Tell HR once what social anxiety changes for you, instead of pleading for each accommodation
A file handed to the HR department, and a QR to open. The person who reads it sees why impromptu meetings and speaking up in a group cost so much, and what genuinely helps day to day. Accommodations are discussed from there, not after an awkward clarification.
This case involves a 28-year-old woman who lives with social anxiety, in a new job. She wants her manager and the HR department to have the right cues, without having to explain the way she works out loud in front of the team.
The moment that matters
Replying to an email with ten people in copy takes three drafts and a knot in the stomach. Marwa, 28, has just been hired. On paper everything is fine, but every team meeting costs her a sleepless night, speaking up in front of the group tightens her throat, and an impromptu group lunch can ruin her morning. She knows she is effective when she is allowed to prepare and not put on the spot in public. What remains is to say so without coming across as someone who shirks.
During the onboarding meeting, she hands the HR contact a file in which she has slipped a card with her QR. The contact opens it that same evening. In a few lines, she reads what Marwa wrote herself: social anxiety, which has nothing to do with a lack of motivation or skill, and what concretely helps her, being given notice before being asked to speak, using writing for sensitive points, not having her absences at informal moments commented on. HR passes on the essentials to the manager. The accommodation request moves forward without a meeting where Marwa would have had to lay everything out in front of witnesses.
No argument to repeat with each new request, no questioning look when she turns down an after-work event, no reputation as a distant colleague taking hold before anyone even knows her. Marwa set the frame once, in writing, and her work speaks for the rest.
- You write it
- The QR is in place
- The reader scans
- Understood, without explaining again
Where to place the QR for this case
In a professional setting, the QR is not displayed on a desk visible to everyone. It circulates through HR channels and stays accessible to the people who decide on accommodations, at the moment they need it.
- Card slipped into the HR file handed over during the onboarding meeting or a check-in with the disability contact.
- Link in a direct message to the manager, shared before a period full of meetings or travel.
- Discreet label on the work diary, printed from an A4 label sheet (standard template), kept to oneself.
- Link in the signature of the internal mail, which each person can open at their own pace, with no procedure.
The rule here: it is the person concerned who chooses to whom she opens her profile. The QR offers an explanation, it exposes nothing to the rest of the open space.
Pre-written text templates
Three outlines to adjust to your situation. They open the sections a professional reader looks at first: who you are at work, what helps you, and what makes the tension worse. Starting points, not sentences to copy as they are.
For the "Introduction" section
"My name is [first name], I work as [job]. I have social anxiety: group situations and impromptu speaking cost me a lot, even when I master the subject perfectly. It is neither coldness nor a lack of commitment. With a little notice, I fully play my part."
For the "How to help" section
"You can: give me notice before asking me to speak in a meeting, favour writing or a small-group exchange for sensitive topics, send me an agenda in advance, avoid putting me forward without warning, and treat a decline of a group event as a need, not as a lack of interest."
For the "What to avoid" section
"To avoid: calling on me unexpectedly in front of the group, commenting on my silences or my absences at informal moments, reading my reserve as arrogance, multiplying last-minute requests to speak, making my presence at after-work events a test of how well I fit in."
Conditions related to this case
This case relates to an anxiety condition, here centred on social and professional situations. Social anxiety is not visible and is easily mistaken for distance or a lack of motivation. The page below sets out what is at play and the supports that change daily life at work.
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View the caseThis situation is something you should not have to replay with every new person.
Every new school year, every new substitute, every appointment: you have to start all over again. myHandiQR puts an end to that. You write it once. You will no longer start from scratch at every meeting.