204
votes
How to support a colleague who finds meetings extremely tiring?
2-4
A four hour meeting is unacceptable for any human. Forget about her specific use case. In the broadest sense, meetings do not help with productivity and serve more as inhibitors rather than ...
- 5,676
116
votes
Accepted
How can an employer better accommodate workers on the autism-spectrum to reduce absence from work?
Full disclosure: I am a high-functioning autistic.
I'm going to offer a few ideas that will benefit the greater workforce as well as the autistic employee, that way, everyone benefits.
Since autism ...
- 160k
80
votes
Accepted
What are reasonable dietary preferences to expect employers to accommodate?
It is perfectly acceptable to ask your employer if they could include vegetables in the finger food. There are plenty of options, like snack tomatoes, mini carrots, party cucumbers, pickles, slices of ...
- 660
50
votes
How to support a colleague who finds meetings extremely tiring?
Ask her, not the internet. She'll know what she wants and needs better than we will.
Don't just ask her either. Try and get the whole team to have regular talks together about what's working well for ...
- 24.1k
47
votes
How can an employer better accommodate workers on the autism-spectrum to reduce absence from work?
As the OP and other answers have acknowledged, autistic people vary tremendously and there's no one-size fits all approach, but some things that are often worth considering:
Reduce intrusive stimuli. ...
- 9,044
38
votes
Accepted
How to request accommodations for a blue uniform due to autism?
How can I request to be accommodated for this without embarrassing myself or making a bad first impression with the staff there?
First, ask what is the uniform color you will be assigned. If it's ...
- 83.7k
32
votes
What are reasonable dietary preferences to expect employers to accommodate?
Bringing your own lunch is the safest bet. It may be awkward the first time, but I really think that your co-workers would be understanding.
Utilizing your employer to clearly relay your dietary ...
- 46k
26
votes
How can an employer better accommodate workers on the autism-spectrum to reduce absence from work?
headphones with noise-canceling provided to reduce the noise disturbances of an office environment.
That's a cheap crappy workaround which doesn't even work that well. Noise cancelling headphones ...
- 928
22
votes
How to support a colleague who finds meetings extremely tiring?
As I commented, this extreme tiredness is likely not caused by the meeting or the length of the meeting, but more a result of socializing with a large number of people at one time. In my ...
- 1,321
16
votes
How can an employer better accommodate workers on the autism-spectrum to reduce absence from work?
I'm an autistic, verbal woman. Here are some ideas based on what I need to have at work to be able to work properly and from what I read in literature and found to be useful but have never tried ...
- 2,276
15
votes
What are reasonable dietary preferences to expect employers to accommodate?
Is this the sort of thing most people would mention and try be accommodated? Or
would most people try and handle it themselves?
Honestly from what you describe as being suitable - I think this would ...
- 110k
14
votes
What are reasonable dietary preferences to expect employers to accommodate?
One option I don't see mentioned here is trying to eat what's offered your own way. For instance, if it's sub sandwiches, take two and just eat the meat, cheese & veggies out of them. Or eat the ...
12
votes
Can I request reasonable accommodations for music?
If you truly have documented disabilities, then I would consult with your medical doctor. They may be willing to provide you with a note explaining that you must be allowed to listen to music while ...
- 1,389
11
votes
How to support a colleague who finds meetings extremely tiring?
TLDR: Make sure you have fresh air in your marathon meetings!
Buy an air quality indicator and take that into the room. Vent the room when it indicates too low O2 or too high CO2 levels. Meetings are ...
- 7,839
11
votes
Accepted
How to ask for workplace (internship) accommodations due to autism?
As an Aspie with similar issues to loud/busy environments I feel your pain!
However you're running into things that are going to be pretty common in your career and are difficult to accommodate "...
- 110k
8
votes
Writing a Gantt Chart as someone with severe ADHD
A Gantt chart is a picture of a plan. Asking you to make a Gantt chart is really asking you to make a plan. And perhaps, implicit in that is asking you to stick to a plan. And you say you can't do ...
- 153k
7
votes
How can an employer better accommodate workers on the autism-spectrum to reduce absence from work?
Background
Many great answers already, but as another autistic individual I wanted to add my 2 cents. Oh, and like the rest, disclaimer: autism is not one single thing, it's a wide spectrum of traits ...
- 173
6
votes
Accepted
Discrimination - ADA reasonable accommodation
There are a couple of reasons such a request can be denied:
Security and insurance
If you're taking company resources off site and/or connecting to the company network remotely, this puts the company ...
- 13k
6
votes
How to support a colleague who finds meetings extremely tiring?
I'd have a think about what the meetings are bringing, not just to this staff member, but the team as a whole. It's possible that absolutely everything being brought up can only be handled in face-to-...
- 61
6
votes
Getting Job Accommodations when I have a Sleep disorder
My employer may have me work in a physical building located in Washington.
It would be difficult to sleep during work at a normal workplace unless you can get your day split up. But working from home ...
- 224k
6
votes
Company wants me to handle most financial burdens as an expat
I am not a lawyer but I have worked in different countries in Europe. I would say that it is not illegal for them to not pay your accommodation.
There jobs that offer a relocation package that may ...
- 1,396
6
votes
What are reasonable dietary preferences to expect employers to accommodate?
There is a spectrum of what dietary options someone (be it a company or person) is willing to cater for, and that line will be drawn subjectively. My current employer would likely be more than happy ...
- 19.8k
5
votes
How can an employer better accommodate workers on the autism-spectrum to reduce absence from work?
I'm retired now, but I had a long career of battling for a little elbow room and understanding from my various employers. The number one problem I had over the decades was that the employers would ...
- 2,403
4
votes
How can an employer better accommodate workers on the autism-spectrum to reduce absence from work?
I'm a high functioning autistic person as well, having worked in multiple office environments. There are a lot of good suggestions that were given in the other answers but i'd like to add a few as ...
- 816
4
votes
What are reasonable dietary preferences to expect employers to accommodate?
Where I live, it is customary for the employer to provide food and for lunches to be communal. We had a coworker who was on an elimination diet for some health issues and she brought yogurt with her ...
- 51
3
votes
What are reasonable dietary preferences to expect employers to accommodate?
I follow a similar diet to keep my weight & type 2 diabetes under control. I understand what you mean about these things typically being very carb-heavy. Even the 'healthy' fruit platter that is ...
- 3,906
3
votes
How can an employer better accommodate workers on the autism-spectrum to reduce absence from work?
I'm on the high-functioning end of the spectrum, and I can't really add to the various lists of accommodations already present. However, I have had some downright traumatic experiences with intrusive ...
- 140
3
votes
How can an employer better accommodate workers on the autism-spectrum to reduce absence from work?
Why not provide noise canceling headphones to everyone? You don't need to show autistic notice from a doctor to like working in silence. Why "meditation room" not be avaiable for others to "chill out"....
- 15.3k
3
votes
How can an employer better accommodate workers on the autism-spectrum to reduce absence from work?
The ideas you have so far are good but won't cover all of the possible issues that need to be addressed. You'll probably want to adjust the way you give tasks to autistic people. You'll want to make ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible