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)

No it isn't.
If they published the exact nature of the OP's disability it would be sensitive information but to just make reference to OH involvement is not in any way a breach of GDPR.

They're exposing my private information to avoid having to 'manage' imo
You have to be realistic though, you can’t ask for a blanket ban on publishing role’s workload just because it would expose the fact that you have less assigned (for valid reasons I’m sure!)

'@StillAtTheRestaurant

magneticpeasant · Yesterday 18:51
That's sensitive data under GDPR. They can't do what they're proposing and I'm horrified that they would even consider it.
No it isn't.
If they published the exact nature of the OP's disability it would be sensitive information but to just make reference to OH involvement is not in any way a breach of GDPR.'

Yes it absolutely is.

Mentioning the fact that the OP has a disability without their consent in itself is a breach of their private medical information, even if the disability is not named.

I have a long term mental health condition, so not a 'visible' disability, which is Known to HR and my manager only.

Sharing this with the rest of my team without my consent would be a breach of GDPR and I would lodge a grievance if that ever happened.

The OP clearly mentioned in their original message that their manager wants to share the fact that they have a disability as the reason why they have reasonable adjustments in place.

I'm surprised they are doing this. The only data shared from ours was average teaching/research/admin hours for each grade, so lecturer, SL, reader and prof, and the standard deviation. Everything else was between the HoD, staff members, and me as dept manager.

Part-time staff were pro-rata and the multiple factored in, which they could do for you without disclosing anything.

If all teaching timetables are shared I don't see the problem. You are just doing x and somebody else is doing z. They don't know he reason you are doing x, it could be you are working part time, the HoD has decided that is what's best, reasonable adjustments ... nobody needs to know the reason.

There’s guidance from the equality and human rights commission I think, they also have a phone line and online chat - could you ask them to help you find the right bits to show your managers? This shouldn’t be happening at all.

So what’s your solution op? They need to say who does what. You can’t request they don’t do that. So what is your solution?

This is unnecessarily aggressive.

I don't need a solution. It doesn't need to happen. It's a choice by a new manager.

That's what I think.

No issue with them saying what my role entails in terms of time allowance so for example if I was doing the academic rep coordinator role and that attracts a modules remission from teaching.

What I don't want is it laid out as X1 module for occupational health reasons. I think that is unreasonable.

Thanks @Startingagainandagain . To be clear, I believe they want to list my workload as X1 module because of occ health. ... This is definitely facto saying it's because of my disability. I think it invites speculation and issue and is invasive of my privacy.

I'm ok with them saying what each role is given as remission. I just don't want it laid out with my module allocation for occupational health reasons explicitly.

I don't think they should make it personal. I think they should state each role and the time allowance it attracts and then contractual teaching allocation. So 1.0fte research contract= x amount and 1.0fte teaching only contract= X modules.

In reality , everyone knew who was teaching what. But they didn't necessarily know who had research buy out for example, or specific admin roles if at University level that were also weighted. It never seemed to cause aggro the way we do it. Everyone could see where they were re the averages and the SD.

In fact when we first started it, the HoD hauled a PT member in to discuss the fact she had too heavy a load and how best to cut it. So it can be useful. But that wasn't other staff member's business.

Oh, and all.weightings were agreed in a staff meeting by all academics. So some modules, e.g. ones with frequent lab reports got a higher weighting than others. It's pretty democratic as these things go.

It genuinely wasn’t but curious you read it like that.

the manager is within his rights to issue an excel to say who is teaching what. If anything it is good management. You want him not to,so your colleagues don’t know you do less due to an under standable sensitivity .

to be clear I mean this gently in case it’s misread again. But as much as your feelings are understandable it is unreasonable

I agree they can’t say that.

I agree with you OP

Could they not just miss out the 1x occ H?

So the total adds up to less but the reason isn't disclosed. If anyone queries it then your manager should tell them it's been agreed with HR.

I don’t think they can say that. Why don’t you talk to OCC health about it?

Will they agree to list it as ‘other’ or ‘miscellaneous’ as a pp suggested?

However, I really don’t think anyone will care, or notice, let alone be speculating. And you’re very unlikely to be the only one.

That is fair enough

Why don't you get in touch with your manager and say you don't give consent to sharing anything to do with occupational health in your published timetable?
That puts the ball in their court to call it something else

Thanks to all of you for your constructive comments. I managed to speak to one of the managers today. They've taken it on board and won't be doing it the way I feared.. which was the impression first given. Phew!

It came across that way to me because you repeated your question abruptly in a short paragraph.

Also, I don't do less. This is exactly my issue with telling people my business. That is a misunderstood of what reasonable adjustments are. I do a different proportion of work in the same hours.

Sorry for typos. New phone is a pain with autocorrect

Glad they've been reasonable about it.