Dyspraxia in adults- how does it affect you at work?

[largeprintagathachristie]

I manage someone at work who has recently received a private diagnosis of dyspraxia.

All comments welcome.
How does it affect you at work?
What reasonable adjustments were helpful?

(Posting this on my phone and have picked the Chat topic but an AIBU poll is showing in preview - I’ve no idea why)

It doesn’t affect me at all - but my job involves no physical coordination or map reading (those are my downfall!).

What is your managee struggling with?

Dyspraxia is a bit like autism in that it impacts differently. Both mine have a Dyspraxia diagnosis but impacts in different ways.

Everyone is different - my son struggles with handwriting and structuring written work, I can't find anywhere until I've been there five times and can't walk down stairs very well. What we both find useful is clear communication such as meeting agendas in advance, structured briefs for projects and short, clear emails.

Thanks for your response.
I'd noticed a little bit of physical clumsiness and stress when dealing with recalcitrant objects such as printers, lap tops etc, but it's an office job, so no great physical co-ordination required. Lots of WFH (but she prefers to go in).

The main thrust of the ask is "less work please because of the diagnosis."

Reasons given include fatigue, difficulty with organisation and time management, memory and processing speed, i.e. everyday workplace activities are harder.

Mine both have difficulty with memory / organisation.
Eldest needs to be told things in a clear direct way, no hinting or suggesting.
They need to be able to write things down.

That said neither would go for an office job that requires loads of flexibility / trouble shooting. Eldest was fine in a rules based customer service environment, youngest fine with straight forward data entry.

If it impacts 10% of the job then adjustments sound fine. If it is impacting 90% then maybe they aren't in the right job? Difficult to tell.

It's tricky, as it's a role that requires flexibility, nuance, decision making where there isn't (and can't be) a "process." It's a senior Exec Assistant role.
She is mid-forties, so not new to the working world.

There isn't anything within the role that can be stripped out to make it less work, either; all that has already happened.

Her attention to detail is actually great - it's actually over the top if anything - she is always worrying that something is going to go wrong - despite nothing ever going wrong on her watch - and I think that takes a lot of her energy. (I have said ALL the right things but they never land.)

There's also a lack of confidence. Instead of just sending an email that she's ultra capable of doing and should take 3 minutes, she will write a draft (spending I'm not sure how long on that) and send it to someone else to check. Causing more work all round.

It’s tricky, but it’s possible that she’s both dyspraxic and unsuited to her role. The two might be linked, and might not be. Do you have decent HR?

HR are involved; it’s still at an early stage, though.
The dyspraxic person, I’m sure just thinks there can be lots of adjustments made, including paid time off if she feels tired.

Yes, these are common 'executive function' issues in some people with dyspraxia. My son has them quite markedly whereas I am dyspraxic with the typical motor coordination problems but excell at planning and organising. Without knowing what she does it's hard to know if what she is asking for is a reasonable adjustment. It's certainly true that all kinds of neurodivergency are fatiguing to self-manage so asking for extra time/fewer tasks is not unreasonable in principle.

Is she getting any mentoring/counselling support? The lack of confidence resulting in extra steps and checks sounds like a response that has become maladaptive. It's common for dyspraxic people to experience anxiety that can be disabling. Some people find Sertraline or similar helpful. These types of things are huge issues on top of the diagnosis for lots of people.

There is quite a lot of good info online: https://btckstorage.blob.core.windows.net/site9414/Employer_guide_to_dyspraxia_1.0.pdf
Unfortunately the Dyspraxia Foundation doesn't exist any more.

thank you very much @Yoonimum and @lastintheQ

Yes, she has has started 10 coaching sessions with an independent coach for support.

At school I don't need much help, it's down on my work profile that I'm dyspraxic..
At the shop where l work all the staff are aware and are very helpful if I'm struggling. I wear a badge that says I'm dyspraxic as I had a customer tell me I was in the wrong job when I told him I was dyspraxic... 😡 😡. I told him I was in the right job but it took me a little longer to get things done!
The badge also prompts people to ask me what dyspraxia is too.
Coincidentally it's eight years ago today that I was on Radio 2 with Dr Sarah Jarvis and Paddy O Conell discussing dyspraxia...

For me, the work flow itself mattered as much as or more than the total volume of work. I always reach peak efficiency when I am doing the same type of action for a while. My mind may want to frequently move from task to task if there are multiple short deadlines, but I work best when I can divide tasks by the type of motion they take, and just repeat that motion for a good length of time. So, instead of answering emails on the spot, I would have set times to check and respond. I could never effectively implement my strategies because employers wanted faster task switching than I could efficiently handle. Aside from good flow and a lack of interruption, I would recommend you see which tasks the employee is most efficient with, and lean more into that. Even delegating parts of tasks can be a huge boost to efficiency.

So yes, less work is one option. More time is another.

But even your employee might be surprised by what a well engineered workflow can do.

My son's dyspraxic - outside of the physical stuff (clumsy, buttons are difficult, shoe-laces impossible, balance not great, hand strength non-existent and handwriting illegible), he struggles with making his own routines - but once he's in a routine it's fixed and it's hard to bump him out of it (this sounds like the email thing - she's just used to running it by someone else, and changing that habit will be hard)

He does find work tiring mentally, so timetables in breaks, but can concentrate when he needs to - but again that's about habits, he used to be a leave everything to the last moment person, but had to train himself to do things as soon as they came in instead.

Edit. and one thing at a time - eg. when cooking, try as he might, he can't put the pasta on in one pot, and make cheese sauce while the pasta cooks. He has to cook the pasta, then cook the cheese sauce - like PP says, fast context switching stresses him out/makes him a bit panicky

DD has dyspraxia (and dyslexia), she's not in the workplace yet but is doing her GCSEs currently.

She is a bit clumsy, mostly it's handwriting, dropping things and hand fatigue. But her organisational skills are absolutely terrible. Her skills are public speaking and reading. She's not interested in office work thankfully. DD was diagnosed privately by an ed psych at primary age when she still couldn't spell her name age 8.

There's lots of crossover between dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD and I think DD's actually got the whole lot. (We're on the ADHD waiting list.)