Understanding Unseen Disability
Posted by Tess at 4.24pm on 26 June 2008
Today we’ve been delivering workshops at a diversity conference organised by Glasgow Caledonian University.
We all make assumptions about other people based on our existing beliefs, experience and way of making sense of the world. These assumptions then affect how we relate to them. A person’s ‘odd’ behaviour may be experienced by colleagues as offensive because they assume it is intentional.
So-called ‘invisible disabilities’ like mental (ill)health and conditions such as autism and dyslexia create challenges for individuals because we are all so good at making assumptions. In our workshops, drama is used to startle participants into recognising the importance of asking a question rather than leaping to a conclusion.
The scenario we were using today explores autism and follows a complaint made about a colleague which a manager then has to deal with. It takes a while for her to discover what lies behind this complaint, and what she learns challenges her own world view as well as that of the complainant.
For more information please contact Glen Robertson.
Tags: disability, equal opportunities, Performance Management
5 April 2009 at 7:10 am
I’d like to add to your blog a comment about people who become disabled via chronic illness – things such as fibromyalgia, arthritis, or chronic fatigue. These conditions are often dismissed as ‘yuppie flu’ but are actually very debilitating for the sufferer.
In our office there is a lady who suffers with fibromyalgia. She was always the top-deck performer with a massive workload. Our colleagues had it really good, because she would pick up the slack for anyone who was off with the flu or had family commitments. When she first became ill, she didn’t disclose it because she really didn’t know how it would affect her work and she didn’t want to lose her job. She kept going at her usual pace, but faced with excruciating pain, started to take days off when her pain was bad.
She got a few poor reports, and finally copped to being so ill. Her manager was sympathetic and reduced her workload to allow her to cope, but it had the knock on effect that her colleagues had to take up extra work. It caused so much resentment that she eventually left her job.
How would you suggest that this could have been handled better?
Kate