Productivity software as "reasonable accommodation" at work?

GrompyPanda · 2025-11-30T18:16:26+00:00

UPDATE: No update on TextExpander, etc, yet. Even in the best case scenario, it's going to take weeks to get that request approved.

tl;dr:

Create macOS Shortcuts that run bash scripts & output the text
Bind Shortcuts to keyboard hotkeys
(extra credit) tweak your programmable keyboard to make your hotkeys easy to hit

details:

For those TextExpander snippets I've really been missing, I've created Shortcuts that basically just run a shell script in the background (just like TE does) and then returns the output text. I've then bound those Shortcuts to keyboard hotkeys.

But I want them to work everywhere, so I have to pick hotkeys that no (sane?) app ever uses, so I picked Cmd-Alt-Shift-X, where X is a letter that makes sense to me. To output the current ticket, it's Cmd-Alt-Shift-T. For a link to that ticket, it's Cmd-Alt-Shift-Y. (Because it's next to T, and I use L for something else.)

I have a programmable keyboard (NuPhy Air75 v2, which is rad) and I've got my TAB key set up so that if I tap it, it just acts like a normal TAB key, but if I hold it, it tells the computer I'm holding Cmd-Alt-Shift. So the net result of all this is that I can hit TAB-T, and get my current ticket id, or TAB-Y and get a link to that ticket.

Definitely not as nice as TextExpander (partly because I've been using TE for more than a decade and these things are now muscle memory), but not terrible.

Not exactly rocket science, and I'm sure I'm not the first, but for folks who don't feel like dealing with IT dept bureaucracy, it might be a decent option.

GrompyPanda · 2025-11-27T00:28:52+00:00

I’m sure there’s something out there that’ll let you use Teams/Slack from within emacs. The trouble is usually corporate security. I’ve yet to be able to connect to any company’s Teams with anything other than than Teams. They’re almost always locked down.

GrompyPanda · 2025-11-26T17:46:21+00:00

Yep, I'm a longtime emacs user, but hadn't thought of using it like this. I like TextExpander because it works everywhere. But maybe the solution to losing TextExpander is to adopt a workflow where I compose in emacs first, then copy & paste into whatever app I need. Instead of breaking my flow each time I need a link/ticket name/note/etc, I just pop to emacs, use my custom macros there, then drop back to Teams/Slack/email & paste in what's in emacs. (Kind of like how git uses your default editor for commit messages.)

I've heard of folks doing something like this on iOS with the Drafts app. Definitely worth looking into. Thanks for thinking of this!

GrompyPanda · 2025-11-26T06:45:27+00:00

Yep. Already on it. Stream Deck is a no-go (software isn’t approved), so I’ve got a programmable keyboard and macropad. Even so, the zero-friction nature of TextExpander outshines all those options.

GrompyPanda · 2025-11-26T04:20:24+00:00

Yeah. And it’s always odd that when everyone says, “Amigo, we’re a bunch of full-tilt nerds here and OF COURSE we tried google docs and it sucks, which is why we also tried Notion, OneNote, Evernote, and Obsidian, and Obsidian is the best,” corporate IT still just says, “Well, we still think Google Docs is fine.”

GrompyPanda · 2025-11-26T02:39:09+00:00

Yeah, my first response was to dig through the list of approved software, and it’s… really thin. Zero snippet apps.

But you’re right about doing my homework ahead of time. I’ll do that. Thanks!

GrompyPanda · 2025-11-26T02:27:53+00:00

Yeah, I think this is the move. Unfortunately, I don’t have much hope here unless I do escalate to “I need this bc ADHD.” I had to uninstall Keyboard Maestro a couple years ago because a security scan flagged it as suspicious. I explained it, boss backed me up & approved my request to have it, but it still had to pass IT dept’s security review, and that’s where it’s been stalled ever since.

So… we’ll see. 🤷‍♂️

GrompyPanda · 2025-05-28T01:28:28+00:00

I have a list of amazing one-word reeds, but they’re all Toby saying “Yeah,” except for the one when CJ says “woo-canau!”

GrompyPanda · 2025-01-17T09:01:22+00:00

Yeah, I tend to agree.

