Dyslexia & possible victimisation :(

Rottensocks

piglet25 wrote: »

and she has no qualifications as she attended a special school due to her dyslexia and they don't sit them,

Now, see, I don't count myself as a thicky or too ignorant, and I manage staff myself, AND I have a fairly badly dyslexic sister...and I had NO IDEA that this could be the case for severe dyslexia: I'm shocked in fact!

I don't know the ins and outs of it all, obviously, but it sounds a little (to me) as though your daughter has been left high and dry by the qualifications sistuation: the world is obsessed with them, so it is very difficult to apply for even basic jobs without them.:(


Your note about the Disney tills made me think..... perhaps an environment where the tills are triggered by barcodes would be much better for your daughter? That way, there is minimal reading involved? I don't know if it is her kind of thing, but I wonder if something like garden centre chains etc might be worth a try, simply because it is such a visual environment as well as barcode driven tills a lot of the time. (I always find I learn better when things are visual, rather than just written).

Tenyearstogo

So has your daughter suggested strategies to her manager?

I don't think asking someone else do the till will cut it to be honest. People are busy and doing their own job, they don't want or have the time to do other people's job.

Has your daughter considered trying to study for some qualifications now? She may find an adult learning environment with the right support better than a school ever was.

piglet25

The qualification situation has stuffed her, she can't even apply for an apprenticeship because you have to be at a certain educational level which is proven by your qualifications. . . . When she left school, they were all expected to go to special college for two years and then on the dole, which is where the leavers before her are.
To look and speak to her you wouldn't ever imagine she had any kind of disability, she is very articulate and sometimes I think that people can imagine she is lazy, rather than unable.
Visual and word pairing would be an enormous help to her, if they could spend a little bit of time with her doing that it is possible. Garden centres are a good idea but sadly the ones around here I aren't even qualified to work in their coffee shop as you need to have gone to horticultural college, I looked!

piglet25

Tenyearstogo - she did enroll on a basic college course who had a group of dyslexia sufferers on and learning assistants to help them but because there are so many degrees of dyslexia it just all fell apart due to the varying needs of the learners. She is more suited to on the stop learning, rather than paper based learning.
We will have to see how it goes and maybe approach those higher in the food chain to see if they have a set policy for supporting employees with disabilities. Am trying not to do anything which could be seen as negative though because she is very lucky to have the job and they are a great company to work for because of the different opportunities they can offer her.

Rottensocks

piglet25 wrote: »

To look and speak to her you wouldn't ever imagine she had any kind of disability, she is very articulate and sometimes I think that people can imagine she is lazy, rather than unable.

My sister is the same...she was assumed to be stupid throughout school, and only diagnosed afterwards...however, now that she's older, she's found the support good, and her current employer is paying for her to do some adult study. Nothing stupid about her, so I can totally understand your frustration!

It does seem like a bit of a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but have you considered Remploy at all??? That way, your daughter would at least have a disability specialised agent speaking to recruiters on her behalf?

There are also some grants it seems: look at the access to work scheme online (this govt website page was only updated last week, so they can't have cut all the government funding just yet!). It may be that a grant could get some equipment that could help for some jobs?

elsien

piglet25 wrote: »

They were fully aware of her dyslexia before offering her the job because I personally told them that she suffered from severe dyslexia and would be unable to sit any aptitude tests if they were required.

Slightly confused by this, because shouldn't it be your daughter discussing this with them and sorting out any adjustments?
While I understand you want your daughter to be able to work to her full potential, as a manager if I get a parent speaking on their kids behalf, it doesn't fill me with confidence about the child's coping skills.
Two weeks isn't long to wait- I'd suggest your daughter comes up with a list of practical suggestions for when she has her next meeting. She only started a week ago, so i do think you're getting a bit ahead of yourself. give them a chance. Big organisations can work more slowly because they have more departments to run things past.

