A single page you can hand to a manager, a supervisor or a project lead. Fill it in here and print it, or print it blank and write on it. It fits on one A4 side on purpose — a longer document gets skimmed, and a document that gets skimmed gets filed.
The whole thing is written as output and conditions: what you produce well, what produces it, what you would like to try, and what you are offering in return. That framing is not a trick to make a request more palatable. It is more accurate. Nobody works well in a vacuum, and a manager can change conditions far more easily than they can change how anyone thinks.
Read this first, and leave it on the page
This is not an assessment. It is not a diagnosis, a test, a rating or a formal request for adjustments, and nobody should use it to decide who gets a role, a project, a promotion or a place on a team. It describes conditions, and conditions are things a workplace can change. If it is being read as evidence about a person rather than about a working week, it is being read wrongly.
Plain text, ready to paste into an email
Select it all and copy. Nothing has been sent anywhere.
If you are the manager reading this
Four things that make the difference, in rough order of how much they are worth:
Agree a trial with an end date rather than a permanent change. It lowers the stakes for both of you, and it makes an honest review possible instead of an awkward one.
Change one thing about the work, not one thing about the person. Circulating papers earlier, protecting one block a week, naming whether a meeting is a discussion or a decision — these cost minutes and usually improve the output of everyone in the room, not only the person who asked.
Ask what it would take to make this available to anyone. If the change only works as a private arrangement, it will quietly become a favour, and favours get withdrawn when things get busy.
Do not put this in a file. It is a working conversation, not a record. It should not appear in a performance review, a reference, a recruitment decision or a personnel system, and it says nothing about capability.
If a formal adjustment process exists where you work, this page is not a substitute for it and should not be used as one.
When not to share this
In the middle of a performance process or a probation review. Anything you write there gets read through the frame of that process. Wait, or get advice first.
With someone you do not yet know. This works on the assumption of reasonable good faith. If you do not have evidence of that yet, one specific verbal request is a safer opening than a document.
Instead of a formal adjustment request. Where you have a right to a formal process, that route is stronger, carries obligations for the employer, and does not depend on the goodwill of one manager. Use both if you like, but do not swap one for the other.
When what you actually need is a change to the job itself. If the role asks continuously for what is most expensive for you, better conditions will help at the edges and no worksheet will fix it. That is a different conversation and worth having as one.
It is also entirely reasonable to say out loud: I would rather this stayed between us and did not go into a system. Ask before you hand it over, not after.
How to use it well
Keep it to one page even when you have more to say. The version that gets acted on is short, concrete and asks for something specific with a date on it. A long document describing how you function invites a discussion about you; a short one describing conditions and output invites a decision about the work.
Take it to a conversation rather than sending it and waiting. Hand it over, walk through the two things in section four, and leave with a date.
Nothing here is saved or sent anywhere. Everything you type stays in this page and disappears when you close it, so print or copy anything you want to keep.
Written for Thought Club as general guidance, not medical advice. Free to read, print, and share.
