In this episode:
Purple Ella, hosting the conversation
Emily Katy, author and blogger
Antonietta Pirillo, Clinical Psychologist
Ella: When people talk about ADHD, the focus is often on the challenges, distractions, organisation, deadlines. But what if we begin somewhere different?
ADHD brings strengths like creativity, problem-solving, energy, and the ability to think about things in a way that others do not.
So let's begin by focusing on the strengths.
Emily, without glossing over the difficulties, are there any ways in which your ADHD positively shapes your contributions at work?
Emily: Yeah, for sure. I am such a creative person, and I think that that really stems from my ADHD, because my brain is so busy that I've constantly got new ideas and things.
I'm the first person that people come to whenever they want anything done that's creative, whether that be PowerPoint presentations, just making them look a little bit nicer, or posters or room signs.
I love being creative, so I really harness that at work.
New ideas as well. Because my brain is so busy, I'm constantly coming up with new ideas, and being able to implement those new ideas into the workplace environment can really help with things like projects and just developing the workplace and the systems that we use.
My energy and my enthusiasm, I'm told that I am a joy to work with. I don't know about that, but I think that I am.
I do have this energy about me because of my ADHD, and that can sometimes be really difficult, but it can also help build those nice relationships. I can say things without thinking, which sometimes can be problematic because of the impulsivity, but at the same time, it can be quite funny, and people like that, and so that helps building those good relationships as well.
Ella: ADHD often comes with variability in attention, sometimes deep focus, sometimes no focus at all. What kinds of workplace environments work well for this variability?
Antonietta: The things that work best for ADHDers is something that stimulates them. It could be vocational. It could be something that provides physical stimulation, mental stimulation.
So a lot of people would be drawn into jobs that are highly active, where they feel some kind of pressure, where there are the right amount of demands that can feel stimulating.
Ella: A lot of ADHDers don't like doing the same thing day after day, do they? They like that variance within the role.
Antonietta: So variability in the job that someone does can be extremely helpful, because the ADHD brain is drawn to novelty, is drawn to anything that is shiny and new and makes them enthusiastic, and that's where they thrive.
They brim with ideas. They brim with creativity. They're usually the first to volunteer. They're usually the first wanting to do something, and they can be very dedicated, provided that stimulation remains.
Ella: But it's also true that most work environments aren't built with ADHD
brains in mind. How do systems and environments at work impact you?
Emily: Oh, yeah. This is so difficult, working in a normal office environment. So I'm so easily distracted. Anything can distract me, noise, people, even just little noises that other people don't recognise, and I will be trying to work on something and get distracted, and then it'll be an hour before I can actually get my focus back onto it again.
So distractibility is a major problem for me at work. Also, organisation. My brain is so incredibly all over the place all of the time, and I am so disorganised and chaotic, but because of that, I actually put in strategies that almost make me seem like I'm really hyper-organised. So my diary is colour-coded.
I write everything down, Post-It notes, though then I have to remember to actually look at them, which can be hard when you have ADHD. But yeah, some of those systems can be really difficult to navigate as a person with ADHD, just the whole office environment.
I'm lucky to be able to work from home some days a week, which helps me to focus and to not be so easily distracted.
So at work, we used to have a ticking clock, and that was a really massive
distraction, and thankfully now they've swapped it over to silent clocks, and just that simple change has meant that I've been able to focus a little bit better.
Antonietta: Environments that work well is where there is reduced noise, for example. There is attention to lighting, to noise, to any little thing like the clock that could be very distracting or irritating.
The position in the room, an allocated desk, having information ahead of time before a meeting so that a person goes in with some preparation.
Ella: Emily, would you mind talking a little bit about how ADHD can impact
conversations, social challenges, work-related socialising, meetings, that sort of side of things?
