Hello brains and employers of brains! As many companies have already discovered, neurodivergent brains like ours can be extremely
Valuable in the workplace, but for them to truly shine
It's important to address the challenges they face
Luckily workplace accommodations for ADHD are typically cheap easy to provide and can make a huge difference in productivity
So why aren't we using them?
Here's the challenge even when they're struggling most people with ADHD don't disclose their diagnosis at work for fear of being discriminated
Against or judged some might ask for what they need without mentioning ADHD as nearly every article about ADHD work accommodation
Suggests, but still many ADHDers feel like they shouldn't need help and never seek a single accommodation
Which means a lot of potential is being left on the table whether you're managing your own
ADHD brain or
Someone else's the goal is the same to get the best out of that brain and we can do that by making sure that brain
Even if it's the most talented one on your team is getting the accommodations it needs to minimize the impairments that often come with ADHD
How you got a lift, bruuuuuuuuuu!
Not that kind of lift that kind of LIFT, check it out it's an acronym
I'm businessing
L learn about ADHD often managers. Don't understand
How ADHD brains work which is understandable or they don't realize their employees have ADHD in the first place also understandable
So they waste a ton of time energy and even money on tactics that don't work for ADHD brains
Which understandably leads to a lot of frustration and discouragement for everyone involved when you're using the wrong users manual
It's a lot harder to get the results you want
No, you're supposed to make smoothies
So if you want your tactics to be effective it's helpful to learn what ADHD is and what it isn't
For example even the name attention deficit. Hyperactivity disorder is misleading. We don't have a deficit of attention
We have trouble regulating our attention not everyone with ADHD is hyperactive and while it is considered a disorder it can also come with
strengths being innovative entertaining great in a crisis
I did a TEDx talk about ADHD which you can see here
and I linked to some great resources about ADHD in the description below I
identify the specific challenges
ADHD is on a spectrum the symptoms and severity can be different from person to person and even from task to task so it's important
to identify that challenges specific to the ADHD brain you're working with and the
Situations in which they come up.
So you can get a better sense of where accommodations might be able to improve performance
Remember an ADHD employee may or may not disclose their diagnosis
I'll go more into that in another episode
But either way if you notice difficulty with things like prioritizing time management transitioning between tasks or any of these
ADHD friendly strategies might help if you're the one with ADHD consider talking to Human Resources about your particular
ADHD challenges, and what your options
Are you can even ask them to keep it confidential while you decide whether or not you want to disclose?
F-find accommodations that can help accommodations have to be reasonable, and they don't excuse an ADHD or from doing their job
They're just tools and strategies meant to keep us from tripping over the invisible obstacles our ADHD brains like to throw at us
So we can be our awesome shiny talented selves in other words realize our actual
Potential the best source for ideas for accommodations can be the ADHD or themselves
They usually know their challenge is best, but ask Jan org is also an amazing resource
Attention-deficit. Oh wow memory issues written checklists sticky notes trouble with prioritization provide a cheat sheet of high-priority stuff
These are really good
Accommodations like these are totally reasonable to ask for and implement and while they may seem small they can make such a difference for
Instance at my last job
I'd spend a lot of time at the end of the day when I was tired and my meds had worn off
Struggling to organize paperwork my manager is thinking it was just being lazy or riding the clock would often interrupt me with a hurry up
Which would make me lose track of what I was doing and I'd have to start over this happened a lot the solution
staplers at every workstation
Always having a stapler nearby meant I could organize my paperwork throughout my shift a couple extra staplers for me where the difference between leaving
Work happy or frustrated and whether or not and I went into overtime bonus
They were helpful for other employees too most ADHD accommodations are like this the benefits
Seriously outweigh the cost so addressing these challenges is doing everybody a favor so if you have ADHD
Ask for what you need if you employ somebody with ADHD
Encourage these requests if you're your own boss take yourself out to lunch and identify what challenges you've been running into and what might help
Ultimately it's up to the employer which accommodations to implement instead of providing staplers my manager could have simplified the organization system
Or had a co-worker help me at the end of my shift or provided organizational training for me
Which would all have been helpful accommodations
But it's usually best when possible to go with the accommodation the ADHD brain prefers because they're the ones who have to use it
Once you decide on accommodations T-Try them some accommodations like my staplers work right away
But some might require training or adjusting or altering before they fit as you try them
It's important to remember that you're testing the accommodation not the person why? there may be times when the accommodation worked out great
But something else got in the way, or it may not have worked at all
But their ADHD brain had a last-minute flash of brilliance and delivered something amazing anyway
So when you review don't judge the accommodation based on their performance
Focus on whether or not it helped and adjust and review as necessary speaking of focus while providing
Accommodations is important in minimizing an ADHDers impairments one of the best things you can do to keep an ADHD brain engaged is to
Focus on their strengths I wasn't fired from a job for being four minutes late, and my next job
I was still late sometimes, but my managers focused on my honesty and integrity my talent for making difficult customers
Happy my ability to perform well under pressure and my strong work ethic and you know what as someone with ADHD
Who has been corrected a lot I was so
Surprised and grateful for that positive feedback that I worked really hard for that employer for seven years
And I only left when my own youtube career started to take off those of us with neurodivergent brains of any kind know
What we struggle with and it's often all we see so this isn't really about sticky notes here
it's about the fundamental difference between feeling like you're good at your job and
Feeling like you just can't get it right if we look for ways to accommodate the impairments and celebrate their strengths
I believe we can lift these brains to their true potential and change every workplace for the better maybe even the world
That's it for this week if you know someone who works with an ADHD brain
Please share this video with them
And if you're someone who's interested in getting the best out of your ADHD brains and want me to come speak to your company email
in the description
Special thanks to Kevin McTaggart from HR for consulting on this episode and for our brain advocates and all our patreon brains for not only
Making this show possible, but also helping with the acronym
Thanks to them if this catches on the next time you go into an interview. You can legitimately ask do you even live bruuuuuuu?
I'll see you next week bye brains