Merged Arday life and death

[d4m10n]

A 50Hz fluorescent tube light (in Europe) combined with a 60Hz monitor, can result in a 10 Hz component that can trigger epilepsy. That was more common in older CRT monitors, but some medical machines and other equipment still have them, and less pronounced in modern LCD, but it's there. Albeit in the latter case in the form of bands of light racing up or down the monitor.

None of these details make the proposed accommodation specific enough, because it only mentions one possible trigger out of many.

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

None of these details make the proposed accommodation specific enough, because it only mentions one possible trigger out of many.

Granted, it's just one possible trigger, and sometimes epilepsy happens without any trigger, but the point is that the employer doesn't need to know about it. If you have a doctor's note saying you should not be in front of a monitor and under a fluorescent light, that's it. They might not be able to accommodate it (e.g., if you work in a hospital with CRT monitors on some of their machines) but they're still not allowed to ask or store that in your personnel file. It not being specific enough to pinpoint the underlying medical condition is the whole point.

 

[d4m10n]

Granted, it's just one possible trigger, and sometimes epilepsy happens without any trigger, but the point is that the employer doesn't need to know about it.

If you want your employer to make reasonable accommodations, you should mention all the triggers which might be reasonably accommodated. We have Xmas lights up here in the office every December, to take just one previously mentioned example.

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

If you want your employer to make reasonable accommodations, you should mention all the triggers which might be reasonably accommodated. We have Xmas lights up here in the office every December, to take just one previously mentioned example.

I wasn't talking about that, but just about how that trigger doesn't HAVE to be something designed to blink, like Xmas lights. A fluorescent light and a CRT monitor on some old medical machine can do it just the same.

 

[d4m10n]

Just to tie this back to Arday, if he was known to use common workplaces accommodations for ASD (e.g. noise reduction, lighting adjustments, sensory tools, hybrid work) that would provide weak evidence for the inference that the diagnosis was part of the man rather than the myth built up around him.

(Pretty sure Cambridge won't be filling us in on this, and it's not exactly central to whether they acted irresponsibly by promoting someone well beyond their capabilities.)

 

[theprestige]

Just to tie this back to Arday, if he was known to use common workplaces accommodations for ASD (e.g. noise reduction, lighting adjustments, sensory tools, hybrid work) that would provide weak evidence for the inference that the diagnosis was part of the man rather than the myth built up around him.

Hogwash.

Your "common workplace accommodations for ASD" are just a list of things that a lot of office workers enjoy. If someone told me I'm probably autistic, because I use noise-canceling headphones to help me focus, prefer low-light workspaces, always have a fidget toy handy, and really enjoy having the option to work from home some days? I'd report them to HR.

I'd be livid if my boss presumed to go around telling people, oh he likes those things because he's autistic. Or if HR presumed to put "probably autistic" in my personnel file because they found out I like those things.

If a Knight of the British Empire proclaimed to the world that so-and-so was autistic because someone saw him using noise cancelling headphones and assumed he must have been autistic, my conclusion would be that the entire OBE is full of ◊◊◊◊, and that we shouldn't trust a word that comes out of the mouth of anyone possessing the title.

---

I tried to explain this to @Vixen , back when she was harping on how LJMU found nothing wrong with Arday's doctoral thesis. That doesn't elevate Arday, it degrades LJMU.

When Cambridge sees fit to make him a professor? That doesn't elevate Arday, it degrades Cambridge.

When Nafir Afzal OBE begs the question that Arday was autistic, it just degrades Afzal and the OBE.

---

Seriously, your Devil's Advocacy is failing so hard that Satan has already settled out of court and moved on to his next scheme.

 

[Ziggurat]

Given that his Ph.D. dissertation and his other qualifications are fairly questionable and arguably fraudulent, Cambridge is preemptively failing to hold itself accountable as an elite institution charged with knowledge production and dissemination.

In fairness to Afzar, his remit is narrow: he is only supposed to be investigating what Cambridge did or failed to do to provide support to Arday after ◊◊◊◊ blew up. That's a very different issue to whether and how Cambridge failed to properly screen him before hiring or address the plagiarism accusations afterwards. Cambridge should absolutely do such an investigation, and I'm not confident that they will, but I'm ok with it being a separate investigation from this one.

 

[d4m10n]

I'd be livid if my boss presumed to go around telling people, oh he likes those things because he's autistic.

Presumably this is because you aren't openly and proudly autistic, as Arday claimed to be.

If someone told me I'm probably autistic, because I use noise-canceling headphones to help me focus, prefer low-light workspaces, always have a fidget toy handy, and really enjoy having the option to work from home some days? I'd report them to HR.

That seems like a wild overreaction to me—there's nothing remotely wrong with being somewhere on the autism spectrum or (coincidentally) being into the same things which bring many such people a modicum of relief from sensory overload—but you do you.

 

[Ziggurat]

there's nothing remotely wrong with being somewhere on the autism spectrum

Have you ever met someone on the very disabled end of the autism spectrum? There very much is something wrong with being unable to even care for yourself. It's not your fault, but this "neurodivergence" idiocy that autism is just a difference not a disability is profoundly misguided.

 

[d4m10n]

Have you ever met someone on the very disabled end of the autism spectrum?

Never in offices packed with postgraduate students and post-docs, no. We're talking about high-functioning autists at an elite university, and you're changing the subject by sliding down the spectrum.

 

[theprestige]

Presumably this is because you aren't openly and proudly autistic, as Arday claimed to be.

