The Productive Pessimist

  Ageism is often seen as exclusively about protecting older  people. However, "age" is a protected characteristic in UK law, and means any  age . People often use "ageism" to rail against statements such as "Ok, Boomer" - but "Ok, Boomer" relates to a mindset  - the mindset that says "the way I  do things is the best  way!",  "people don't have a right to be themselves  - they have to fit in, because that's what I  did!",   "I should be prioritised in every single situation!"  People of any age can have this "Boomer Mindset", while, equally, people of the "Baby Boom" generation can be very open-minded, very engaged with technology and change, and very enthusiastic about emerging trends. If you don't want to be referred to as a "Boomer", all you need to do is change your mindset. In contrast, millennials and Gen Z can't  escape accusations of "laziness",  "...

  As with mental health , neurodiversity inclusion is going to become a very present focus for UK businesses in the wake of the recent welfare reforms. Neurodiversity is also  a deeply complex aspect of inclusion, which typically requires a tailored approach designed with individual businesses - not only is every neurodiverse person different, with different sensitivities, skills, competencies, and accommodation needs, but so is every workplace.   The Productive Pessimist Ltd  offer a range of inclusive design and practice consultancy services, ranging from £15  one off costs to £8,000  yearly service support; reach out to us by email at theproductivepessimist@yahoo.com , or check out our services page  to find out more. For this blog, will be addressing a few common questions and challenges on neurodiversity, and neurodiverse inclusion in the workplace. Isn't everyone neurodivergent, though?  It's just about "seeing things differently", and ...

Disability inclusion is the art of planning for the future; when you create places and spaces that are inclusive by design, you accommodate the frailties and limitations that can come with ageing, you accommodate the way peoples' needs will change, outside of ageing, over time, as their circumstances and preferences change. Including disability from design, through build, and into completion saves resources, creates significant cost-efficiencies, and creates a consistency in development and provision which can both predict demand trends, and respond to emerging demands. Disability inclusive design isn't just about making entrances wheelchair accessible.   Disability inclusive design is about how a place is built, how space is laid out, how adaptable by individuals it is, how easily and to what degree things can be adjusted to suit individual needs and preferences. So much of the building of places and design of spaces is just an unthinking continuation of "the way we'v...

  I want  to start this post with the common rebuff from the trans community (of which I am a part); "Everybody has a gender!"  I can't , however, because that isn't true. Gender  isn't just the "polite" substitute for "sex-as-adjective".  Gender  is a psycho-emotional sense  of something that is true about oneself.  Truth is not  subjective, which is where the complexity of "gender" comes in - because "psycho-emotional sense" sounds very  subjective - it's "just peoples' feelings!"   Except it's not. What gives psycho-emotional sense its claim to being objective  truth is that it is made manifest in the way a person interacts with their society, and invites that society to interact with them.   Psycho-emotional sense may go through a period of flux - which, after all, is what puberty is for most people, and what menopause and andropause are for many people - but, in the end, after between 3-7 years, it...

  Over the next couple of weeks, we'll be introducing the individual elements of full-spectrum inclusion, which are all considered equally and combined in our inclusive design and practice consultancy  services. We're starting with Financial Inclusion , because we're approaching that time of the year when, in the UK, prices skyrocket a full four weeks before most peoples' "inflation-related-pay-increase" kicks in. (Make it make sense, UK...it's a fiscal version of kids gathering their stuff & getting to their feet the minute the bell rings, with teachers screaming "the bell is my signal, not yours!!!", completely pointlessly.) (To American "wealth influencers" - your  education in financial inclusion starts with this fact: In the UK, "presenting a record of all your achievements, and all the additional work you've undertaken, and then requesting a raise" will not work.  99% of companies here tell you at your initial in...

  The social model of disability  states that there is no "disability", in the sense of individual limitations, only "social barriers".  In its neutral form, this is simply an invitation to business and government to come together, and be guided by individuals affected by social barriers in how to create a better world. Unfortunately, very few things' neutralities survive their first exposure to human beings, and the social model of disability is no different; even in a "perfect" world, with maximal intersectional inclusion, there would still be people who had a negative experience, despite not behaving in anyway that "deserves" punishment or exclusion. (Although, in a truly maximally intersectionally inclusive world, it could be argued that no one  would "deserve" punishment or exclusion... It depends on whether there is any real possibility of educating and socialising out intolerance in others, which is very much the "elepha...

  One of the positive - if the government don't fumble it, and employers step in to provide the necessary 'assist' - elements of Labour's Welfare Reform announcements on March 18th was the "Right to Try", where claimants, including those on Limited Capacity for Work Related Activity, can engage with employment they feel they may  be able to manage alongside disabilities and health challenges, without  the risk of losing their welfare support, meaning that, if they can't  manage the workload, or an employer feels it is not safe for them to continue, they - in theory - wouldn't be required to start a new claim (which, for those currently on LCWRA, would see them receive substantially less  than their existing claim pays, obviously not a desirable outcome for anyone.) I've been around long enough, and had enough interaction with the UK's abysmal employment landscape, and encountered enough of the toxic, self-important, ableist attitudes of employe...

This morning, LinkedIn was being very Monday, very LinkedIn, not very demure, not very mindful. A woman, whose profile suggested she works in recruitment, responded, quite aggressively, to a disabled man asking why companies were still  engaging in discrimination against disabled individuals with: "Because disability is a liability, it costs money, and businesses can't expect to run up their costs to an infinite degree whilst tiptoeing around every single need people could ever possibly have." This isn't an isolated thought.  It's not often said out loud in the UK - but it always has been elsewhere in the world, and it very much is being shouted from the rooftops of the USA. And it's not just recruiters and executive leadership; it's ordinary people, meaning that, even with the most inclusive, welcoming, accommodating leadership, disabled people will still be encountering hostile environments courtesy of the able-bodied people they have to work with  on th...

Recently, an article was circulated through the UK media about "neurological issues affecting Gen Z", which were 'blamed' on "excessive reliance on noise-cancelling headphones". These 'neurological issues' are actually known as Auditory Processing Disorder, or APD. What Is APD? Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a difficulty in the brain being able to distinguish background noise from speech, but with hearing tests returning "normal" results. This is a tricky issue, because some people in the early stages of hearing loss will struggle in exactly this way, however their hearing test may come back as in a 'normal range'. As with all medicine, sometimes doctors fail to pick something up that could be managed or may be part of a wider issue. However, where this is relevant to neurodiversity is that these issues combined with a normal result hearing test, are a hallmark for Auditory Processing Disorder (APD). APD can occur for a va...