Advice for final OH meeting, ADHD, "reasonable adjustments", tiny office, heating not working

Savvy_Sue

I'd suggest joining a union and taking their advice.

I'd also be checking whether there are other vacancies across the university. 

housebuyer143

cs95aam said:

GingerTim said:

Regarding the noise, could you ask your employer to provide a set of noise-cancelling headphones as a compromise?

That's a good idea. They did get me the Loop Engage in ear ear plugs a few weeks ago but they are next to useless. Will consider the headphones. Are there any that you can recommend?

I have the Sony ones and they are absolutely fantastic. Silence 🙌
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-WH-1000XM3-Wireless-Cancelling-Headphones-Black/dp/B07GDR2LYK

ace4500

cs95aam said:

The challenge I am having in this tiny room with 4 other people is that its simply too loud at times for me to concentrate. This causes me to lose focus, increases stress and as a result I may not get things done correctly or I could make a mistake. Hence why I need to simply get away for a bit. Monday and Tuesday were especially challenging as the heating wasn't on and I was simply too cold to concentrate. I suppose I'll just have to play the meeting by ear. I don't wish to cause trouble. I just hope the right to leave the room with the agreement of my manager stays in place. That's what I really need. They often speak to me like I'm a 5 year old. I think that says more about them than me. Thanks for your input.

Document what they've done or said, so you can use it against them later if necessary. Also have you tried using earphones or earplugs? Could help you avoid being distracted.

I should also add that Tribunals are very weak in the UK, and they need very overt and clear cases of wrong doing, which means, simply demeaning you or treating you in a very patronizing manner (unless very frequently) is not enough for them to act. You have to be either unfairly dismissed.

Also, resist being pushed out. What a boss may want to do (another boss admitted to this in another forum post), is if they don't like somebody at their workplace who they think is a problem, they will try to pressure them out first, instead of firing them. Because dismissal requires a formal procedure, and cannot just be done on a whim. Also it can always be contested. So they may want to try to pressure you out by constantly demeaning you, but all you have to do back is to ask them to not treat you any differently because of your disability and not to talk down to you (assuming they are talking down to you, I don't know the situation, sometimes employees are a bit entitled and think they're being attacked when they're not, and other times, the employer is being annoying and being annoying to perfectly good employees for no reason).

ace4500

Addendum to last post:

You have to either be dismissed for Tribunals to care, or there has to be extremely overt cases of discrimination like using slurs, like physically attacking you, etc.

Also the boss in the other post didn't specifically admit to pushing people out, but he basically admitted to doing so, which is not very good if anybody discovered his real name and company and could issue a range of official complaints to the company and various regulatory organizations.

LightFlare

Regarding the temperature, there are clear (ish) regulations on minimum temperatures for work places.

How cold is it exactly ?

Also,temperature can be quite subjective. I naturally rarely feel the cold and get over heated in the office quite easily whilst some of my colleagues feel the cold and insist on cranking the air con thermostat up to 25 at every opportunity 

Marcon

cs95aam said:

housebuyer143 said:

At my work place, I take headphones to blocked out the radio as it drives me loopy and I can't concentrate.
I also take a hot water bottle as I'm freezing all the time when I'm there.

Can you do these things? It might help combat the problems with the cold and the noise. 
Why can't you eat your lunch in 30 mins? That's quite a long time. 

I'm considering taking a hot water bottle tomorrow thanks. We don't have the radio on that wouldnt be allowed. Well the 30 minutes includes the time to get to the canteen, choose and pay for lunch and then get back. It leaves about 15 minutes if that. It's a rush for me. 

Anything to stop you taking in your own lunch? If you're keen to keep this job, then trying to look for solutions - just setting out problems won't help you achieve that.