That seems like a wild overreaction to me—there's nothing remotely wrong with being somewhere on the autism spectrum or (coincidentally) being into the same things which bring many such people a modicum of relief from sensory overload—but you do you.

There is absolutely something wrong with a co-worker openly speculating about my possible medical conditions in the workplace.

But you're right. It was an overreaction. First I'd tell them their speculation was unwelcome and ask them to stop. If they didn't, then I'd go to HR.

 

[Emily's Cat]

Seriously, your Devil's Advocacy is failing so hard that Satan has already settled out of court and moved on to his next scheme.

Unrelated: We have way too many emoticons, and a ton of them I've never seen used by anyone ever. Like... who is Lisa anyway?

 

[theprestige]

Presumably this is because you aren't openly and proudly autistic, as Arday claimed to be.

And you're right back to assuming Arday was autistic just because he said he was. With the extra steps of "well he likes noise reduction in the workplace" and "he likes having a hybrid work arrangement" to help you with the inference. An inference which is entirely gratuitous, since (a) you're prepared to believe him in the strength of the claim alone, and (b) it's not like our Heroic Knight of the Seven Empires ever actually saw Arday make use of these 'accommodations'.

---

And you're still hung up on the bizarre idea that if his boss sees him using noise-canceling headphones that's tantamount to his employer having his autism* on record. At some point I'm going to have to transition from inferring neurodivergence to inferring neurodisorder.

 

[Steve]

Unrelated: We have way too many emoticons, and a ton of them I've never seen used by anyone ever. Like... who is Lisa anyway?

Lisa used to be an admin. Everything was her fault.

 

[d4m10n]

And you're right back to assuming Arday was autistic just because he said he was.

"claimed to be."

With the extra steps of "well he likes noise reduction in the workplace" and "he likes having a hybrid work arrangement" to help you with the inference.

We do not know those things about him and cannot make that inference, you are referring to a hypothetical scenario.

An inference which is entirely gratuitous, since (a) you're prepared to believe him in the strength of the claim alone

As I said earlier, ordinary claims require ordinary evidence.

 

[d4m10n]

There is absolutely something wrong with a co-worker openly speculating about my possible medical conditions in the workplace.

I really think that is context dependent. I've heard fellow Gen X workers discussing various symptoms and talking about what has worked for them, and that seems pretty harmless. At least two people are on glucose monitors and they've been known to give good advice on how to keep our glycemic indices down in the event of a mandatory pizza party/meeting. If people are quite open about their condition, I don't see any reason to treat it as conversionally taboo.

 

[Rolfe]

Seriously, your Devil's Advocacy is failing so hard that Satan has already settled out of court and moved on to his next scheme.

I am SO stealing that.

 

[theprestige]

I really think that is context dependent. I've heard fellow Gen X workers discussing various symptoms and talking about what has worked for them, and that seems pretty harmless. At least two people are on glucose monitors and they've been known to give good advice on how to keep our glycemic indices down in the event of a mandatory pizza party/meeting. If people are quite open about their condition, I don't see any reason to treat it as conversionally taboo.

Cool. Let us know if you ever get tired of begging the question of Arday's autism. Maybe if you hold out long enough, King Chuck will make you a knight of the realm for your troubles.

 

[d4m10n]

Let us know if you ever get tired of begging the question of Arday's autism.

#1,630

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

Just to tie this back to Arday, if he was known to use common workplaces accommodations for ASD (e.g. noise reduction, lighting adjustments, sensory tools, hybrid work) that would provide weak evidence for the inference that the diagnosis was part of the man rather than the myth built up around him.

Well, it would sure make it more plausible, but there are lots of reasons for some of those, so it's hard to be sure.

I've had lots of coworkers and friends use headphones with some form of noise reduction, and I don't think most were autistic. And generally they're all the rage these days. One good reason is that big office rooms can get really noisy. I actually bought a DB meter off amazon and measured literally 92dB when three groups were trying to talk over each other. I sent a photo of it to the small company's owners and to HR with a link to the law that said at that level they have to buy us hearing protection. Same applies on the bus, train, plane, etc. Another is that open can headphones also broadcast the sound AROUND you. I've had colleagues who used those and trust me, the whole room could hear their music. So it's just the decent thing to do to use the kind that don't effectively act as speakers. And if you don't, I'll refer you to the previous reason for why you'd want some sound insulation yourself.

Lights are also not just an autistic thing. Many people are just plain old photophobic. Or epileptic. As I was saying, CRT and fluorescent light tubes can turn into a strobe light. At very low strobe frequencies they'd just make it impossible to concentrate for most people. Just because it's distracting AF.

Etc.

One thing that makes me wonder though, is that a common (but not universal) symptom of autism is seriously disliking big crowds because they're chaotic. In my case, it can actually make my muscles tense up for fight or flight (and then my brain goes, "I'm not a bird, I don't do flight" which is even scarier as a reaction to a crowd,) and I'm only Asperger's. Professor... is probably not a job most autistic people would go for. Like, have you seen a college hallway when the bell rings and have to go somewhere else? Yeah, you did. A former non-verbal autistic person, probably even more so. Their biggest speaking problem, when/if they start to overcome it at all, is around strangers.

Also the most common symptom of autism and ADD is a very narrow focus of interest, and going super-focused when doing it. (Which can change at various points, granted.) Like, someone might be obsessive about all kinds of trains ever, but not give a flip about bus models. It's somewhat uncommon for someone to just suddenly go from philosophy to teaching sociology, but then it's not impossible. I mean, I switched myself from physics to history, but still not to a people job. Autistic people are inherently bad with people.

But, as I was saying, people have different symptoms, so it's not a guarantee.