ADHD and work - what sort of adjustments has your employer made?

[dortyceiling]

I’ve recently hired a lady who has just told me she’s got ADHD. We’re putting an action plan together to make reasonable adjustments although some of the things she’s asked for are just not possible at the moment. For example she’s asked if we’d consider moving one of our key bits of software to a new platform as she can work better with that. This would be a big shift for multiple people so I’ve said that I might consider it for the future but it’s not possible now. She’s listed several other adjustments - all of which are possible.

Just wondering how this works in other places? If you have ADHD or ND, how does it impact you at work and what sort of adjustments has your employer made? I want to support her as best as I can - I think she’ll do a great job.

I have adhd and I'm the boss now so I can organise things in ways that suit me, but I didn't ever tell my previous employers about my diagnosis.

What you're proposing seems very reasonable to me - you're making the adjustments that you can make but you can't disrupt everyone else's work by switching to a new platform if that isn't what is going to work for your business. The key is that the adjustments should be reasonable - and causing chaos for everyone else wouldn't really be reasonable!!

Thanks and yes…I’ve said she can organise her work however she needs to as long as it doesn’t slow production down for other people. I’ve got a record of what we’ve agreed so far so hopefully she’s got what she needs.

What do you plan to do when another member of your team seeks a different platform to accommodate their diagnosis?

Things which might be reasonable

• allowing more frequent breaks
• creating a quiet space to reduce distractions
• altering working hours for more productive times of day or later starts if the struggle with sleep
• having a colleague or supervisor check work for errors
• allowing time off work for medication reviews

not reasonable
changing your IT platforms
missing deadlines
making errors which impact others

the fact she’s even asking for thr platform change would be a massive red flag for me. I predict she’s going to be a problem employee.

This isn't an adjustment I've formally asked for, but I don't do well with the expectation of consistent output over my working hours. I can be as productive as anyone overall, but within a given timeframe I'll have periods of hyper focus when I'm extremely efficient and productive and periods when I am completely burnt out and can barely function. So I have deliberately sought jobs that can accommodate that and don't require steady performance day after day (I could not, for example, be a teacher or doctor because of this).

Everyone is different but I don’t last more than a couple of weeks in employment so if she’s working she’s doing better than some, I’m a sahm for now but do panic about how I’ll cope with work again when the time comes but the adjustments would make or break the job for me, having said that I struggle a lot with executive function, memory and comprehension but others experience it differently so her needs will differ too.
I lose most of my jobs due to not taking it all in and having to be shown several times while I learn the basics so need a lot of patience and time to learn which I’ve found employers get frustrated and don’t have enough time to show you again and again.
I think most importantly is not to be too harsh when mistakes are made and she’s trying to work it out because there’s nothing worse than having to explain yourself for mistakes when you’re trying to figure things out a pace you can’t keep up with.
Mistakes are made when I don’t feel I can ask the same question because I didn’t take it all in the third time.
That’s just my experience anyway.
I get lots of jobs but I’ve never picked it up in time so I’m let go. I am probably an exception to the norm as I’m affected severely by my own adhd which affects my confidence that then makes me flustered which looks like incompetence which causes anxiety.

This - I also have adhd and it sounds very odd to ask a business to change a platform to suit one employee. I mean all employees could feel that way it’s not an adhd thing.

does she have a mentor to help her settle in? Maybe someone so she can ask questions as adhd people can sometimes feel anxious about new things.

In schools they position adhd kids near teachers / not near windows to help them maintain focus.

Migrating software for her would be a hard no- that’s always a lot of work and has to go through the approval challenges and fight for it and project resources to complete it. Maybe I’m biased as I’m in financial services but that would be a straight no we cannot change our core systems at employee request, there isn’t any software multiple people haven’t put considerable time into determining is what we needed and putting it in, systems have been stringently selected to meet business needs and any software change is a significant cost and productivity impact.

For me flexibility is key. I have very unproductive days, or times during the day, and then periods of hyper focus. I need to be able to balance my work around that. Short, tight deadlines work well for me as it kind of kicks me in to hyper focus, but long drawn out deadlines are not good and I don’t work well with those.

I think people are jumping to conclusions a bit. She may have simply asked for some specific software.

I'm dyslexic and asked for access to Grammarly and this was denied.

I have ADHD, I don’t process verbal information well so I follow up in writing to clarify understanding. I work in a very flexible workplace so can pretty much take breaks when I need to, when I’m in the office if I need a quiet place to work there is one (I’ve never used it)

during teams meetings I have the transcription going so I can read as well as listen. I work on an industry with lots of other neurodiverse people so it’s all very accepting.

I’d only consider changing platforms if there was a strong business case for it. The platform she’s suggested could save us money so at contract renewal time, I’d be happy to explore options but like I said, it’d have to be because the business would benefit because of it.

The question about software was a suggestion, asking if we would ever consider it. It came up in the meeting where we were compiling her action plan - so I basically said no but when our existing contract is up, I’d be happy to look at it. But no, I wouldn’t change a system to accommodate one person but I would if it was genuinely better and saved us some cash.

OP hasn't agreed to change

The platform so how is that

Relevant? MN is unusable sorry

You sound like a good employer, OP. Ask her if she's aware of the Access to Work scheme, as if there is specific technology or things that will help her at work, she may be able to get a grant.

https://www.gov.uk/access-to-work

ASD here and never asked for any adjustments in any job I’ve had.
Is this quite a common thing now?

There are guidelines on this adhd adult charity website, so guess it's becoming common?

https://www.adhdadult.uk/adhd-in-the-workplace/

So slightly different as my reasonable adjustments were initially made due to my prior bipolar diagnosis (which was since revoked and now replaced with an ADHD diagnosis), but for me
-I don't do early morning shifts
This is mainly medication based, previously due to me being on max dose of anti psychotics that sedated me, but now due to my ADHD meds..I take them at the exact same time everyday as I did during titration, so me for the earliest I can start is 11am.
-i rarely work shifts longer than 6 hours occ health has identified (and based on previous absences) that 6 hours is mentally the limit I can work before I end up in burn out or breakdown
-i have fixed days, meaning I work the exact same 4 days a week with 3 days break in-between..in fairness I had no say in the days given, it was based on business needs, but works well for me in terms of recovery time and time to arrange medical appointments but also just in having a set routine which OccHealth identified as being beneficial to my wellbeing.

I also had a stress risk assessment carried out and as a result there is one aspect of my role I'm not allowed/expected to do during the busiest time of day.

Went to a meeting yesterday.

ADHD is where you just cannot cope doing multiple different tasks in a job. You are made to feel like a failure by so called bosses you could do this yesterday but not today attitude.
Made worse by the peri menopause and menopause.

It shares the same family as autism and the likes of OCD.