A line manager asked to see her team member's diagnosis. She wasn't prying. She wanted to help, and she assumed the label would tell her how.

I said no. That no is the design, not an obstacle.

Here is how a workplace adjustment should be built.

The occupational health clinician sees the clinical detail. That is their job and their duty of care.

The manager sees something different: what actually helps. Software that reads text aloud. A written follow-up after a verbal briefing. A quiet start before the room fills. Practical, specific, doable.

The employee decides what gets shared, and with whom. Under the Equality Act 2010, the duty is to make the adjustment, not to broadcast the reason for it.

Keep those three lanes separate, and two things happen at once. The person receives support without sharing their private health history with their boss. And the employer can later show exactly why each adjustment was made on functional grounds, if anyone ever asks.

Most adjustment processes blur the lanes. The manager ends up holding medical detail they never needed, the employee feels exposed, and the record is a shrug.

Supportive and defensible stop being a trade-off the moment that wall is designed in from the start.

So ask one question of your own process: who can see the diagnosis? If the answer includes the line manager, the wall isn't built yet.

📍Save this if you're reviewing how adjustments work where you are. And tell me in the comments where the wall usually breaks in your experience.

(General information on functional adjustment practice, not legal advice for a specific situation. Composite example, not a real client.)