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.

None of us can know if she’s milking it or not. We don’t know how these things affect her! If coffee smells make her gag, then she’s not going to be able to keep working through it is she?

I wouldn’t work a job that was nights because I am struggle with being tired and need a routine around sleep; so I would never apply to a job where night work was required.

I wouldn’t apply to a job that required me to be in an office 5 days a week because I enjoy working from home some days and find it less taxing and more productive in terms of time spent on tasks with no interruptions.

I wouldn’t work in an abattoir because I would find it horribly traumatic and very very difficult to handle. I wouldn’t work as an air stewardess because I wouldn’t want to be stood up in the small areas or in flights for long periods of time.
I don’t see why someone who isn’t suited to this job environment has applied and why everyone else has to make quite large adjustments - it seems a strange thing to do. Why wouldn’t the colleague seek a job that is wfh or in a small team for example? An environment where there’s less likely to be coffee or tasks that may run across slightly at 5pm. Most people would look for an environment that would suit them.

Yeah or not find one and live on benefits instead and have the same people whinging about that instead

Ok that's fine then as they allow you to leave to drink

I'll be honest not quite sure why she needs to decompress after lunch? 🤔

Surely lunch is when you decompress.

I have to decompress at home for 20 mins after driving through peak traffic when I get home but that's in my time.

She is entitled to reasonable adjustments and you just need to stop obsessing about her and get on with your work.

I'm confused as to how she's been taken on to help with the workload, yet you apparently all now have more work, despite acknowledging she works hard and does a good job? No one even knows if she's paid for her extra 15 mins lunch. Id say she's probably not.

Forty years ago, smokers were whining about not being allowed to smoke at their desks. They probably moaned about lack of compromise and unfairness when being told to take their ciggies to the smoking room so as not to set off the new colleague's asthma.

Yes, I’m not sure I get that either.

I do tend to take extended lunch breaks to decompress if I’ve had a lot of interactions with people, so it may be that. (But if I do I make the time up, and nobody needs to cover my work!)

Seriously,I cannot understand why people are stressing about not drinking coffee whilst working!! Many jobs cannot accommodate anyone drinking anything unless taking a break. You don’t see people drinking coffee or anything else ,if customer facing. Grow up and drink your coffee etc during your break !

😅. Ok, maybe you've a point there. Maybe it's a gut thing, the whole gut/ brain connection. I know if I was hungover in the past/had tummy upset smells would bother me

She needs these adjustments and couldn’t do her job without them. And I can guarantee that it’s harder on her than it is on you and the rest of the team who have had to have moved seats or fielded an extra 5 mins of telephone calls. It’s a shame her colleagues aren’t more supportive and proud to be inclusive. When my autistic children grow up and join the workforce I hope people are more understanding and accommodating of different needs, and truly value and respect them.

Going on a bit of a tangent, but how long has the lunch al desco thing been going on for?* I feel as if in the past there was a stronger barrier between working and eating spaces, perhaps because sensory hang-ups are quite common. Certainly, I recall reading about how large company canteens have increasingly been closed.

One of the best places I ever worked in had a little kitchen/dining room with lockers, a sink, microwave and seating/a big table where people had lunch. One of the staff came into the office proper with a stinking greasy panini, and a colleague just stood up and told him politely but firmly to go eat next door.

*I find it gross, especially the sounds. I use headphones to block them out and don't complain or say anything about it, but the office food culture is one of the reasons I prefer working at home. And no doubt my colleagues are happy to have the ugly autistic freak out of the way, so I guess that suits them too.

So why is it a right for this woman?

So why is it a right for this woman?

ASD people need a lot more decompression time to prevent overwhelm and burnout. It’s not just about rigid behaviours.

Plenty of jobs where she doesn’t need to smell the coffee of her colleagues. Going on benefits is not a get out clause. Work outdoors if she wants. Just don’t walk past any COSTAs.

I can't see how your colleague working her contractual hours and taking an extra 15minutes lunch is creating such a massive load of extra work for you and your team. So I do think you're letting the niggling annoyance or perceived unfairness of other adjustments get to you.

Personally, I think some of the adjustments sound unreasonable, but I don't know what her issues are, so perhaps the window seat and no coffee rules are reasonable. I would say that it is management, rather than the new colleague, who is at fault for failing to use this as an opportunity to review their processes and workplace to make inclusivity something that works for everyone. For example:

• if it's possible for training to be done online, why not just make it online for everyone, with a small personal session available for those who learn better that way?
• If the seating arrangements had to be reviewed, why no take the opportunity to see whether current arrangements are effective and whether alternatives would work better, so it wouldn't be so obvious that the only reason for the change is the new employee?
• As for tripple checking her work, once she is used to the role and what is expected, you may find this need to check becomes less frequent. If it's problematic, again, it's an opportunity for management to look at what's required/how training is implemented and go, 'hmmm, maybe we could make that clearer after all...' and create a checklist and visual examples of what is required.

In short, your employer has been shit and they are the problem, not your hard working colleague.

Indeed. I’d be looking for another job not pandering to that nonsense!

We are fully hot decking so it's irrelevant to me. But it's well known that people can have emotional reactions to desk moves for a range of reasons. And if the company ignored that emotional reaction in shifting seats they've done the new employee a disservice.

Interesting that her neurodivergence dictates that she must start and finish her work day exactly on time, but not that she should finish her lunch hour on time rather than 15 minutes late.

Why don't you take a 15 mins coffee break each day in the office kitchen, you get your coffee and the same amount of break time. Or two 7 minute coffee breaks. Unless you work in a call centre where every minute of time at your desk is monitored you might feel like it levels things out for you.

But seriously yabu, someone with IBS might take multiple bathroom breaks every day and nobody would be monitoring their toilet habits and saying that time away from their desk was unfair, ND is a disability and your employer has made reasonable adjustments you should respect, and raise with your managers if you think there is an impact on you they now need to address.

Could you start and finish on the dot? Would this be an issue? What about suggesting a compromise on the coffee and having it in a cup with a sealed lid? I do think it's unfair that she dictates what you drink. I drink tea in the day time but work in a school so have a sealed insulated cup. I use this one. Could this be a suggestion? I get allowances being made for her but surely not to the detriment of everyone else?
There has to be compromise on both sides.

https://www.babipur.co.uk/products/klean-kanteen-wide-16oz-2021?variant=48480812269893&country=GB&currency=GBP&utmmedium=producttsync&utmsource=google&utmmcontent=sagorganic&utmmcampaign=sagorganic&gaddsource=1&gadcampaignid=21901097951&gbraid=0AAAAAD8eiSRpruh-a19sjDZIHHRjggK31&gclid=CjwKCAiAzrbIBhA3EiwAUBaUddwq94L-6hS2FCUwTd4kbM39YKThhFEO2sVBOcvTZNtyqiolfCTALxoCV8UQAvDD_BwE

Desk moves and locker reassignments are almost the most contentious thing possible in our office - and we (officially) hot desk as well.

How do you know this? Maybe it’s been taken off her salary? I have people in my team who have requested this and specified they shouldn’t be paid for the break.