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.

How do you know she's getting paid for this time?

But no one actually knows that because we haven’t seen her contract and don’t know what she actually gets paid for. Everyone has jumped on and assumed this 15 minutes is paid but it could be unpaid, without knowing what her contract says you just have to go on what the OP says and that’s one sided.

The extra 15 minutes is piss taking, as is dictating what you can and can't drink while working.
The online training is fine if the training as actually complete. Her timekeeping is perfect - you should all do that.

well Yes, lunch break then 15 mins to recover from lunch break…

I'd take 15 minutes a day to have coffee away from the office.

It's actually frightening with all the raising awareness in recent years that people are so ignorant about 'invisible' disabilities. It's 'I'm alright jack (and so are my kids)' behaviour.

Not even hiding their discrimination/ignorance.

How do you know she is being paid the same? Has she shared that with you?

What if you were pregnant and the smell of coffee made you throw up, would it be reasonable for your employer to sack you because you can't concentrate on your job and it's unfair to ask others not to drink coffee round you? Would you find losing your job under those circumstances fair or discriminatory?

You said OP ought to be allocated an extra 15 minutes break in the interest of fairness.

Drinking coffee isn't part of OPs job, so she can do it on her lunch break.

@LuncheonInThePark whos said anything about sacking the anti coffee employee?

The coffee one is ridiculous... I would be fuming about that.

As an utter coffee fiend, I will tell you that coffee is stronger smelling than most other drinks, to the point that I can smell coffee in my sweat and urine if I have three or more cups per day.

Other drinks exist that smell less. Pretty much all of them smell less. The OP can drink any kind of pop, water, tea, tisanes, and hot chocolate. The OP can drink coffee during lunch.

Your post is hyperbole.

I didn’t say anything like that. Are you confusing me with someone else?

OP said so in her post at 19.12.

Would you be happy for me to take 2 paid hours away from my desk every day so I can drink the coffee I need to manage my ND in the workplace?

I obviously don’t spend 2 hours a day drinking coffee normally, just have it on my desk and drink as I go. But if I had to step away from my desk to drink it, I’d need 30 minutes per cup.

I think if you have extreme sensory sensitivities (as I do, actually), you need to find a way to deal with them without stopping your colleagues doing a perfectly normal activity.

A friend of mine has MS and manages her energy levels during her work day with carefully timed coffees. If she couldn't drink coffee at her desk she wouldn't make it through the day and would need to stop working full time.

Yes, I was confusing you with the person I originally replied too.

I should have said
"They said OP ought to be allocated an extra 15 minutes break in the interest of fairness.

Drinking coffee isn't part of OPs job, so she can do it on her lunch break."

Well that’s still allowing one employee to decide what/when other staff can drink. Should a vegan employee be allowed to stop others eating dairy/meat?

Sigh. Stretch your legs, go for a walk and get a coffee away from your desk. I couldn’t care less how long my colleagues take for their lunch breaks or when they arrive/leave unless it’s impacting my time keeping for when they’re available to meet etc.

OP said so in her post at 19.12.

What's the alternative? She won't be able to concentrate on her job so won't be productive therefore not fit for the role.

I don't drink coffee so don't need it to get through a working day, why shouldn't everyone else be the same as me? Seeing as the disabled person should be able to put up with it to align with the whims of her able colleagues. If people can't do their job properly without using a stimulate maybe they shouldn't be doing the job?

My post was actually nothing about coffee.
It was about the insinuation a poster made about the working world being set up for NT people, not ND people.
I was merely pointing out that I didn’t think the coffee issue was really an example of an ‘NT working world’
Thats all I meant.

If people can't do their job properly without using a stimulate maybe they shouldn't be doing the job?

Do you realise how many people wirh ADHD you’ve just discriminated against? Many of whom absolutely need some kind of stimulant to do their jobs.

If people can't do their job properly if someone is drinking a standard drink maybe they shouldn't be doing the job?

Why is "lunch break" 60 minutes. Her lunch break is 75 minutes, she takes that and gets back to work on time.