Should colleagues know about reasonable adjustments?

[TheHorneSection]

This is more of a curiosity question than a specific one.

Say a colleague in a team became unable to perform part of the standard role, and the reasonable adjustment was that they no longer do that part. However, this meant that other team members had to increase the amount of time they spent doing that role, to cover. Let’s imagine it’s someone who is no longer feels able to talk to customers on the phone - maybe it’s not a big job and there’s not a rota for it, but it will be noticed by the rest of the team that person no longer answers or makes phone calls.

On the one hand any disability or illness is 100% confidential and anyone struggling for any reason shouldn’t have their private information shared - so even just management saying that some adjustments have had to be made is giving away some personal information.

On the other hand, and particularly if the colleague who has asked for adjustments hasn’t been off ill, say, or anything that immediate colleagues would know about from the start (hopefully no one in their right mind would question why someone returning to work after breaking a leg can’t do shelf stacking!), should the other team members be made aware in anyway that the other person won’t be undertaking a certain task?

I genuinely don’t have a scenario in my head I’m trying to answer, but just curious how this should work in reality, both in terms of confidentiality and law but also being a good manager and keeping a whole team on a even keel.

I have no idea how it works in real world. The only thing I would say is that reasonable adjustments for person A should NOT impact person B. So in the scenario you describe, Person A's reasonable adjustments need to be handled differently.

Reasonable adjustments should be reasonable, that is not to overwhelm others and put them in a position of needing to do excessive extra work. I do think a change to working arrangements needs to be communicated clearly eg from Monday x will no longer be answering the phone however they will be responsible for y job entirely instead, the reason behind it does not need to be shared though unless the person requiring adjustments is ok with their medical reasons being shared. Sometimes it's obvious of course, sometimes it temporary.

Reasonable adjustments do impact others as someone still needs to do what one person can't.

I think it can and should be confidential in the workplace at large, but it's common sense that someone or some people need to know.

If this can be the manager who is dealing with the request for adjustment and also providing the support this can be best. I once had a colleague who needed to be in a ground floor classroom, so the HoD swapped and went upstairs. Others could easily work out why the change was made though and would gladly have done so themselves if required.

I've been in workplaces where there have been reasonable adjustments such as nut free or fragrance free and not every one knew which staff member had the disability.

However a lot of reasonable adjustments eg Susan can only use this desk and this chair, by their nature aren't confidential.

It can be know what the adjustment is without disclosing the underlying reason.

So we have people in a wheelchair, quite obvious they're going to need help, as does the staff with hearing difficulties and speech issues.

It's up to them how much they want to disclose but compromise and team work is a must.

I've noticed though that there are some mean minded feckers out there who can't spell teamwork let alone practice it regardless of who they work with.

I am disabled.

Other colleagues don't have a right to know either what the medical issues are or what the reasonable adjustments are.

At least one manager will need to know.

There are plenty of workplaces where disclosure of reasonable adjustments to colleagues leads to bullying.

I don't think you should be able to change peoples roles or jobs without telling them why. If I was told X isn't going to do Y anymore, I wouldn't be happy having to do it without being told exactly why.

Also, if giving more work to other people because someone else won't do it, that person needs to take other tasks from the group so the people having to pick up their slack don't have an increased workload. Thats when you get issues and resentment. Its better just to be honest and tell people why.

It's a minefield.

You are entitled to your medical privacy, and to have adjustments to your role to enable you to continue to work, but it does usually impact others in your workplace.

I'd be ok with others being told the reason for the chance is an adjustment due to disability, but not with the nosy and crass questioning by any of my colleagues about the specifics of my disabilities or medical conditions.

It's the law that a company has to make 'reasonable adjustments' to enable you to continue to work, but there's always going to be some colleagues who think you are somehow getting 'preferential treatment' and start with the 'It's not fair...' crap.

It's 100% 'fair' as well as legal for you to have the adjustments, but there's always going to be some who won't be happy about it (usually the ones who are fixated on only doing what they have to in their job or the 'clock watchers' etc in my experience)

No. The question is if it impacts others unfairly, as in increases their work. It’s not just about that one person.

As someone said above reasonable adjustments should not have any effect on anyone else so that’s where the problem is.

No. It would be a breach of gdpr for anyone to tell them.

The reason why the adjustment is needed should be kept confidential. However the fact an adjustment is needed, if it impacts others, really needs to be shared with those it impacts. If it impacts no-one then there is no need to mention anything.

Same scenario as someone off sick. No one should know why Alice is off for a month, but if Beth, Chloe and Kate will have to cover her work they need to know she is off and not expected back for several weeks so they can plan accordingly.
If Alice returns and cannot do one aspect of her job so that requires to remain with Beth, Chloe and Kate and they need to transfer some of their other tasks to Alice then that needs to be made known to them that Alice's role is changing. The reason why does not though.

Really interesting responses, thank you. I was thinking that it would only be fair to explain to the rest of the team that Y can’t do X task, but they are going to do Z task instead to make the load equal. It’s very difficult when it is a more hidden need or disability that needs an adjustment, isn’t it?

I would say is that reasonable adjustments for person A should NOT impact person B. So in the scenario you describe, Person A's reasonable adjustments need to be handled differently.

This is a very good point raised by PP. the adjustment should in theory not negatively impact colleagues.

If part of your role is something like calls (nobody likes this and it makes many people stressed/anxious) or answering the phone, and other colleagues will have to do more of this, then that may be an issue.

This has come up in my team, and instead of taking that part of the role away from the person in question, we have put things in place to help them feel more comfortable doing it I.e shorter stints spaced out, additional training.

Some reasonable adjustments affect no one else. One person having some assistive software or a specific pally configured chair shouldn't impact anyone else at all.

Other adjustments may. But whether they negatively impact depends on perspective, I guess (basically how selfish other colleagues are). Unless, of course, the adjustments are managed or implemented badly.

I've worked in two different places with a colleague who had a severe food allergy. Did I feel negatively impacted by not bringing that food item to work? No. Might others have done? Maybe. Did I know who? Yes, in one place because that individual requested we be told and be informed we all know how to work an epi-pen (with the first aider getting training) due to another allergy. Did I need to know who? No.

I had reasonable adjustments to work from home 1-2 days a week, long before hybrid working was a norm. Colleagues knew I had that flexibility but had no right to know why. However, I was happy for them to know it was for health reasons but not the details).

The adjustment meant I wasn't at my desk to answer calls to my phone on those days and a colleague might have to do that. It wasn't a phone based job, so wouldn't have been lots of calls. But I guess some people might feel negatively impacted in that situation. (My team didn't as far as I know). Had the job been telephone based then it might have meant the adjustment was not "reasonable" but rather than I was unable to perform core duties and so couldn't do the job.