The Curse of Inflexibility

Yesterday some of us attended a short class on multi-cultural awareness at work. One of the points the instructor made, which had little to do with the subject of the class but was nevertheless extremely important, was that the health system we work for is a great place for those who are very adaptable to the complex, ever-changing nature of the system. Such people can reasonably expect to be in demand and to be able to work there for as long as they desire. However, those who aren't so adaptable, who can't readily learn new skills and apply them don't have a rosy future there.

Well, I suppose this goes for just about any workplace. You've got to be adaptable, flexible, able to understand what's going on and learn the changes that are always occurring and use that understanding to meet the constantly shifting demands placed upon you. But what the instructor said yesterday and the way he said it hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks.

How can someone whose disability prevents him from being adaptable to complex, ever-changing circumstances make it in the place where I work or in almost any job anywhere that pays enough to live on?