Nuerodiverse colleague

[moana35]

I am having a few problems with a colleague at work. She is neurodiverse so adjustments have had to be made but these adjustments are meaning that myself and my colleagues are doing alot more than we did before she was employed.

She is very black and white about time so she will not be at her desk until her digital smart watch says the start time on her contract and again she leaves at the exact time she is supposed to finish even if in the middle of something. Lunch is an hour but due to needing to re compress for the afternoon she needs to take 75 minutes as she needs to go for a walk and eat. She has to sit in front of a window which means all our places in the office have been changed.

From Monday we are not allowed to drink coffee at our desks anymore only tea as the smell makes her gag.

Aside from this she is a very good worker and gets her work done to a good standard but it is impacting on the morale of the team. She is also exempt from training mornings if they are "small room " based as she can't sit in a room with a big group of people. She will be allowed to do her training online.

Management say as she declared her nuerodiversity at interview these adjustments have to be made for her I get reasonable adjustments and I have an autistic son but are these adjustments reasonable to the rest of the team.

If we took 15 mins extra for lunch or asked our colleague to not drink coffee I am sure we would be spoken to by management,

Has anyone else come across this in the workplace.

The problem is you're focusing on her and what she gets. What she gets is because she requires reasonable adjustments. Don't focus on that - the world is unfair, the person next to you might get paid 10% more than you for doing the same job just because they pushed for a pay rise. There is a good image of equity versus equality with people trying to look over a wall, google it, it is quite powerful. We absolutely should be striving for equity.

That said, where you are being negatively impacted you should express that to your manager so they can try to find a solution. Eg if the three people covering her lunch break are genuinely significantly impacted/delayed in doing your own work (which I'd be surprised by given that 15 mins amounts to an extra 5 mins work max for each of you every day) then I would ask if they can find someone else to cover her lunch break. On the coffee thing I would ask for an extra break for all of you (15 mins say) so you can stop and have two 5 min coffee breaks a day. But remember it isn't her fault and about 'she gets X why don't I?' It is 'I am facing X problem, here's my proposed solution.'

what compromise is there when one party is trying to ban others from drinking coffee?
the coffee drinkers are told they have to stand outside like old school smokers?

No but she might be sick. Then she would be away from her desk and do less work which OP would complain about, and they might all have to deal with the smell of sick.

Most people could be ok without coffee for a few hours, or could have it in a cup with lid, or possibly drink it away from their desk, or maybe seating plans could change etc. If you really can’t do without coffee, find a compromise.

Sometimes people just want to dig their heels in though. I don’t really get that mentality. I’ve always been fortunate to work with people who want to get on with others and when issues have come up, we’ve dealt with them like adults, found compromises etc.

On the coffee thing I would ask for an extra break for all of you (15 mins say) so you can stop and have two 5 min coffee breaks a day.

How is it even possible to drink a cup of coffee in 5 minutes? It takes longer than that to cool down enough to start drinking it.

She won't be paid for the extra lunch break. If you want a longer lunch break then you are also within your rights to request less hours to accommodate this. Otherwise stop complaining and enjoy your extra money.

I think you need to separate 2 things here

• the adjustments that are made for her
• the problems they are causing for you and others.

There is NOTHING wrong about someone not being able to work as fast as you or not doing as much work in the same time as you. There is also nothing wrong with someone having longer breaks than you. These are all reasonable adjustments for a disabled person under the Equality Act.

If your workload has increased beyond what you feel is reasonable for the job role, then this is something that you need to talk to your manager about. Don't make it about your colleague though because it is not her issue. It's between you and management. I am disabled and have a different number of contact to admin hours (Teaching Assistant) to my colleagues in recognition that my admin takes me longer. If we need more contact hours in the team, this is a personnel issue for management to organise, and thankfully my colleagues would NOT be unpleasant enough to blame it on me.

Reasonable adjustments for disability often feel unreasonable to others...

I think the law allows for this, to ensure that people with disabilities can work successfully.

There are access to works schemes where the govt gives grants to employers to fund people with disabilities.

It's standard to ban food and drink in lecture theatres, computer rooms, shops, factories, and a whole range of other places that don't contain hazardous materials. Frequently, this is to protect people and equipment from the food and drink being spilled.

These bans are perfectly legal and are why there are laws enshrining break entitlements.

Some of these are not “reasonable adjustments”. Those which put additional work on others, for example, and the coffee one.

do the same thing re time keeping!!!
I think the no coffee thing is unreasonable. Tbh I think a lot of it is ludacris. I’d go as far as to say if she can’t manage in this type of workplace eg an office setting with seated desks and a team of people, I think she should consider different settings that would suit her better. Isn’t that what we all do in various situations in life? I dont get why this much adjustment should be necessary on everyone else. We all have different preferences and some of these really really affect people - but we all try and manage. If we really can’t manage, we find something else we think we can manage better or is more inline with our own preferences/views/interests etc.

But the problem is, where do we draw the line?

Reasonable requests are fine, but seriously, all coffee at desks banned because someone can’t cope with the smell??

