Adhd reasonable adjustments?

[TommyShelby]

Hello,

I’ve also posted this in the neurodivergent mumsnet board but I wasn’t getting any traffic - hoping here will be better.

I have ADHD and was diagnosed over 10 years ago when I was 19. For the past two years, I have been able to work from home and in all honesty, I have gone from strength to strength. Being able to focus in a quiet comfortable environment that suits me has been a godsend.

my work (a smaller branch of the civil service) have decided (with less than a weeks notice - that in itself has sent me into an absolute tailspin) that everyone needs to be back in the office as of next Monday.

I know that I am covered by the equalities act (2010) and under that I am entitled to reasonable working adjustments - and the literature coming from the HR department even cites ‘a change of environment for all or part of the week’ as a reasonable adjustment. However, whenever I have tried to broach this with my managers I am blanked or fobbed off and given the ‘there is no wfh, everyone must be back in the office’ mantra. It’s like talking to a parrot! If there’s no WFH what have I been doing for the last two years apart from chasing my tail and trying to do my best to keep the team going!!

does anyone know where I go from here? Is there even recourse for me on a discrimination basis here? This is really starting to affect me now, I’ve barely slept since all this nonsense kicked off.

Put in a formal flexible working request. They have to consider it and should only decline if they have a business reason they can't accommodate it. Difficult to justify if you've been working from home happily and productively for months/years.

Also formally request working from home as a reasonable adjustment. Detailing why you need it and what the benefit is to you, your productivity and therefore the organisation.

If they decline, I would put the ball in their court asking them how they can meet your needs with other reasonable adjustments (if that's possible).

@TooManyPJs ok that’s great thank you.

i hope I can get them to see some sense with it all!

I am going to disagree with @TooManyPJs this is a reasonable adjustment not a flexible working request. The later can be more easily refused for business reasons.

As you are CS follow the Workplace Adjustment Passport process. Find the guidance on your Intranet site, complete the first part of the passport and send it to your manager, copied to HR, and request a formal assessment. State you are happy to be referred to OH. Make it clear you are disabled as per EA 2010 and the reasonable adjustment you are seeking is WFH. I would also consider a second reasonable adjustment related to change I.e. need a longer period to process significant changes at work.

Have a think about whether you could work 1 or 2 days in the office, hybrid working is a very reasonable solution, and if you are able shows you are willing to compromise.

The push at the moment to have CS in the office is political and not business focused. Reasonable adjustments carry more weight than right to request flexible working.

@Crazylazydayz thanks for this - I didn’t even know about the workplace adjustment passport so I’ll look into that.

im happy to come in for part of the week no problem, as long as I can have time and space to really knuckle down at home because I could really motor through my tasks in that time. I’m hoping they are going to sort some sort of hybrid policy, we keep being told we have to wait bevause it’s not been signed off by DfT and yet other departments are leaving it to the managers discretion. I seem to have drawn the short straw in that I am managed by people with little imagination and even less spine!

Trust me the CS is full of managers who lack imagination when it comes to flexible working.

@Crazylazydayz its incredibly frustrating isn’t it?! My thought is why are they getting paid more than me and are a higher grade than me if they don’t want to do a fairly significant portion of their job ie - manage and support their staff! It’s crazy!