Emily: ADHD does really affect how I interact with other people, because I can interrupt people quite a lot. Obviously, that's a classic known trait of ADHD, and before people get to know me and get to know who I am and things like that, I guess it can come across as a bit rude. So I've often had to apologise for that when I've interrupted someone without meaning to.
And also because my brain is always racing and it's so busy, I am often onto the next point before someone else has actually finished their point in conversation. So sometimes those conversations and engaging with people in the office can be a little bit trickier.
But what I found really helpful is just people understanding that I have ADHD and understanding what ADHD actually is, because then you can build on those relationships from a place of understanding rather than from a place of them thinking that I'm being rude and not paying attention to them.
Ella: What kind of workplace systems genuinely support ADHDers?
Antonietta: As Emily mentioned earlier, distractibility and the lack of organisation can be big struggles for ADHDers. So when we're thinking about a work environment to support with that, we're thinking about an environment that provides structure and possibilities for opportunities to organise the workday, the week, the project, and so on, without strict boundaries. And keeping that communication going.
Having a coach, a manager, a colleague who checks in. Where are we at in terms of the tasks for the day, in terms of the project?
Do you need any support, or do you need to take a break?
Do you need to go for a walk? So allowing also that flexibility that accounts for the variability of the needs during the day. There is another thing that employers need to consider, that the journey of an ADHDer from when they wake up until they go to work can be challenging in itself because of those struggles with organisation, time management, planning, and so on. So they may arrive at work already anxious, stressed, and flustered. So, if they are expected to go straight into work, straight into a meeting or a presentation, and so on, that can add particular stress, and it can add some unnecessary pressure. So thinking about a buffer time when they can decompress, they can offload, they can ground themselves into the environment with their colleagues, can be particularly beneficial.
Ella: Emily, thinking about your experience of various workplaces, what kinds of changes, big or small, make work more do-able for you as an ADHDer?
Emily: So flexibility, the ability to be able to work from home some days a week as well as in the office helps so much because it reduces distractibility, but also allows you to build those relationships with coworkers.
But most of the time, it is honestly the small changes that make the biggest difference. So things like when I am sent an email with instructions of what I need to do, it being broken down into bullet points, reminders, so Post-It notes, colour-coded calendars, regular one-to-ones with my manager.
People understanding ADHD who I work with, and them having that understanding of ADHD is really helpful.
Regular movement breaks, so I get up and I just walk around the office sometimes, or I'll go downstairs and walk around the building a few times.
Fidget toys, so I'm always using a fidget toy, and I have one on my lanyard at work as well. During meetings, which can be quite long and difficult, I can sit there and I can colour or I can do a word search, and my manager understands that actually those things help me to focus and help me to retain information rather than me being distracted and not paying attention.
And so I really do find that it's those small changes and that understanding and that flexibility from a manager or from the people that you're working with that can make the biggest difference.
And that understanding can come from something like Access to Work, which could provide training for your organisation or for your managers to help you to get the right support that you might need.
It could come from you having a conversation with your manager, and actually, there are so many resources online that you can give your manager to help them to understand.
Having that understanding and support amongst colleagues and within your team is going to make it so much easier for you as an ADHDer to feel supported and to feel like you belong in that environment.
Ella: Emily, what do you wish that more employers knew about ADHD?
Emily: I wish that employers understood that ADHD is a disability and it comes under the Equality Act, so reasonable adjustments are not just optional. People are entitled to reasonable adjustments, like all the things that we have just mentioned.
I wish that they understood that some of the ADHD traits can come across as being rude, so things like interrupting others, distractibility, not paying attention during a conversation, but actually that's part of the disability. It's part of having ADHD, and it might just be that you need to have a conversation about that and about if there are things that are getting in the way, how is it that you can be supported in a way that isn't going to make you feel like you're being targeted?
And as well as that, I wish that they understood that ADHD comes with so many strengths, like we've spoken about, creativity, energy, enthusiasm, new ideas. And being able to harness those strengths can really just make the workplace and the team a more vibrant, exciting place.