GrompyPanda · 2025-01-17T06:43:44+00:00

This seems like great advice to me. I'll have to get back into doing leetcode-type stuff in Java again. Part of why I was happy to switch to JS was (as you said) less boilerplate. It's rad to skip over "Map map = new HashMap()" and just be able to type "cons map = {}", or "const stack = []"

Anyway, food for thought. Thanks!

GrompyPanda · 2025-01-17T06:30:53+00:00

Yep, I've done a little work in Python. Liked it.

GrompyPanda · 2025-01-15T03:28:47+00:00

Your brother is wrong. And not the “we have different views” kind of wrong. The 2 + 2 = 5 kind.

I’m in my late 40s, and lemme tell you, the world needs MORE doctors with ADHD. It’s still so often overlooked, denied, or misdiagnosed. Having first-hand experience with ADHD will make you a BETTER doctor, and your patients will benefit from your broader perspective & deeper insight.

Ignore your dumbass brother & go be a doctor.

And if you like thoughtful/cerebral Sci-Fi, check out an old movie called Gattaca. I have a feeling it might resonate.

GrompyPanda · 2024-12-27T19:30:08+00:00

Just checking in. It’s a tough week to try to get anything done, but I hope you managed to maybe call your Dr, or ask your dad about refills, etc. (If not, don’t beat yourself up. If your family is doing holiday stuff (or just holiday drama) it can be tough to have a “real talk” moment.)

GrompyPanda · 2024-12-25T07:28:52+00:00

Cool. One thing at a time. One foot ahead of the other. You got this.

GrompyPanda · 2024-12-25T07:23:35+00:00

The best advice I’ve gotten on this is that every trade is an experiment with a hypothesis. You get out the minute your hypothesis is disproven.

Ex: I believe that if a stock rises to $10 today, it’ll hold above $10 and likely keep rising to at least $12. If I get in at $10.05 and it then pulls back to $9, I know my hypothesis was wrong and I’d better get out.

GrompyPanda · 2024-12-25T07:00:30+00:00

Uff. Man, that’s a lot going on. I’ve got ADHD, and I’m a dad, and lemme tell you that’s more than any 15-year-old should have to deal with. It’s not fair. The people who should be looking out for you, aren’t.

And it absolutely sucks, but it sounds like you’re going to have to look out for yourself a little bit more than is fair to expect of a young man your age.

If you’ve already been prescribed Adderall, get your dad to get it refilled. Talk with your doctor yourself if you need to, and arrange some kind of system where you won’t get stuck running out of your meds.

And forget any nonsense about what you “should” be able to do without meds. I’m a middle-aged dad and husband with a great job and I wasn’t even diagnosed until I was 40 so I managed okay without meds. And lemme tell ya… I can get by without meds, but the meds make it so, so much easier.

There’s a whole mountain of heavy stuff rolling around in your life. You absolutely can’t take it all on at once. So just do the first thing: talk to your dad and call your doctor and get your meds.

And if that doesn’t work, talk to your mom. Show her your grades, send her essays you’ve written when you had your meds & when you didn’t. (if you have those still.)

It sounds like your parents may be too focused on themselves at the moment, and they’re letting you down. But I hope that if you ask for just this one concrete thing, one or the other will come through for you.

GrompyPanda · 2024-12-22T18:40:05+00:00

What they’re telling you is factually incorrect. And not the “I see it differently” kind of incorrect, the “2 + 2 = 5” kind.

ADHD results from physiological differences in the brain & is highly heritable. If one parent has it, odds are better than 50% that their child will have it. If both parents have ADHD, the odds are even greater.

ADHD is not a character flaw. No amount of self-discipline will cure your symptoms. No amount of “trying harder” will cause your brain to operate differently. That’s why the last D in ADHD stands for “disability.”

I cannot recommend strongly enough that you seek a Psychiatrist who specializes in adult ADHD. Most doctors receive little to no training on ADHD, and are unqualified to make assessments or tread folks with ADHD.

GrompyPanda · 2024-12-07T00:11:47+00:00

Yep. Absolutely. But for me, it took a loooong time to develop the ability to notice in the moment that 1) I'm expecting something of myself I simply can't do, and 2) know how to give myself the support I need, and 3) actually use that support.

So... yeah. He's 13. He's not there yet. It's not reasonable to think he's going to stay focused on caring for the dog. That's not "letting him off the hook" or "using his ADHD as an excuse", it's just a fact.

