Reasonable Adjustment shared with Colleagues

[Windywuss]

I'm a lecturer and new manager wants to be transparent about our workload allocation and share this information with colleagues, so we all know what workload has been given for various roles and how many modules we are each teaching.

My issue is that they reduced my teaching workload on occupational health advice and I don't think it's right they share this. It should be up to me surely if I disclose to colleagues openly that I have a disability. I don't want to be justify in myself to people I don't know or my team resenting me becoming they don't understand.

Does this sound wrong to you? Should I check with HR? (Who are not great tbh)

This is always a minefield for managers as Reasonable adjustments for 1 person should not negatively impact others. Colleagues may be affected but they shouldn't be negatively impacted. It's often better if the person feels able to share this themselves as otherwise all sorts of rumours start and ill-feeling occurs.

But does your manager intend sharing the reason for your reduced teaching hours? Do you have more of other tasks than colleagues? Would it not be presented as Windywuss - 60% teaching, 20% student welfare, 20% management tasks or whatever?

Definitely this Reasonable adjustments for 1 person should not negatively impact others
Have they got more staff to cover your workload or are the colleagues picking it up in addition to theirs?

Surely they won’t say what’s wrong with you they will just say that you have an adjusted time table on the recommendation of occupational health . I think that’s reasonable , I know when I was a nurse and certain people never got rostered onto nights we were told that they were exempt due to Occ health otherwise it became a contentious issue . There is hundreds of reasons why you may need a reduced time table and that is your business to share or not .

I have a huge pile of responsibilities and do more than my share. I'm also on a teaching only contract unlike some on research contracts who do no research and still get less teaching hours.

As I understand it, he wants to state programme leadership X1 module, teaching x5 modules etc. occupational health X1 module.

My colleagues are not negatively impacted but not do they see my day to day responsibilities iny other roles up close.

I just think this is not right. I should not be put in a position of having to explain to people or have people talk about me and my disability. I look fine. It's not an obvious thing.

Other staff cover the module. It does not affect permanent colleagues.

Honestly I think you have to accept this, I can understand wanting keep what the disability is private, but surely everyone will wonder why or complain if they see you have a reduced workload - what else can your manager say?

I also think it's important that everyone knows that reasonable adjustments will be made by your employer for those that need them - that's a positive thing.

I just think this is not right. I should not be put in a position of having to explain to people or have people talk about me and my disability. I look fine. It's not an obvious thing.

You don't have to explain anything if you don't want to. Will colleagues not just think you are doing more "other" tasks than them?
It's common in lots of jobs that staff are aware a colleague is doing something slightly different, particularly where rotas are concerned.

But if they do speculate you can't really control that.

Nope, you don't have to disclose the specifics of a disability or health condition to your colleagues.

If anyone questions your manager about your workload allocation all they have to say is that you have reasonable adjustments in place and leave it at that.

Thanks for the perspectives. I suppose I just feel this invites speculation. I didn't think they would disclose this to people in this way i.e. published online in a document. Potentially a few hundred people will see I have occupational health involved.

It's not just telling a few people in my immediate team.

It's not nice feeling like this. The stress and shame of having a disability and having to jump through so many hoops to get support and constantly have to stand up for myself is exhausting. Becoming disabled has been one of the hardest things ever to come to terms with in my life and these things just make it feel that bit harder.

Like I'm being publicly shamed for being not as good as I was. I hate it.

i feel that you shouldn’t be exposed like this At the back of my mind I think that there might be some disability discrimination. You could ring the ACAS helpline for advice

Why do they need to mention OH at all?

I don't see why it needs to state OH are involved. You are within your rights to ask your manager not to publicly state that. Will it not just look like you have more of "other" duties?

But you may leave yourself open to speculation if it looks like you have a different workload to others.

They could do it in a way that doesn't but it is the way we express our workload. It is in modules. So teaching 5 modules, research 1 module, extra admin role 1 module, occ.health 1 module.

X amount of modules for a full time contract
Pro rata for part time.
1 module more for teaching only or 1 module for research.

So they would list X1 module occupational health

Everyone has a different workload. What they're trying to do is be transparent about the module allocation attracted to specific roles. But the way they're going about it is wrong in my eyes.

Is there an obvious way they could do it that wouldn't expose your disability. I'm surprised they can make this fact public. Could you ask your manager/HR to arrange it this way instead.

Ask them to list it as “miscellaneous” or “other”?

Have you had any counselling around becoming disabled? Of course it's a hard thing for anyone to come to terms with and frustration and grief is normal, but the level of shame you describe is extreme and isn't something that is inevitable with a disability. This is one of those situations where you have to be your own best friend - I'm sure you would be kinder to a friend in this position than it sounds like you're being to yourself.

Hi OP

No they should not be publishing in a document that is open for hundreds to view that you have a reasonable adjustment.

They just need to publish the areas you are responsible for and leave off the OH bit.

There is no issue with your immediate team knowing and actually it's important that others understand there is a reasonable adjustment in place as unfortunately it does affect team morale otherwise.

But there's no reason for it to be published publicly.

That's sensitive data under GDPR. They can't do what they're proposing and I'm horrified that they would even consider it.

You need to stop being ashamed of your disability, as I say to my anxious , disabled daughter - you need to own it . Nobody wants to be disabled ( I am as well as my daughter) but you only get one life so make the best of it and don’t spend it hiding away being ashamed of who you are now .

This sounds really shit - no they should not list it as OH but also - if there is someone else employed to pick up hours in your role for this reason then those hours still go to teaching in your role, just someone other than you does them - if it’s about what hours go to what roles then your stand in college should be counted in your role anyway surely?

They cannot disclose you have ‘reasonable adjustments’ in place as they will inadvertently disclose that you have a disability, given that reasonable adjustments only apply to people who have a disability under the Equality Act 2010. They should simply state for business reasons work will be allocated as follows….and they can disclose what your working hours will be.

I agree op, it's really none of anyone else's business.

And as a disability specialist, having to deal with documents stating people's reasonable adjustments, I'm sure this goes against all gdpr and disability practices. They cannot expose that you have OH involved to over 100 people.

Please question this and go to HR. And speak to ACAS, and if poss somebody who knows about your disability, such as a charity.

This is tricky for Managers as often others in similar roles make comparisons or start claiming favouritism issues.
How I manage situatiins like this is to say that for reasons I can't discuss workloads have been adjusted to accommodate individual needs.

Thanks. Yes I understand it could be tricky but then you would not be able to publish this online in either a spreadsheet or document.

I just don't think managers can absolve themselves of tricky issues by putting it all in a neat document for anyone to read. They're exposing my private information to avoid having to 'manage' imo.