As an aside, you say about needing qualifications for apprenticeships- -with nvq, they don't look at qualifications, they carry out
functional maths and English tests. I don't know what level these are at, but it may be worth looking into further.

zzzLazyDaisy

As someone with a profoundly dyslexic son, I sympathise.

But your daughter is working in the real world, with and for people who may not understand the condition, or its potential effects. Many people still think of dyslexia as 'a bit of a spelling problem'. You and I (and others) know from experience that it can be far more than that, but it is unreasonable to expect individual managers to have specialist knowledge of every condition that may affect their staff.

The manager has referred her to the medical team, which shows this is being taken seriously. The medical team will either offer advice about reasonable adjustments (it is possible that the OHA is part of the medical team) or refer her to the OHA. Either way, the only thing you, and she, can do for the moment is to be patient and let the process take its course.

From a legal point of view, it seems that her condition amounts to a 'disability' which means that she has the right not to be unlawfully discriminated against, and also that the employer has a duty to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate her disability. The emphasis is on 'reasonable'. The employer has taken the first step, by seeking professional advice. In the meantime they have kept her on as an employee, albeit not in the job that she applied for or wants to do. Assuming that this is a temporary measure until they receive advice on how best to help and support her, they have, so far, acted reasonably in my view (I am talking about a legal definition of 'reasonableness', not what a mother might consider to be reasonable - and I do understand the difference).

She needs to be procative - perhaps asking a colleague to show her the till during quiet times, taking a menu home (with permission) so she can photocopy/memorise it. Unfortunately it is a hard fact of life that people with difficulties have to work so much harder to get on, regardless of the improvements that have been made by the anti-discrimination laws.

My advice - take a step back. Going into work and fighting her battles for her is not going to endear her to her manager or her colleagues. Be prepared to support her and advise her at home, but let her make her own way in the world of work.

Also, please be aware that within the first two years of employment the employer can dismiss an employee for any reason or no reason at all - provided the reason does not breach the anti-discrimination laws. She does therefore have protection against being dismissed for a reason relating to her disability, and this also means that a prudent employer will take care to carefully follow fair procedures if they wish to terminate her employment. Nevertheless, in the real world, if a manager wishes to find a reason to dispense with a member of staff, they will usually be able to find a reason unrelated to the disability, if they wish to. So please take care not to make her unpopular at work by what might be seen by the employer as 'interfering'.

Sorry to be blunt.

Dx

BitterAndTwisted

What I'd be reading into the two-week wait is for them to see what adjustments the employer could make to facilitate your daughter being able to work there effectively.

Trying to micro-manage at a distance and through an intermediary will inevitably result in crossed-purposes. I'd be tempted to take a step back and let her get on with it. If after the assessment this particular working environment means she's only competent to wash dishes, then that's what she'll have to do if she can't move on elsewhere. But you dont know that until they've carried out the assessment. I can see why they aren't letting her loose on taking orders and entering them into the system for the time being.

paddyrg

I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, but perhaps it's not the ideal job for her, much as it wouldn't be if she was wheelchair-bound, or only had one arm? It involves reading, writing and accurate and fast till entry 100% of the time, and we've established that's not her forte.

How about bar work instead? The orders have far fewer variables, no writing or menues involved, removing 2 of the areas of stress. Menues change by season, have specials etc whereas barwork is pretty constant so can be learned by rote. Many tills now have touch panels or touchscreens where drinks can be learned by position and colour as opposed to lots of lines of detail. Same opportunity or better for tips, same being sociable at work, same being part of the team. Just might be more appropriate, y'know?

piglet25

Shes underage for bar work but is hopefully going to be trained in this in the future.
I am going to have a read of the websites suggested and play it by ear, I really didn't want to go in but if it got to the point where she going to be let go because of it then it will have to happen.
She has got some suggestions for her manager today and hopefully they will give them a try time permitting. We both would like to see her do well in the role, and for those who think she should be doing manual/menial work, my other half is also dyslexic and he has a degree and a responsible job - because he was correctly supported throughout his adult education - he too left school with nothing but his butty box