Woman doubles down on ‘time blindness,’ insists it’s a real condition after backlash

A young woman who went viral for asking about “time blindness” accommodations during an interview has doubled down on her request after she was branded “entitled” and ruthlessly mocked online.

Sarah Trefren sparked a wild debate after she took to TikTok to claim she was “yelled at” for asking what accommodations there were for people with time blindness and who “struggle being on time” during a phone interview to apply for a trade school.

She claimed it was a “very reasonable question” yet the person she was with – later revealed to be her mom who was sitting in on the phone call with her – “interrupted and acted like I was asking something else”.

“Then when we were done they actually started yelling at me and saying accommodations for time blindness don’t exist and if you struggle being on time you will never be able to get a job,” Ms. Trefren said in the tearful video.

The video, which now has more than six million views, went viral within days of being posted last month and sparked major backlash.

But it appears the young woman is standing firm on her stance, making another video hitting back at the haters and further explaining what type of “accommodations” she was hoping for.

Ms. Trefren said she was hoping the trade school would offer her a “15-minute window” in which she could arrive and “more time that you’re allowed to be late”.

She explained that the school she was applying to had a rule that if a person was late more than four times they were kicked out of the program.

“When I posted the video I thought everyone would know I was referring to ADHD time blindness,” she explained, claiming she was not prepared for the “ableism” she would experience as a result.

While time blindness is not a diagnosis in itself, it is a symptom often associated with ADHD and can see people struggle with losing track of time or being unable to accurately gauge how much time has passed.

Problems that can arise from this symptom include under or over-estimating how much time a task will take, chronically missing deadlines or arriving late and constantly “losing track of time.”

Ms. Trefren hit back at claims that she was “selfish” and “think that everyone must bend their time to me because I don’t respect anyone’s time”.

“I just think that schools and businesses have a higher obligation to God and I think that their first responsibility needs to be to care for other people,” she said.

“I just think other people’s struggles and getting them help needs to come before profit.”

Her original video has since racked up more than 500,000 comments, with people slamming the young woman’s take as “absolutely ridiculous” and “idiotic”.

There were many commenters who claimed they also struggled with time management due to ADHD, but claimed it was not on an employer to accommodate for this issue.

“I have ADHD the accommodations are clocks and setting alarms and waking up earlier,” one person wrote.

“As someone with ADHD I always look at how long it will take to get to a destination and multiple alarms,” another said.

“Sure maybe time blindness is a thing, but it’s easy to combat/fix. You’re just being “lazy” or victimizing yourself if you can’t do those simple solutions I mentioned above.”

Other commenters asked how TikToker would feel if the scenario was reversed and they were negatively impacted by people being late due to “time blindness”.

“Would you accommodate your employer for paying you 5 days later due to their ‘time blindness’?” one person asked.

One added: “Does ‘time blindness’ apply when going to a movie, concert, or anything else that starts at a certain time? Or is it just work?”

Australian Occupational Therapist, Selah Dimech, responded to Ms. Trefren’s video explaining the reality behind time blindness and asking for workplace accommodations.

“I think what is tricky is she was talking about a situation about arriving somewhere on time and because of that, that is why people are enraged,” the Brisbane woman explained.

She said that if workplace accommodations negatively impact other employees, the effectiveness of the organization and work-flow then that is not something a company can reasonably implement.

“Let’s say you are starting your shift at a cafe, yes you have to be there on time otherwise there is not going to be anyone there to make people coffees, you know?” Ms. Dimech said.

“But, some examples of time blindness accommodations in certain workplace settings could be having a flexible working arrangement where if you work late on Monday you don’t have to work as much the following day, or whether it is meeting KPIs but it doesn’t matter what actual business hours you work to reach those KPIs.”

Other suggested strategies included letting employees have their phone on them to allow them to set alerts and reminders for certain things, such as an hourly alarm or vibration to help keep track of time.

“So yes, time blindness strategies are a thing, but coming to work on time, if you need to be there on time for the job, I am sorry, but that’s just something you gotta do,” Ms. Dimech said.