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Use this forum to discuss neurodiverse parenting.

How to cope with appraisal / career review

5 replies

AshGirl · 15/02/2022 07:09

I have mine coming up and feel sick with anxiety. I struggle with executive function so things that are boring are usually late or not done whereas I fly through tasks that are interesting and/or urgent.

I am also meant to spend time on BD activity, including networking which I hate with a firey passion.

Overall, I like my job and I'm pretty good at parts of it. I'm sure I'm not easy to manage and my boss is confused by how uneven my performance can be (very quick and thorough vs late / not getting done).

Any tips to get through this? Usually I just kind of nod along, try to say what I think they want to hear and accept the objectives I am given even though I know that I won't meet them Sad

OP posts:
BarrowInFurnessRailwayStation · 15/02/2022 08:34

Do they know you're ND? Do you have a formal diagnosis as this can help you within the work environment.

Clarice99 · 15/02/2022 12:04

Do you have a professional/formal diagnosis? Do you have any reasonable adjustments (RA) in place or have RA been recommended and not actioned? Any contact with Access to Work? Occupational Health?

AffIt · 15/02/2022 13:27

Can I come at this from the opposite position, as a manager with autism?

Career development / review meetings aren't things that should be done to you, but something that you define and control.

For example, people management is not my favourite part of my job, but I recognised that, in order to get to the stage in my career that I wanted to get to and to build out my function within my firm, it was something I would have to take on.

So I reframed my thinking and took control - I wrote a short business case outlining what I was going to do and how I was going to it (write my own job specs and control internal and external recruitment for specific roles), supported with a cost benefit analysis.

My director agreed with the direction I proposed, and essentially let me get on with it.

(I'll be honest, it helps that I am the sole subject matter expert / function owner, so I kind of get to do what I like a lot of the time Wink).

I would recommend pulling together a brief overview of yourself, highlighting your strengths and trying to identify opportunities where you can play to your strengths (you can then also conveniently hide or sack off the stuff you don't like!).

If you feel RA would help you, then it's worth pursuing, but tbh, I am not 'out' at work and I am okay (it helps that I really like my job and the people I work with, and I work in IT - an historically ND-friendly area).

Trust me, managers HATE doing these things - to my ND mind, they feel like a box-ticking exercise half the time - so if you can be proactive about it, you will get a good reception!

AffIt · 15/02/2022 13:41

PS - I don't believe that anybody in the history of the world ever enjoys networking, NT or ND. Wink

AshGirl · 15/02/2022 13:53

Thanks all for your responses and great to hear about things from a ND manager perspective.

I don't have a diagnosis (I've been putting off taking to the GP!) and I'm not sure I would want to be 'out' at work anyway. The only advantage is that I might be able to argue that I shouldn't have to do any face to face networking!

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