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How One’s Fixation for Time Solved Office Tardiness

Maria Feona Imperial | September 26, 2017

As reported in VERA Files

Someone running late for work

Hyperfixation is a symptom usually associated with conditions like ADHD, autism, and other forms of neurodivergency. Essentially, it's when someone is completely immersed in something. Depending on the manifestation, it can prove to be detrimental or tolerable for an individual.

"Osel", a person with autism, experiences a fixation for time. His fixation to might seem odd to some people. Sometimes, he would hold an alarm clock and start speaking incessantly about time zones. This, however, turns out to be an instrument in solving a popular drugstore chain branch's issue on tardiness among their employees.

At one instance, two employees complained about inconsistencies in their time records. Osel, who was an inventory processing clerk at the time, was called up by the management. It was revealed that he had been keeping unofficial logs of tardy employees. Having this record in hand, the two employees could not object to Osel's case as people with autism are also known to have low propensity for lying.

Following this incident, Osel's fixation was recognized and resourced by making him the official timekeeper. As the final arbiter of tardiness complaints, hardly do the employees contest their time records. Since then, seldom do people in their office come to work late.

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Erratum: Upon contact with Osel's partner organization, it was clarified that Osel uses he/him pronouns.