If you have ADHD or ASD and are thriving at work, what do you do?

[TR888]

My DD11 is currently being assessed. I suspect she has inattentive ADHD because she's so disorganised, but it could also be ASD.

I worry about her. She's only young and obviously she lives at home and has our family to support her. But what will happen when she starts working? She's so messy... I have no idea what job could be good for her.

I sometimes read great stories about neuro diverse mumsnetters who love their jobs and are doing well for themselves. I need those stories now and any advice you can give me !

Thanks x

I am self employed and work from home.

Housing. High stress, every day is different, some risk to keep me interested, very interesting people. My desk looks like an office has thrown up on it!

Best though was facilitation/training. ADHD makes you an excellent facilitator. And everyone hates doing it so there will be someone willing to do the admin/set-up for you to avoid the public speaking.

ADHD and housing / development too. a lot going on, different each day, lots of short deadlines

fellow housing person!

And yes to short deadlines. I thrive on last minute.

Project manager in data science for an investment bank.

It really suits my need to want to dive in and learn every single thing about something new and then by the time my interest has waned, I get a new project.

I also have a very relaxed manager who allows me to run my work diary as I wish (start at 10/11am-6/7pm) and a previous manager who trained me up on lots of tactics to support my terrible executive function. I get noise cancelling headsets, a fixed desk in a hot desking environment and an allocated parking space. Neurodiversity is very much celebrated in our workplace and it’s the culture that makes it work so well for me. Promoted 3 times in 6 years with all this in place

There is very much a “trend” atm to make workplaces more accessible/appealing to neurodivergent talent; a charity called Neurodiversity in Business was launched this week and lots of autism charities now focus on the workplace. Try googling “Autism at Work” and see what you get!

Thanks! I'm so glad to hear housing is an option, as is self-employment. Can I ask, were you very disorganised as children and then got better in your adult years?

DS has ADHD and dyspraxia. He’s working as a maintenance man on a nature reserve. He loves practical stuff and being outside so it’s suits him to a tee.

I have both, im trying to get my own business up and running. Not exactly thriving but I've struggled with employment so self employed seems like the next logical step and it's in an area of my special interest so even if it all sucks and fails I will have had fun doing it!
There are charities that promote and advertise internshios and jobs for when she gets older, ambitiousaboutautism is one

I am self employed but still only very part time because I struggle massively. However my husband is also autistic and thrives at work as a GP. There are several surgeons/ GPs he knows that tick a lot of the boxes for autism/ have also been diagnosed

I'm a nurse and my best job by far was in ED - fast paced, task oriented, constantly changing & everything very 'immediate'.

I have ADHD but no ASD. I'm head of a fundraising team for a big non-profit. My job gets a proper pasting on Mumsnet but I love it, works really well for my ADHD brain since I never know quite what my day's going to bring. There's a structure to each year, which keeps me on track, but day to day varies a lot.

I'm also messy AF and it has never affected my work one bit . I do like being well put together and well groomed though, so I always look great, even if my desk is in chaos.

I know a lot of doctors that are neurodiverse 👍

I'm autistic, I work in data and analytics. We're all similar in my team, wouldn't be surprised if half my team were ASD.

Works perfectly for me, a team of introverts that hate any team building stuff, and like to be left in peace

I need a deadline pressure
I didn’t think this was part of adhd. But it makes sense.
Other ex strongly suspect I am.

My job is in education. Everyday different, lots of people. Get home and I am shattered.

Director in IT for a global consultancy, diagnosed with Asperger's (now HFASD) ten years ago.

My specialism is information systems architecture and analysis / data science.

I love my job, I'm very good at it, I like my colleagues and they like me.

IT is a notoriously ND-friendly niche.

I have ADHD. I work from home, self-employed. I love my job. I don't work full time, mainly because I am too disorganised and get so tired easily, but I work as many hours as I can.

@TR888

Thanks! I'm so glad to hear housing is an option, as is self-employment. Can I ask, were you very disorganised as children and then got better in your adult years?

I was horribly disorganised as a child. I'm not better now but I've learned to work with it. Hyper focus when I absolutely need to have it (for Court prep for example) so I do that when I'm feeling that way.

I use the squirrels for outside the box pilot work.

Civil service was good for me, in intelligence, research & analysis - lots of being left alone to delve into data sets and conduct analysis reports. Did struggle with 9-5 though in an office.
Then retrained as an early years teacher and work in a reception class. I do medicate daily but I love the routine of the school day and working with the little ones.

I'm in user experience design and know lots of others in digital and development. A friend in the GDS civil service says it's been particularly good to her.

My mum isn't diagnosed but definitely qualifies in my opinion; she was a nurse and loved it.

My son is a computer programmer. He has ASD and dyspraxia.

The other programmers he works with also are on the spectrum.

His best friend has ASD and is also a programmer.

I think it appeals to the logical mathematical brains they all appear to have.

Suspected autism here. Lots of data analysis and pressure to be very very precise in my job (technical writer). I love it. I've had to learn to be organised but finally got it down!

ADHD, ASD, dyslexia and dyspraxia here.

I'm in academia and only now, at almost 32, feel like I'm thriving at work. I spent years in 9-5 admin roles and I was absolutely hopeless. I couldn't focus on the boring parts of my job, forgot instructions as soon as my boss(es) finished their sentence, couldn't reply to emails promptly, struggled to plan ahead so I was constantly firefighting.

Now I design my own work and set my hours (for the most part) so the fact that I have zero get-up-and-go until about 2pm no longer matters. I work whenever the mood strikes me, all of my work gets done before it's due, and I no longer feel like I'm incompetent/a failure/an imposter.

ND is rampant in academia so nobody bats an eye! I've gone from having admin colleagues call me "weird" and "odd" and talking about how strange my interest are behind my back, to having academic colleagues gush about the value I bring to the department.

I’m awaiting an adhd assessment (is making you wait ages part of the actual assessment? 🤣). I’m in the civil service in a team that does vaguely human centred design stuff. My team is full of neurodiversity and generally celebrates the different ways we all think and approach things.

This is my D's. He is 33 now And I used to worry he would never find a job that would tolerate his behaviour. He is an HGV lorry driver. Everyday he is in a different place. Meeting new people all the time. He is left into work with autonomy. It helps there is a national shortage of HGV drivers so company would only want to lose one if they were awful or had several accidents. He has done this for 9 years now. Before that he hopped from job to job never settling. People with ADHD often mature later than others so when he reached 30 he told us he feels calmer now without medication. He uses sports and exercise to regulate his high energy levels.

Modern tech companies that understand everyone approaches things in different ways and are super flexible.
I also don't make a big deal about it and excuse anything because of my ADHD. You just got to get on with the lot you got.