Moving to a new office - access issues

crushedvelvet

My workplace are moving us to a new office. I have mobility issues which make walking distances painful, getting up and down stairs takes a lot of effort and causes alot of pain. It's obvious to watch me that I'm having trouble and it's embarrassing.

The office I work from now has a lift, and disabled parking very close by. The new office has no lift so I would need to get up and down stairs, there is also very limited parking. I've shared these difficulties and just been told to take my time on the stairs, and to park in a nearby street and take my time walking back - could be a 10-15 minute walk, but I also can't be late for work either. I have also been told my hours will change. Instead of working 8-3 I will be working 2-8. I will struggle to stay awake until 8pm and this will mess with my evening meditation. Part of my condition is extreme tiredness, mostly affecting me after 5pm when the day catches up with me. Going back to bed is not an option once I have got kids to school as the pain has kicked in cos I'm awake.

I don't feel like I'm being listened to. It's not a big issue to my employer but to me these are big obstacles in the way of a job IL struggle to do once the changes are made. They say it's in my contract that they can make these changes so basically it's tough, leave. We are call centre staff and obviously not valued.

crushedvelvet

Not meditation - I have evening medication to take.. ooops

Rosie_Scope

Hi @crushedvelvet, welcome to the community. Sorry you've having to deal with the stress of this office move, it doesn't sound ideal. MW123 has given some great answers there already. Are your employers aware of your disabilities? If so, they should be making adjustments for you so you can access your work without impacting your conditions.

There are a couple of pages that might be useful to read through on the Scope website, one about your rights regarding reasonable adjustments:

Reasonable adjustments at work | Disability charity Scope UK

And another about what you can do should your workplace fail to offer you the reasonable adjustments you need:

Failure to make reasonable adjustments and making complaints | Disability charity Scope UK

If you're discussing your access needs with your manager or HR department, it's always a good idea to get things down in writing should you need it as evidence later on. It might also be worth getting in contact with ACAS. They should hopefully be able to advise you on your rights and might be able to talk you through the best way forward:

Acas | Making working life better for everyone in Britain

Hope you can get things sorted without too much more stress!