Need some advice: how to approach boss with a work problem

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So, this might be kind of long as there is some background information, but I'd like your opinions or what you might do yourself if you were in this situation. I can understand though if you choose not to read/comment due to length.

I teach at a university in a special program for international students learning English before they start their academic studies. My job is mostly teaching with some other duties mixed in. Occasionally we might get a release time duty, in which we do other duties for the program in exchange for a lighter teaching load.

At the beginning of this semester, my boss asked me if I’d like to do data analysis for the program for a .2 release. I had a full teaching load before this and one class equivalent to a .2 load was dropped. I’ve done the data analysis before and the hour equivalent is that I am expected to spend about 6-8 hours per week for the .2 release. I said yes I would like to do the data analysis instead of teaching the class, and my class was dropped.

Today I found out through email without being consulted that I am now expected to be on call for substitution for 8 hours a week, which is a different release time also worth a .2. However, I am also still assigned to data analysis. This puts me .2 over my contract hours. I ‘very’ briefly talked to my boss today and she kind of implied that if I sub during the week, I would spend that X amount of hours less on the data. But there are others who are subbing who do NOT have a second release time for the same hours. And there are others on release time who are NOT expected to double duty and sub along with it. I have no idea why I was selected to do this, and also why I was not consulted. I know others who are subbing as their only release time WERE consulted about it. I wasn’t.

This is a major problem for me as I absolutely HATE subbing. I’ve always hated it, and have always tried to serve the program in other ways that play to my strengths to make up for not subbing for my colleagues. I’ve only recently been diagnosed with Asperger’s, and with what I now know about it, I realize that the reason I hate subbing is because it is completely spontaneous – you don’t know when, how long, which class, how many students, what you will be teaching, what the students have learned, who the students even are, or any other number of things. Subbing causes me a lot of stress and anxiety. And the new duty I have will require me to be on call for subbing all semester, several days a week. I am not one who needs to stick to a specific routine all the time, but I do need to know at least the day before exactly what my day tomorrow will look like (and even then I still hate the subbing as I don’t know the class or what they have been studying). I need to know what I will be teaching in class, how many students, etc. I get a lot of anxiety when I don’t. Being on call for subbing for an entire semester is my idea of *insert explicative of choice here*. But how do I address this with my boss?

I realize there are two different issues here – the first is the contract hours (which I feel I can definitely request explanation and clarification on), the second is the assignment to subbing. I can see several approaches:

1) Do/say nothing and do the subbing and data analysis, hoping that it doesn’t take too much of a toll on my psych and that the stress/anxiety doesn’t cause me problems in other areas

2) Talk to my boss and explain only about the “extra” contract hours, ask for clarification why I am essentially assigned double the amount of work as other colleagues for the same .2 release. Also ask for clarification as for why others were consulted concerning the subbing and I wasn’t, and why it wasn’t mentioned to me when I was asked if I would like to drop a class for the data analysis (which I would NOT have done had I known I would be assigned to subbing in any shape or form, even though I really enjoy doing the analysis)

3) All of number 2, and also explain that subbing causes me a lot of anxiety, and I am afraid that the uncertainty of whether or not/where/what/when/who I will be teaching could potentially be detrimental to the rest of my work. Also, I could potentially offer to do yet another duty to the program in exchange for not subbing (even though I already AM assigned something in my contract for that time!!). This could backfire though as I have a nasty suspicion that I might get put in the tutoring center instead, which is almost as bad as the subbing for the same reason, AND it is intense 1-on-1 contact with students over an extended period of time – completely exhausting for me.

4) All of the above, and fully disclose that I am on the spectrum and ask for an accommodation, although it wouldn’t even really be an accommodation as subbing is NOT part of my regular job contract which I have signed. I am very nervous about disclosing as I have never done anything like it before, nor needed it, and I don’t know how my employers would react. I think they would be ok with it, but I don’t want it to backfire and somehow find myself unemployed 1 year down the line. I am fine with disclosing if I need it, but I am not sure if I am over-reacting here or not. As I said before, I was only recently diagnosed and so never had this as an option nor realized that that was what was causing me difficulties in some areas before and that an accommodation of some sort could be helpful.

So, any advice? What would you do in my situation? Are there any options or considerations that I am missing/overlooking? Thanks!!

How well do you know your boss? Employers all have different ways to react to these kinds of things. Maybe you should start by discreetly inquiring with your colleagues about precedents like this and how they were handled.