Someone's asked for a change at work. Do you have to say yes?
Reasonable adjustments in practice, for line managers, HR and people teams.
This is for you if
Someone asks to work from home more, change their hours or take extra breaks
A candidate asks for extra time or a different kind of interview
Someone asks for a change and your first thought is whether you can afford it
Something was agreed years ago and nobody has checked whether it still works
Someone's work has changed and nobody has asked whether anything else has
Do I have to say yes? What if they ask for something huge? What if I get it wrong?
Requests for changes at work, what the law calls reasonable adjustments, come up all the time, and lots of managers aren't sure what they're meant to do with them. Most organisations have a process, but it often doesn't help much when a real person asks for something.
What we'll cover
What counts as an adjustment, and how often it costs nothing
What to do with a request when you don't know the answer yet
What "reasonable" means in practice, and why cost is rarely the thing that decides it
What to do about adjustments agreed years ago that nobody has looked at since
Who it's for. Line managers, HR and people teams, recruiters, senior leaders, and anyone who receives, decides on or puts these requests into practice. No prior knowledge needed and no law required.
Bring a situation you're stuck on. Send it when you register if you'd rather not say it out loud, and I'll cover it without naming you.
45 minutes, then 15 for questions. Google Meet, live captions on. Everyone who registers gets the recording with captions and the slides, whether or not you make it.
The hour is free. At the end I'll mention The Margin, a smaller paid working session in late January for managers who want to go further.
I'm Hugh O'Keeffe, a disability, access and inclusion consultant. I help employers and the organisations that serve the public, and I sit on the Civil Aviation Authority's Consumer Panel. I've supported over 400 UK employers, and I chaired the national conference Supporting Disabled People in the Workplace in 2025. I'm disabled myself.
I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice.
Want this session run privately for your team? See how I work with organisations.