The whole thing is getting absolutely ridiculous. More people are getting diagnosed as ND so what happens when we get to the point that half of every workforce needs these kind of adjustments made? We are going to get to a point where it’s just not possible to accommodate everything.
If I took an office job, I’d take it knowing that smells of coffee at desks were highly likely. If that’s a problem to me to such an extent that I can’t cope with it, I wouldn’t apply for that job. I don’t just demand that everyone in the workforce adapts to suit me.

I couldn’t work in a bar. I have problem with background noise and I get very overwhelmed and confused in that sort of situation. I can’t even tolerate pubs in the evenings as a punter. So I don’t apply for bar work because it wouldn’t work for me.

A bit of personal responsibility and being realistic wouldn’t go amiss.

@moana35 can you honestly say you would feel the same if it was a physical disability? What if someone took longer breaks because they had a mobility issue? I’m not sure how you would know what she’s paid but it’s likely she’s being deducted the money for the extra time.
In terms of the coffee thing, have you imagined (or actually asked) how the smell affects her? You might learn something and find yourself empathetic to her experience instead of pissed off with the extra phone calls you have to take.
If you want to take something up with the management then do so but don’t be horrible to someone for getting something they are legally entitled to which might mean the difference between being able to work and not.

A window seat isn't a right. You realise that your boss can order you to move desk for any reason and there's not a thing you can do about it?

As PP said, ask if you can trial a closed lid cup. I don’t think you can smell what’s in it.

For the sake of answering a few extra calls for 15m (how many would she personally take in 15m) YABU and a bit petty.

Your comments on other aspects, such as her staying to finish work after her finish time, show a complete lack of empathy and basic understanding of autism.

Would you like her to not work and claim benefits instead? Then she can get bashed on MN for that.

So you'd be happy drinking coffee next to a literally gagging colleague? It's far more than a dislike, clearly. I'd assume as an adult she can't just 'get over it'. I don't think you really understand.

I'm curious about why she needs an extra 15 minutes to decompress, following a lunch break.
Presumably she told the panel at interview that she could only work a shorter week .... so hopefully her salary is adjusted accordingly. I mean, if anyone not ND said at interview, "I have to finish at 4:45 for X reason" (childcare, for example, or to catch the last bus) there would usually be a discussion about eg starting earlier, taking a shorter lunch, or making a pay adjustment.
I'm on the fence about that adjustment.
OP, does the 15 minutes she's decompressing coincide with an especially busy period for incoming calls? How critical is it to the business if calls go unanswered? If you go to management with facts and figures you might have a case for being heard, otherwise it's hard to see how you can justify your claim that her absence increases your workload.

check if you really are having more work. If you are not, then it is reasonable. If you are, make sure that the extra work gets parcelled away somewhere else.

Take coffee breaks - reasonably short - away from your desks.

Regarding the window. Check that your workspaces meet all requirements for heat, light, and space around the desk. Make sure that your seats and monitors etc are set up correctly.

Reasonable adjustments are essential for some people, and your coworker and company have followed all the rules. AFAIK there maybe should have been an impact assessment too?

Remember it is not your colleague who has imposed the changes, the colleague asked for reasonable adjustments.

I think she needs to make some adjustments to live and work in society. She’s just plonked herself there and wants to change the way these ladies live their lives at work. No.

OP be firm about this with management otherwise there will be other completely normal and ordinary things that this woman will suddenly have an issue with.

Surprised she’s not embarrassed to be honest.

i do understand. I am ND myself, with smells that make me gag. I find ways to manage it.

I also need coffee to help me manage my own ND, so if they tried to institute a coffee ban I’d just ask for a rival reasonable adjustment.

I think her other adjustments are reasonable. But this one just isn’t.

I would still be drinking my coffee at my desk. Someone working over two hours less than me a week would also annoy me. If she has to take a longer lunch she should work later. If I was moved out of a window seat that would piss me off too. Surely everyone wants the window seat. I wouldn't have an issue with the training but the rest would annoy me.

Surely the extra time for lunch should be her own time - she should work 15 mins later? Yes adjustments should be made, but we certainly don’t let people work less hours for same pay as others. I’d go and sit in the kitchen if you fancy a coffee. As a manager, I wouldn’t agree to that, sorry but too much. How does she manage on planes / trains / etc?

Then she can leave and get a job that suits her. You know, like the rest of us usually do.
It’s not rocket science for anyone.

If your employer wants you to log on by a certain time they should roster you on five minutes earlier. Starting on time and leaving on time is a basic right everyone should expect. Why are you working for free? Stop doing that because you are normalising it and making it worse for everyone else. I would absolutely clock on at the exact time my shift started, but then my employer pays us to start 15 minutes before the phones are on, like they should. Edited to add.. likewise when I finish my shift. I won't take on a task of I know it will take me over my time and mean I am working for free. Why are you sucking up so much?

I was referring to the office environment the PP mentioned.
It's actually illegal to restrict access to fresh drinking water, so if I was in an office that banned it I would need to leave to access water frequently as part of my health needs.

I totally understand that in some areas you cant drink, it still has to be freely available to staff in a separate area .

They are not preventing people drinking, they are saying it’s not to be done at our desks not we have to dehydrate from not drinking all day. There’s plenty of facilities available such as free drinking water, tea, coffee and biscuits, toast etc and we are encouraged to step away from our computer screens for a break so plenty of opportunities for a drink.