastoral support you receives are not replicated in the real world. This has left you with a huge sense of entitlement.

While employers are required to make reasonable adjustments, you also need to adjust to the workplace. You aren't entitled to a job. There are many other graduates out there who will be chosen over you if they fit in the company better than you.

Fighting this won't serve you, you need to work on yourself

So just so I’m clear I would say these are the reasons.

1. An employer can let you go for any reason during probation and indeed before two years employment. Even if you did an outstanding job. They don’t owe you this job. No detail, no excuses. They can just decline your probation.
2. You asked your employer for reasonable adjustments for your ND. It sounds like the did a lot and were overly reasonable. What you asked for in this role wasn’t reasonable. You demanded it anyway and when you didn’t get it you felt entitled and said they were being discriminatory.
3. You don’t seem to want to listen to anyone who says you aren’t right for the eoke. You don’t accept nor see any fault in your actions.
4. You appealed a probation? Well thats new. Take the hint. They don’t want you and you aren’t right for the role.
5. Most companies cannot engage is continual feedback, rock solid boundaries, no scope creep and clear objectives 100% of the time. You are there and pad to do a job. You aren’t there for the company to be dictated to by your unreasonable demands.
6. This isn’t school. You can’t always have more time. Or work alone. Or do something over. It’s the real world and they are paying you. Time to wake up.

YABVU

I’d say about 70% of our data analysts are autistic.

They can sack you within 2 year for anything so you need to move on.

I would also consider moving on by applying for the civil service, as I have never met a neurotypical civil servant

It sounds like they were box-ticking for diversity- easy to do when you're not going to line managers an applicant, as that list of accommodations was never going to be met in a fast moving work environment.

OP needs to change her attitude rather than blame her colleagues for not supporting her, and find a different field - local government maybe?

The aim of reasonable adjustments is to reduce or remove the disadvantage caused by your disability so you can do the job. If you still can’t do it, then it’s hard to see what else they can do. It was 9 months, sounds like they gave you a chance

Completely, I may well work along side someone in your position and never know. We all have a responsibility to make sure we don't compromise anyone's safety or well-being. (My organisation has turned off the ability to record, I think from a GDPR point of view, but it could be to safeguard someone)