my boss told me to stop taking the short breaks that make me good at my job
A reader writes:
I am in a job that has very strict metrics. I am extremely good at my job, I’m actually a top performer and have one of the highest productivity scores in the company in my field (with hundreds of employees in my role across the country).
I also have autism that greatly affects how I work. I work mainly from home, but go in office a few days a month. On those days I have to take anxiety medication, and I keep to myself the best I can. There is no applicable reason for me to be in office, but the company requires it.
Recently they have implemented software that tracks our minute-by-minute productivity. The way I work isn’t like other people. I will do a lot of work in a small amount of time, then take five minute breaks to do sudoku. This is what I’ve always done and, again, by every measure I am a top performer.
My manager met with me about how I have too much “free time.” I explained my process, but it didn’t matter. They will not allow me to have multiple five-minute “paid breaks,” as they referred to them, on top of my two 15-minute breaks and my 30-minute lunch.
This last week was the first time I completely cut out my sudoku breaks, and I can’t do it. My productivity came crashing down. I had a panic attack and a meltdown. I’m couldn’t come in on my scheduled office day, and this week so far I’ve been on PTO.
I know this is because I’m autistic, and I know I could submit an ADA accommodation to get those breaks back, but that will take a month minimum, and in the meantime they will likely put me on PIP.
Can you help me organize this in my head so I can make my point to my supervisors that I am more productive with my breaks than I am without them? Apparently just saying it isn’t getting it across, and watching me crash out is probably having a highly negative effect on my career instead of bringing any amount of awareness.
This is absurd — you have one of the highest productivity scores in the company among hundreds of employees in your role, and they have a problem with you taking periodic five-minute breaks? The very breaks that are what allow you to maintain that high productivity? This is one of the wildest examples of focusing on the exact wrong thing that I’ve ever seen here.
Breaks that allow you to maintain high productivity are absolutely a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act and you should start the formal accommodation process with HR today. Then you should say this to your boss: “I’ve submitted a formal request to HR under the Americans with Disabilities Act to continue taking the same breaks I’ve taken up until now, because they’re necessary due to a health condition and are what allow me to maintain the productivity that I’ve been praised for previously. While that’s in process with HR, I am asking to be allowed to continue taking these short breaks since they’re medically necessary. I will of course continue to meet the performance standards for my position.”
If they’ve given you reason to seriously think they’d put you on a PIP over this — which is outrageous — you should also say, “If there are concerns about my performance or any possibility of performance action while my accommodation request is pending, I would appreciate being able to discuss those concerns with HR so that the accommodation request and its potential impact on my evaluation can be considered.”
And for the record, this is BS! Your manager isn’t just missing the forest for the trees; they’re missing the forest for a single leaf.
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