A medical solution to a not very medical problem - occupational health

I decided that I would be proactive at work and request that HR refer me to occupational health.

What I wanted was to have my autistic needs formally recognised in terms of my seating arrangements when we move to a new site later in the year.

What I was seeking to avoid was to be placed in a large open-plan office surrounded by noise, lots of people and near a high traffic area. The last thing I would need is to sit nearby to the printers! That kind of working environment would see my productivity fall, my stress levels rise and I could be penalised in my appraisals if I wasn't meeting my potential.

Alas, to get the clout needed to mobilise various people and departments to take my needs seriously and lead to a satisfactory result, the only way I could think of was through occupational health.

So I visited this occupational health place. It was on a business park not at all accessible for those who don't drive and the lack of easy car parking was worrying (cars blocking in other cars in parking bays). I saw no evidence of disabled parking. I hope that the less able bodied would perhaps be visited at home or at other more suitable premises.

So on the day I was stressed. I didn't know the area well and finding the site was challenging to say the least since the provided map and instructions made little sense. I got there early and was glad that I had looked on Google Street Maps to visualise the turnings and road layouts. It removes some of the mystery of driving around the unknown.

What bothered me the most was the way one gets into the reception. I don't understand how intercoms work in that they seem to each have their own operating methods and the procedure of what to say into it. I often found this process utterly confusing. Some systems remotely unlock the door; others don't. I appreciate the need for security but none of it of what to do was transparent and I think a sentence or two on the instructions about finding the place would have been useful. I felt a little surprised that the door couldn't be unlocked remotely and it was so irrelevant to my day but it still bothered me that someone had to press what looked like a door bell to open it.

The doctor was pleasant enough. I won't be critiquing him but I was somewhat amused when he told me he was familiar with Asperger's Syndrome. Familiar. It made me think he'd encountered it at some point in an hour CPD session but it was clear he was no expert. To be fair, I wasn't expecting him to be. He's a generalist I suspect, who when not seeing me, would to be working with those with mental illness and stress and those who have physical difficulties that require perhaps a different kind of support in the workplace from what I was seeking.

I felt like I had to tell him what I needed. It would have been refreshing if he was leading it because he knows high functioning autism in women but I felt it was really me speaking up about what I found difficult. Sometimes I get so tired of being my own advocate. It would make a change if more people just "got it". When I meet those kinds of people, I really value their insight and experience. It's incredible to feel normal again.

Here's the thing I find odd: it takes a doctor to write a report to HR that I need a quieter working environment. The solution is very much non-medical. Anyone who knows about autism would know the kinds of solutions I am looking for. It doesn't take a doctor to know this. Teachers (those with ASC experience). Carers. Autism researchers/academics. Parents of autistic children. Autistic people themselves. Lots of other people with much more meaningful experience. And yet because these such people aren't clinicians, their expertise and experience counts for nothing in the eyes of HR.

This is what makes things so irritating because I have to get a doctor involved when I am still grappling with the idea of whether autism is even a medical thing.

I get it. The Equality Act 2010 talks about disability as one of the nine protected characteristics. This legislates about discrimination and requires businesses and so on to provide 'reasonable adjustments' in the workplace to disabled people. It also defines disability as having a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on one's ability to do normal daily activities. Autism is covered by this law.

Disabilities are often seen in terms of the medical definition and the doctors are supposedly good at understanding the whole clinical side. They can diagnose such things. It makes sense.

And here's the difficulty for me: I am disabled because my autism has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on my ability to do normal daily activities.

Well, kinda. I make reasonable adjustments for myself all the time through my coping mechanisms. If I can't stand the sound of my work colleague munching through a pot of carrot sticks, I'll make the team their tea and coffee. I win brownie points for being nice and we all chuckle that I have hit my record of making five cups without spilling it. My dyspraxia rather makes carrying hot drinks tricky so I am rather pleased that one of the ladies got a high sided tray that'll fit five cups in it. I am happy to do shuttle runs between the kitchen and office as it rests my eyes from the computer monitor.
By the time I am back with the last cup the carrot muncher has finished.

And also since HR has now listened to the doctor (I am hoping!), my new desk location will not cause me any substantial or negative issues within my working environment.
Perhaps too my husband and child and other people in my life will understand how I operate and change their behaviour in such a way that they don't put me through unnecessary upset. It comes through understanding autism and me speaking up when something is upsetting.

With all these informal and formal adjustments in place, I wonder if actually I now would be considered disabled under the EA2010?!! And yet if I wasn't legally recognised as disabled, I wouldn't then be able to have reasonable adjustments in the workplace.

Whoa... Seems a paradox?!