Re: Have you ever asked for accommodation at work for ADHD? What happened?

[ljsmith13]

The only accommodations I’ve asked for was:

1. When our team was asked to change their hours so everyone was in the office between 10 am and 4 p.m. Monday to Friday. I explained about days when I’d had little or no sleep before, and the fact that I’m just not functional on those days. Sometimes, I need the entire day to just rest, so it would be a sick day. Others, I just need to sleep a few more hours and then I could work, but needed to do so from home. The only concern expressed by our director was “Does this happen often?” and thankfully, I was able to say no. So for now, I have no problems with this.

2. Trying to get exercise in my day without impacting my evening “schedule”. I’m a diabetic, which complicates things. I’ve been told basically, exercise 2 hours after a meal, and at least 2 hours before going to bed. I normally wasn’t getting home until 6:30 in the evening, and having dinner by 7:30/8 p.m. was the norm. However, the doctor treating my ADHD, wanted me in bed and asleep by 11. Do the math – the earliest I could get to bed with my schedule, if I exercised would be almost 1 a.m. Something had to give. What I ended up doing was negotiating an extended break in the afternoon (45 minutes instead of 15) and I take a walk. Before the shift in hours for my team, one of my colleagues would leave earlier (3 p.m.) and I’d walk her down to the train station, and then walk back to work during the 45 minutes. Great exercise. Though, I’m floundering now, because she now leaves at 4, I leave at 5 p.m. and returning to the office for 15 minutes just isn’t appropriate. I’m currenlty trying to get into the office a half hour earlier so I can leave with her at 4 and just go home from the train station. (Not an easy feat for someone with delayed sleep phase syndrome who’s natural bedtime is around 3 a.m.)

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