Reasonable Adjusments in the workplace - Retail

[Maisy]

Hi all, sorry for all the questions!!, i have a long term sickness meeting on tuesday, and its mainly too discuss sickness etc, but also any reasonable adjusments that can be made, there is stairs in the building, and i work with the public, any ideas ?, the ones on google are a bit mundane, and all around offices!!

 

[Fedup]

Maisy

That is a hard question to answer really, a lot depends on the company you work for and how willing they are to be helpful. A lot of the time they can want to take you out of the public eye the good side of that is they can can give you more flexible time. It would be a good idea to get a trade union involved although they might have stipulated at the start you did not join one but this does not stop you getting representation or ideas from them. So it might be a good idea to talk with Citizens advice bureauo.

 

[Maisy]

I have no time for the CAB overbooked and rude in my town anyways, i may phone mind, and retail trust, it is a tough one, mainly just seeing if anyones been through it, my company are fantastic, i am in a union or i did try join one but thankyou Fedup

 

[Fedup]

Maisy

I feel much the same about cab so talk with the trade union please.

 

[kirsten]

Only you know what you can handle at work. You need to consider what sort of seizures you're having and what you need to do to keep safe.

Still, the most important change I needed to make when I was working for a boss was to get to know how much stress I could tolerate before it affected my health and how many hours I could work without it causing seizures. It was incredibly difficult for me to admit that I didn't quite have the same capacity for long hours and high stress as others did, but I really needed my employers to allow me to adjust to my health as I went along since there was no way for me to predict when I was going to end up in a seizure cycle. I needed to be able to take a day off work after a tonic clonic and I needed to take four days or so off if I started having many seizures. I needed to be able to do so without guilt, since taking time off work caused me so much stress purely from being scared of the consequences that my days off were barely worth it. Unfortunately I never did find any employers in the retail sector who were willing to make adjustments for my health.

I started working for myself in November 2011 and I've never been healthier (or happier.) I now manage my routine according to my body and my sleep needs. My lifestyle is entirely managed and I haven't taken a sick day off work since November last year--and that was really an atypical situation--I'd landed up with a terrible reaction to my tegretol. Basically, I now give myself a lot of flexibility. I work an average of 8 hrs a day 5 days a week, and I take weekends off. Changing my routine so that I wake up really early (5am) lets me get all my work done by 2pm, which gives me a long stretch of hours during the day to rest if I need to. I shorten and lengthen work days as I need and still manage to get all the hours into the work week. I also take a long weekend every couple of months. This level of flexibility has changed my life.

Retail's six day work weeks were impossible for me to manage long term. After two years of working like that I would get horribly sick like clockwork and I'd have to take a good couple of months off work, which inevitably meant I would have to find a new job. The biggest problem I had with working for someone else was the guilt feelings I had when I did have seizures. I felt pressure when I forgot things (you might want to tell your employer about any 'shortcomings' your epilepsy and/or medication causes so that they don't get frustrated with you.

I have now worked for a good year and a half with absolute flexibility and I am not even close to needing (or wanting) to take leave yet. If I had been in retail, I would have been exhausted and ill by now. Basically, what I'm trying to put across is how important flexibility is.

 

[Maisy]

I only have 2 months left working a 39 hour week anyway, and its always weekends off so lucky in that retrospect more around what can he do too make work easier, think the only thing I. Gonna ask him is if o can take my lunch break later as I seem too have seizures early. Afternoon too mid afternoon when at work he should agree its a tough one really is but think my boss will throw some ideas anyway