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.

I am glad you said adjustments and not reasonable adjustments, because the coffee thing is not reasonable.

Not liking the smell of coffee is not a disability. That said, I have never known of a coffee that smells so strong it permeates the entire office. I know of people who bring in strong smelling foods for lunch and heat them up in the microwave so the smell is quite overpowering but they just needs a general notice to be put up (often people cook it and then leave it to cool so it stinks the place out.)

Needing reasonable adjustments isn't the same as being fundamentally unsuited to a job.

My autism means that I am fundamentally unsuited to being airline cabin crew. However, I can work well in technical environments with some reasonable adjustments that often benefit the neurotypical people as well, such as dimmable lighting and a "no hot food at the desk" policy. No one likes having to squint because the lights are bright and no one likes having the whole office stink of fish pie.

Stopping work at 17:00 sharp isn't unreasonable, unless of course you are the kind of entitled person who swears at the security staff at Lidl because he won't let you in at 15:59 on a Sunday. A task overrunning isn't something that workers should have to give up their own time to resolve.

If she's sensitive to smells, then a reasonable adjustment would be for her to work from home or in a separate office/nook, or a compromise of extra coffee breaks or cups with lids on, not ban coffee for everyone else.

As an ADHDer on a waiting list for meds, I am currently self-medicating with caffeine, and that would piss me right off. I'd be going off for a coffee break as soon as she came back, as my own reasonable adjustment! And drinking a Mocha at my desk.

The lunch break thing, I would go to management with facts on how it is impacting your work. If I had to cover the busy front desk for someone's lunch break, then a reasonable adjustment for me would be to go and do some printing or filing in a very quiet area afterwards. Not taking an extra break.

Perhaps, as your child is autistic, you need to go down a diagnosis path yourself and need your own reasonable adjustments to help with your needs. 😇

Apart from the no coffee it seems reasonable to me.

It sounds like the 15 minutes extra at lunch was agreed in her contract.

If the extra 5 minutes is really affecting you I think you should raise it with your manager and see if you can get an extra break or a pay rise to mitigate it.

And you should be starting and finishing on time, if you are working extra that is only your issue not hers.

I'm all for her being accommodated but it shouldn't be at the expense of other workers. If she needs a window, no coffee smell and a room with not too many people then they company should provide her with an individual office. That would meet her needs without impacting you.

Both are about not being overwhelmed. HTH.

At uni they gave me 15 minutes extra per hour reasonable adjustment when doing an exam, no one complained.

I also don't think the coffee is unreasonable, I think people don't understand sensory issues. My DC feels sick and can't concentrate if there is a particular smell. Even PP saying they're also neurodivergent, that's you. People on the spectrum are individuals with different triggers. I agree you could ask to try closed cups.

Presumably no one picked where their desks were positioned when they started, so if they had been in the positions they are now then no one would have cared.

5 minutes each per day for phone calls. You'd take longer if you needed an extra bathroom break. For instance, what if one of you had IBS? Would you begrudge extra toilet breaks which would exceed that extra 5 mins each?

Start and finish dead on the time you're supposed to. ACAS would have a field day if you were sacked for working your contracted hours.

They have hired her for a reason, she's clearly good at her job. I don't understand how them taking on an extra person has given you all extra work?

Sounds like you're all just feeling resentful and I truly do understand that. You will feel less resentful if you stick to your working times and try to understand that this woman is trying her best to be able to do her job. And it sounds like she is meticulous so I still don't understand how having an extra person doing their job correctly is giving you all more work.

They can reasonably adjust for you all to take coffee with the extra 15 minutes they ought to allocate you, in the interest of fairness!

Maybe she doesn't have the qualifications required to do any outside jobs. Perhaps her education and quals are office based jobs. Your comment reminds of those stupid government posters during covid where they thought people could just suddenly switch careers. Maybe she should just go be an astronaut.

She does finish her lunch break on time, as per the time agreed with her employer.

This
No-one else should be impacted.

Those aren't reasonable adjustments as they are pushing work onto other people. 15 minutes is 1 hr 15 per week, more than half a day's work per month that she's (presumably) being paid for while others are picking up her work. The only thing you can do is raise it with your manager again. Very frustrating.

You sound completely ableist and you could do with going on a training course

I'm sure you already know that reasonable adjustments are put in place solely to create a level playing field between the disabled employee and others in the workplace. Not to cater to the random whims and demands of an employee.

not liking the smell of coffee has nothing to do with the person's job or ability to work. The trouble with people like this is that their unreasonable demands disrupts the team from being able to function and work harmoniously.

there are too many myths and inaccuracies about RAs and it causes exactly this problem,

It's not fair that the working world is set up for neurotypical people, that's why neurodivergent employees get reasonable accomodations - to make it fair(er).

So, to be clear: you think that discrimination in the form of denying reasonable adjustments is OK because of the precious feelings of the non-disabled staff, and you think that big employers who obey the law demonstrate a lack of care for the non-disabled staff?

I'm coining a new law of the internet.

Self-fellating Ouroboros Of Hate's First Law

"Every thread about disabled people claiming their legal protections demonstrates the continued need for disabled people to have legal protections in the first place."

I've had one that requires reasonable adjustments in the home! I'm sorry but the majority of ND people are reasonable and some just aren't - you will need to determine which camp this falls into and speak to management if necessary.

15 minutes a day, 5 days a week, 47 weeks a year is just shy of 8 days. That's nearly 8 days of paid time when she is not actually working.

Employers have an obligation to make reasonable adjustments but I don't think it's reasonable when those adjustments are unfair to other staff.

Not to cater to the random whims and demands of an employee.

Disgraceful comment.

not liking the smell of coffee has nothing to do with the person's job or ability to work.

It does if it gives her a migraine, or she starts chucking up, or she has to go home early.

Why? Are only NT people allowed to have good boundaries around work hours?

It all sounds a bit jealous group think...someone wants to work and contribute and you are making it a bad thing. Colleagues vary and that's a reality in all workplaces...some do more others do less ...family commitments, ill health. Give and take... 15 lousy minutes ridiculous

to be fair - 2nd hand smoke can kill you.
According to the OP it is the smell that makes colleague nauseous. Which is pretty horrible, tbh.

There are compromises to have here, and maybe coffee in lidded cups is one. Maybe taking a short coffee break away from your desk is another.

we just had 2 monster threads about reasonable adjustments. How about the "colleague is pulling a fast one" have a look at those.

Drinking coffee at a desk is not an example of the working world being set up for neurotypical people.
It’s simply about human beings being allowed to have a drink.