Asking for Reasonable adjustments…

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I’ve recently returned to work after been off for two weeks following an FND seizure. Work are asking do I need any reasonable adjustments? I actually don’t know? I feel ok now but an attack can come on literally anytime.

Any ideas on what to ask for? I’m an office secretary.

Do you have an OHU?

What about working from home on occasion? Or changing your hours to more flexible practices.?

I'd ask for an occupational health referral as they'll be better placed to make recommendations, if any are needed.

@Tilllly Can I ask what an OHU is?

Occupational health unit

Is there a nurse or similar in your company?

@Tilllly No, nothing like that is available.

Have you any idea of what the triggers are for your seizures?

Have a chat with your HR person ?

Do you know what to do in the event of an attack? Do they?

It may be that you dont need any adjustments, it may be that there are signs they need to look for and actions they need to take like laying you on your side, getting you a sugary drink, calling an ambulance..... whatever it is.

Then a reasonable adjustment would be having a few designated people who know what action to take, or having a laminated sheet on your desk they can refer to. I don't really know anything about your condition so making this up a bit but whatever information they may need to help make sure there is a good outcome.

It’s good they’ve asked.

A reasonable adjustment will depend on how your health might affect you at work . It’s hard as you don’t really know ‘how’ if you haven’t gone back yet.
You don’t have to decide now - you could just ask for some time to decide what might be useful - and review in a couple of weeks and then fortnightly after.
Also a reasonable adjustment isn’t just about ‘what to do in an emergency ‘ although they should also do an individual risk assessment to find out if there’s anything they need to do ( if relevant) as PP says above.

A reasonable adjustment might be something like adjusting your hours for a period of time ( no detriment to your pay)or changing start times or allowing you longer breaks . Or for example, if there is a part of your job you cannot do for long periods, like screen based work to allow you to change tasks etc

Could be anything - so open conversations if you’d like to explore with your employer what they can offer you too ( pay for an occupational health review could be something too)
The other thing to remember is that your health condition is confidential so you don’t have to share with everyone what’s happening - just those who might need to know to support you . And even then you dint have to share your diagnosis if you don’t feel comfortable just how this might impact you .

I’m case useful, i have managed someone with epilepsy and the things we agreed included: not requiring them to work when likely to have seizures (which for them was when relaxed in early morning or late evening- so we agreed no long days basically); not requiring them to attend meetings in a part of the building with high stools; having a plan for if they had a seizure at work (who to call etc); agreeing who else in the organisation they wanted to know about their condition ; paying for taxi rather than tube if going to work meeting in London. These weren’t all under ‘reasonable adjustments’ but were the sort of thing we talked through. I agree with pp that might be a bit soon to know everything, so being able to have more conversations later will help.

On a day when no attack happens are you fully capable of doing your job to the same standard as if you didn't have this condition?

Are there any trigger factors that need to be avoided?

If the answers to these are yes to the first and no to the second then the only adjustments you need are for a range of colleagues to be trained to recognise if an attack is happening and know what actions to take, and for all colleagues to treat you normally for the vast majority of the time when all this isn't happening and you are just getting on with your life.