While I sit here, planning for my upcoming interview (for a mentorship programme), I’m both excited and nervous. This is the first time I’ve been to an interview with a visible disability. I’ve always been open and honest with employers about my health, but in a number of instances this has caused some issues, when requesting reasonable adjustments. I’ve been reflecting on one job I held in particular, the things that shouldn’t have happened and how I might tackle them if they were to happen in the future.
*This post is in conjunction with the disability equality charity Scope but all thoughts are my own’ Please see my DISCLAIMER for more information.
Before I share my experiences, I want to stress that I did everything I possibly could at the time to resolve the issues I experienced when requesting reasonable adjustments at work. I know that, although it feels like in some way I was at fault, this is not the case. My employer at the time was negligent in their duties under the Equality Act 2010, not only discriminating against me because of my health, but also bullying me. I think the reason I wasn’t able to take further action was the combination of my poor health and the bullying I experienced.
While disability discrimination is against the law, it does still happen. I think it’s important to acknowledge this and work for change in the best way that we can. Though I wasn’t able to do anything at the time, by sharing this particular experience of requesting reasonable adjustments at work with you, I hope that it supports other disabled people who have experienced discrimination and encourages employers to make sure they are supporting all disabled employees.
Discrimination and bullying are all too common – I’ve shared some previous experiences in my experiences of disability discrimination and experiences of institutionalised bullying posts.
While working as a Christmas temp for a high street retailer, a member of management suggested that I applied for the company’s management training programme. I’d been completely open with the members of management about my health (though my hEDS hadn’t been formally diagnosed at this point). I was excited by the opportunity, went for it and was offered a place in a store in my closest city.
During my interview with the store manager, I could tell that she was really keen on having me join her team. When she asked me if I would take the job, I paused and she immediately offered an increase in salary! But, within days of starting the role, she completely changed towards me.
It started off with picky little things. I was left to run a department on my own, but given no guidance. So, I ran the department in the way that the store I’d temped in had done. But, she didn’t like this. Instead of telling me what she wanted, she just picked holes in the things I was doing. Without any guidance, I was left feeling confused, on edge and like a failure. Things escalated quickly as she got nastier and nastier towards me. Because of the bullying I experienced at the hands of the store manager, my PTSD and IBS became symptomatic again. This caused even more problems.
Unfortunately, the start of my placement in this new location was also the time that my migraine medication was being changed. For those who aren’t aware, I have basilar type migraine, a rare form that causes me to loose consciousness. Just to make things even more challenging for me, this was when my joint pain and instability increased, affecting more and more of my joints. This was unsurprising, since I was spending 5 days a week from 8:30am to 6pm on my feet!
I can remember one of the things the manager made an issue out of so clearly – it was the morning meeting to go over the sales figures. It’s worth me pointing out that I’m good at numbers – much better than I am with words. My PTSD was symptomatic and I would shake the entire time I was reading my department’s figures out. All I needed was to build up my confidence. I understood the numbers and what they meant better than some of the more established staff. But, I was terrified when it came to my turn to speak. I didn’t once muddle up the columns or read out the wrong numbers – a huge feat in itself, given that I have a visual processing disorder! But, the manager took exception to the fact that I was anxious and made it into a much bigger deal that it actually was. This just made things worse.
I tried requesting reasonable adjustments by talking to the manager about how my health was affecting my ability to perform my role and what could be done to support me. Unfortunately, this was met with comments like “you’re not special, you’re no different to anyone else.” While at the time, this comment stung, in the long run it’s helped me to understand that she was the one at fault. I believe that an important quality for any good manager is to be able to see each member of staff as an individual, with strengths, weaknesses, personalities and personal lives. To dismiss this so readily shows that she wasn’t willing to invest in her staff, which is ultimately why I ended up leaving.
One of the things that I’d requested, was reduced working hours while my specialist worked out my new medication. According to the disability charity, Scope, flexible working is a reasonable adjustment and can include working different hours, working from home and changing your duties. A reduction in hours is something that I’d previously done in another retail job.
Unfortunately, my request to go down to 20 hours a week from 40, while my medication was being sorted was straight away rejected, despite it being a reasonable adjustment. The reason given for this was that a supervisor’s role couldn’t be done properly in 20 hours. If another supervisor wasn’t already on a 20 hour contract, this might have been an acceptable response to my request.
To this day, I don’t understand why the manager wasn’t willing to allow me the flexible working that was my right under the Equality Act 2010. In order to ask for reasonable adjustments, you need to make your employer aware of your condition(s) and/or impairment(s). I’d made her aware of my conditions before I started working for her and reiterated them on several occasions during my time in the role, including when I requested a temporary reduction in hours. I believe that the adjustments I had requested to my working hours were reasonable. Another member of supervisor staff was already working part time hours.
I appreciate that I was really unwell, but I was also passionate about retail and wanted to succeed. Flexible hours would’ve allowed me to continue to learn in the role, while sorting my medication out and then I could’ve stepped back into the full time hours once I was feeling a bit better. Any decent manager would’ve understood this and facilitated my request for reasonable adjustments, but not her.
I’m afraid to say that the manager started to force me out and I was too unwell to stop her. I can’t remember much of what happened towards the end of my time working for this company. I’m not sure whether it’s because of the hallucinations my migraine medication caused, whether it’s because I was so unwell with my migraine, or whether I’ve blocked her nastiness, discrimination and bullying out. I suspect it’s a combination of all three.
I remember the evening after my last day working at the store. I was in bed, in floods of tears because I couldn’t bare the thought of going back there. I couldn’t cope with any more of that toxic working environment.
The next day, I went to see my GP. He was keeping a close eye on how I was getting on with my new migraine medication for my consultant. Without me asking to, he signed me off work then and there. He was concerned about the hallucinations I was experiencing as a side effect of the new medication and didn’t want me to have to deal with anything else at the same time.
I worked at this store for just six months, but the effects of the bullying and discrimination I experienced stayed with me for much longer.
Had I been well enough to challenge the manager’s refusal to support my request for reasonable adjustments, I could’ve requested an assessment through Access To Work. This would’ve been impartial and the manager would have been required to comply with their recommendations. But unfortunately, I just wasn’t well enough.
It’s such a shame, as I’ve loved and been very successful in other retail roles.
For anyone facing similar challenges at work, it’s important to know what your options are to get things resolved.
Scope has some fantastic resources for disabled people in the workplace or seeking employment. These include practical tips, information about reasonable adjustments and employment services, which offers one-to-one telephone support.
What have your experiences of requesting reasonable adjustments at work been?
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