Reasonable adjustments

[user0090099]

My colleague currently has reasonable adjustments in place as she has been off work with depression. She hasn't been completing her work and the rest of the team are having to pick up the pieces.
Today half of last weeks work hadn't been done by her so I ended up doing it as it had to be done. I spoke to my manager and she said well she is struggling as she is on new medication and it is ok that the work hasn't been completed as she need reasonable adjustments.
She has been like this for the past 3 months since she returned to work and we are struggling as a team as it feels like we are one person down. Every time we speak to the manager she just brings up the reasonable adjustments and says that she has to be careful incase she takes the company to a tribunal.

Wear a back pack to work with 12 tins of baked beans in it? Would that be extra work? Tiring? Difficult to manage? Would people look at you weirdly?

Would it help if everyone took a tin of beans to lighten your load as a reasonable adjustment?

This colleague is fighting depression with everything she has including the side effects of the medication and the impact on her family.

Work isn't expecting anyone to do all her work but are asking you to be kind.

Be kind.

I hope the employee was ok for your manager to share such personal information.
if the adjustments are in place then they've been approved and need to adhered to.

sounds like the manager needs to adjust the workload of the entire team to manage the situation

Your colleague probably wasn’t ready to come back to work but had to for money. Depression is not a quick fix illness. You should try being more empathetic and less resentful

Yes, reasonable adjustments are forever, not just for Christmas.

Why is you doing some other work a problem for you? Surely work not being done is a problem for the company and the manager. You can only do what you can do.

I think she should be commended for trying and coming to work instead of staying off sick (which would be completely understandable if she did).

Does doing the extra work mean you are doing your own work and some of your colleague too, meaning you are working extra hours to complete it all? If so then no I don’t think you have to accept it. Others can say be kind all they want but you don’t have to work extra hours to pick up the pieces. I’d have a proper conversation with management and say you are not willing to work extra hours anymore.

Multiple issues here:
Did your colleague give your manager express permission to disclose her confidential medical information to you?
Reasonable adjustments need to be that, reasonable, and need to be managed by the employer not colleagues.
—Picking up additional work at an agreed rate of pay is one thing, doing it for nothing is another
—Reasonable adjustments ideally need to be very well described for both employer and employee, simply not completely assigned work is not a reasonable adjustment. Agreeing that the worker will not pick up certain tasks which cause more stress for an agreed period of time with a plan as to how those tasks will be managed in the interim and a review plan for a condition that is likely to fluctuate over time is.

I have been in your shoes - our team inherited a nightmare , the employee was a team supervisor who suddenly went off sick for several months and we had no idea when they would return. My manager had a huge argument with HR about how unreasonable it was not to provide adequate budget for cover and they kept saying “they might be back any day” (which was true but seven months later felt unhelpful!) Then the employee returned on full pay but on very favourable terms - permitted to do light/clerking duties and be offline on Teams, working short days.

It felt so frustrating that HR refused to acknowledge how much stress was caused by this role being vacant and then the fact we were still covering the work when the person returned to work. I’m not a saint - I really resented the person.

I had to remind myself repeatedly: the person is unwell, imagine it’s a physical illness like cancer and act accordingly: sympathy, support for the individual. It’s not their fault the company managed the situation so badly for the rest of us.

End result: I found a new job as I didn’t like the company’s approach

But her coming back too early has meant there is too much burden placed on others.

Reasonable adjustments need to be that, reasonable, and need to be managed by the employer not colleagues.

This^
It is not a reasonable adjustment to put a strain on other members of the team picking up lots of additional work.. All that happens there is other staff members end up off sick with stress.
It's a management task to properly allocate the job tasks which have been removed from the staff member with a health condition.

All you can really do here is stop picking up the additional work do your manager has to properly look at everyone's workload to see who actually has capacity

There are different issues here. Reasonable adjustments ✔️
Will the person realistically be fit to do the job in a reasonable timeframe. This needs to be discussed. There is an option for an employer to fire someone if after adjustments have been made, it is deemed that the person will not be fit for the job in a reasonable timeframe.
Is the burden on other staff reasonable.

You have a company problem not a depressed person problem.

She's absolutely entitled to reasonable adjustments. It's your company's job to make sure they don't mean lots of extra work for you.

Don't express it as resentment for her, as your manager is absolutely right about tribunals. Talk about how the company is organising things.

I think you are misdirecting your issue. Accept the reasonable adjustments but ask for help for you and others in managing the additional workload. Is colleague still be expected to manage her former full workload so that what is not done is left for others to pick up at last minute rather than their workload actually being reduced and some tasks properly reallocated and resourced?

If your manager doesn't expect you to take on extra work then don't.

Meanwhile stop being a shit to your colleague.

There's a difference between reasonable adjustments and fitness to work.

Your manager should not be divulging information about this, that's awful.

Changing how work is distributed in a team absolutely can be a reasonable adjustment.

You need to watch that your own behaviour doesn't constitute harassment in the disability discrimination sense.

https://www.acas.org.uk/disability-discrimination/types-of-disability-discrimination

It can but it can’t negatively impact someone else. So a discussion and switching some work types could be ok but it’s not ok to just dump someone else’s work load on another employee, especially without discussion and agreement from the employee.

Overloading other colleagues is not a reasonable adjustment.
Assuming everyone had a standard full workload before, it is not acceptable to have extra work forced upon you for an indefinite period indefinite period of time.

The company needs to look at employing extra staff. You can't just demand other people are overstretched and over stressed

That's a needlessly aggressive and loaded way to characterise the situation.

The disabled employee can have workload redistributed as a reasonable adjustment.

The other employees are still owed a duty of care in how work is distributed.

The disabled employee should be protected from bullying and harassment at work.

It's not the disabled employee's fault if the employer is managing the situation poorly. The disabled employee is not to blame and doesn't deserve to be attacked.

The disabled employee should also be protected from sensitive data breaches like other staff being told about their medication status.

"overloading other employees" is not the reasonable adjustment. You're deliberately conflating two issues to try and make a really nasty point.

Are you replying to me?
I'm not sure how it's aggressive against the disabled person when I didn't blame them and said

"The company needs to look at employing extra staff. You can't just demand other people are overstretched and over stressed"

I've put the onus squarely on the company.

?

So another 'be kind' don't think about you, don't think how things affect you, suck it up buttercup and put everyone else before you?

Absolutely this. However mn seems to think 'reasonable adjustment' means everyone else has to say 'yes absolutely I'll do everything am told re picking up other people's work or I'm an evil horrible person'

Has her depression (as far as you know) lasted for over a year? Having depression does not necessarily count as a disability (which is where reasonable adjustments come in).
Work may also have occupational health recommendations for illness etc.