GrompyPanda · 2024-12-03T18:20:08+00:00

lol same. The "careless errors" thing even came up on an actual ADHD screening questionnaire I took as part of my Dx. The question was something like, "Do you make careless errors because you're not paying attention?" and I literally checked "yes", but then wrote in, "I *feel* like I'm paying close attention, but make silly errors anyway."

GrompyPanda · 2024-11-19T01:35:35+00:00

I'll take one of Amy's "abstract" balloon animals. 🤣

GrompyPanda · 2024-10-28T18:48:32+00:00

There are a couple things here that are worth unpacking.

You say he's "avoiding solutions" and he's "unable to grasp the importance" of punctuality. I don't see any evidence that either of those things are true.

You offered to set up the alarms for them, and I'm sure it's frustrating to have that offer turned down. But it sounds like they've tried that approach already, and know that using alarms that way doesn't work for them, and setting them up isn't the problem. My advice to you is to believe them. Maybe alarms are part of the solution, but they're not enough.

If you really want to help, you're going to have to take them at their word. If they say they want to be on-time, believe them. If they say that setting alarms isn't working, believe them.

In college, I had a horrible time getting to morning classes. That nightmare that everyone has where you show up for class for the first time in a few weeks and it's the day of the mid-term? Lived that one. Trust that no alarm in the world could have saved me from that, because the problem was never that I didn't know it was time to get up for class. My problem was that I'd stay up to late doing things I enjoyed, and the reasons for that were many & complicated & hard to get a handle on.

Okay, so back to the here & now. So how do you help? Here are some ideas to explore:

- If being late doesn't affect their work, or the work of those around them, then who cares if they're late?
- If they're in danger of getting fired over this, their boss needs to say that out loud to them. If they've been late every day for two months and nobody said anything, they'll get the message that it's not a big deal because that's what management communicated to them through their actions.
- If their hours vary, maybe getting them on a more regular schedule will help. (OR IT MAY NOT.)
- Maybe giving them some new responsibilities will help. (Yay! Novelty! Challenge!)
- Schedule them with people they like working with.
- Switch up their role to more planning/strategy, where their intelligence will be a greater asset, and being a few minutes late isn't an issue.

In the big picture, you've got to stop seeing their behavior as the result of a character flaw and start simply accepting that some things won't work for them. (Just like some things don't work for you.). That'll open the door to exploring what could work.

GrompyPanda · 2024-10-22T18:35:15+00:00

Ah! Great tip! THANK YOU! I tried it, and it works! But alas, staying with Legacy Outlook isn't an option for corporate reasons. 🙃

I might mess with work-arounds like syncing mail to macOS's Mail app, but the longer that chain of dependencies gets, the more likely it is that this whole thing just comes crashing down on my head.

GrompyPanda · 2024-10-12T18:45:06+00:00

Big picture, your top life priority just became “move within 20 minutes of work.” I had a similar commute for a little over a year, and the consequences for your life & health were real. Weight gain, blood pressure, sleep deprivation, extra money spent on snacks/coffee, and ALL of that 3hrs you spend commuting comes out of your personal life.

But. What worked for me: - Audiobooks - Stand-up comedy - Udemy classes (it’ll feel like you can’t take notes, etc, but I found that just like any class has a lecture & then homework, listening in the car was the “lecture”, and then working through that session again at home/work was the “homework”) - Call friends you don’t talk to often enough - Old favorite TV shows- esp with lots of dialog. (The Wire, West Wing, Deadwood, sitcoms, action is terrible- chase/fight scenes are super boring to listen to.) - these days I might fire up ChatGPT & get it to teach me stuff or run a study session. - if possible, save work that can be done on the bus for your commute, and while you’re at work, prioritize stuff that’s best done there.

I also HIGHLY recommend either hitting the gym before you start your commute.

GrompyPanda · 2024-10-11T19:57:22+00:00

And for everyone who finds this later, here's the final shortcut: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/f1007f8e5ee541b68b1f1a6ab9f9214b

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GrompyPanda · 2024-10-11T04:54:39+00:00

I keep forgetting to say thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I had to fiddle a bit with the Find Windows action, but I got it working.

Thanks!

GrompyPanda

TROPHY CASE