Christine Joy D.

Morales_1st year BSA (Purposive Communication)

Position Paper About Adjusting in a

Workplace
Workplace is the location at which an employee provides work for an employer.
The workplace is located in a variety of settings such as offices, it can be a manufacturing
facilities or factories, a stores, farms, out-of-doors, and in any other location where work
and duty is being performed. As the proliferation of innovated communication, some of
employers are no longer expected to always provide a kind of workplace wherein a
physical location at which employees do their work. Telecommuting work arrangements,
Home offices and also worldwide employment relationships between two parties mean
that almost any location, including employee’s home can also serve as and can accurately
be called as a workplace. As today’s knowledge economy, workplace can be a bit more
complex considering a lot of adjustments.

I. In a workplace, consider why there is a need to adjust whether an employee and

employer like it or not. Under the DDA, an adjustment is considered reasonable
unless it causes “unjustifiable hardship” to the employer or organization.
Unjustifiable hardship could be in the form of financial cost, an amendment to the
physical building that is not possible due to council or other restrictions, or an
adjustment that would disadvantage other employees.
There are a number of factors to take into account when considering whether an
adjustment is reasonable:

 The effectiveness of the adjustment in assisting the employee with disability to

perform their job
 The practicality of the adjustment
 The extent of any disruption caused to business operations
 The financial or other costs of the adjustment
 The extent of the organization’s financial and other resources
 The availability of financial or other assistance to help make the adjustment (e.g.
the Employment Assistance Fund)
 The nature of business activities and size of the organization

II. Examples of workplace adjustments that create an inclusive environment include:

 Allowing a person with disability to have some flexibility in their working hours,
such as working part-time or starting and finishing later, or teleworking for part of
the week
 Redistributing minor duties (i.e. not inherent requirements of a job) that a person
with disability finds difficult to do
 Purchasing or modifying equipment, such as speech recognition software for
someone with vision impairment, an amplified phone for a person who is hard of
hearing, or a digital recorder for someone who finds it difficult to take written
notes
Christine Joy D. Morales_1st year BSA (Purposive Communication)

 Providing additional training, mentoring, supervision and support

 Providing an Auslan interpreter or captioning for a Deaf employee
 Providing agendas in electronic formats for people who find it difficult to
manipulate pages
 Height-adjustable work stations

III. Ask for working arrangements

 You can ask for changes to your working conditions, such as:
o a phased return to work;
o a change to your working hours
o home working;
o time off to attend treatment or rehabilitation;
o help with transport to and from work.
A phased return, or any change to working hours, allows you to help readjust to your
workload and routine, which can help with your recovery.

 Consider your Workplace itself

If your illness or injury was caused by a work-related hazard or work equipment, or your
disability requires alterations to your workstation, you can ask for adjustments to your
workplace, such as:
o improving accessibility to the premises;
o altering or adapting workspaces to accommodate your needs;
o purchasing specialist furniture or equipment to help you with your work;
o moving or recalibrating equipment to improve safety.

Adjustments in workplace is considered in order to change (something) so that it

fits, corresponds, or conforms, to adapt and accommodate, to put in good working order;
regulate; bring to a proper state or position, to adjust an instrument, also to settle or bring
to a satisfactory state, so that parties are agreed in the result and most of all to adjust our
differences. Through it Insurance will gain and systematize will notice.