Can You Get ADHD Support at Work Without Disclosing?
Episode Summary
Getting support for ADHD at work can feel risky, especially if you’re unsure whether to disclose. In this episode, Marla talks with neurodivergent HR expert and former Amazon leader Kate Broeking about how professionals with ADHD can advocate for what they need, protect their performance, and navigate the process with clarity and confidence.
What You’ll Learn About Getting ADHD Workplace Support:
- how to ask for support at work, whether or not you decide to reveal your diagnosis
- when it might be helpful to talk to HR, request accommodations, or take a medical leave
- the three levels of disclosure, and how to choose the one that feels best for you
- how to respond when your manager misunderstands or dismisses your ADHD
- how the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to ADHD in the workplace
- and more!
Meet Kate Broeking
Kate has over 10 years of experience building neurodiversity and mental health programs that help companies attract, retain, and advance neurodivergent employees. With a background in social work, vocational rehabilitation, and corporate accommodations, she spent six years leading supported employment programs and disability hiring initiatives at both the state and national levels.
In 2019, Kate created Amazon’s Work Wellness Coaching team, the first program of its kind, using data-driven strategies to address burnout and executive function challenges. She later co-founded ThynkStack to bring scalable, innovative support to more industries. ThynkStack’s approach—combining executive function coaching, accommodations, and assistive tech—helps employees manage their work while prioritizing well-being.
Kate also serves on the Board of Directors for Disability Law Colorado.
Transcript:
Marla Cummins (00:03):
Do you have questions about how to navigate the world of work? So you can do your best as an adult with A DHD, you’ve to scattered focused on a podcast for ADHD, adults like you who want to learn how to adopt the best strategies, tools, and skills to be able to get your essential work done in a way that works with the way your brain is wired. I’m Marla Cummins, and I’m glad you decided to join me today on this journey to reimagining productivity with ADHD. So you can get your important work done, without trying to do it like everyone else.
(00:39):
And joining us today is Kate Broeking, a neurodivergent entrepreneur who founded Thynk Stack, a woman-owned and disability owned business. ThynkStack is dedicated to two goals, helping employers build inclusive workplaces where every employee can thrive, and providing work wellness coaching to support employees in working effectively while also prioritizing their wellbeing. Kate, thanks for being here. I’m really excited to have this conversation. Because Kate has the insights scoop for us, especially after working at Amazon where she helped lead the charge in providing a better environment for Neurodiverse employees as well as creating an affinity group for Neurodiverse employees like herself. And now she has, as I said, her own business doing the same for companies and employees. So Kate, again, welcome. It’s great to have you here.
Kate Broeking: Building Inclusive Workplaces
Kate (01:44):
Thank you for having me on today.
Marla (01:46):
Yeah, you’re welcome. Can you tell us a little bit about how you developed an invested in building inclusive workplaces and supporting employees?
Kate (01:55):
Yeah, absolutely. So I’ve spent the last 14 years or so in the disability employment space. And what that looks like in the beginning was running these large scale job coaching programs. Typically those worked for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. But then as I started to work more closely with the corporate space, we just saw that there’s not even a gap of services. There’s a huge cliff of support services where if you have an a qualifying disability, like ADHD or anxiety or depression,
Marla (02:40):
Can you define ADA for our listeners who might not know what that is?
Kate (02:43):
Absolutely. The Americans with Disabilities Act.
Marla (02:46):
Yeah, thank you.
How Does The Americans With Disabilities Act Apply To ADHD?
Kate (02:47):
Absolutely. And so whether or not you consider yourself as having a disability, a lot of people don’t realize that their condition may be covered by the ADA. And so what we found is if you don’t meet a certain threshold of disability, then all of the support services that are out there completely drop off. So if you’re somebody who’s struggling at work with ADHD or struggling at work with depression, there’s really no support for you outside of medical services or taking a leave of absence or something like that.
So I have anxiety and depression myself, and I have seen how that’s impacted me with trying to find therapists who understand what it’s like to work in a demanding corporate space. Who might tell me, oh, why don’t you just leave your job if it’s causing that much stress? Really? Yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. And I’ve heard that from my clients too, is they say, oh, my therapist or my doctor says I should just leave my job if it’s this bad. And so yeah, all of those.
Marla (03:57):
That’s incredible.
Kate (04:00):
It highlights the total lack of services and the lack of the intersection of, there’s medical providers. But they don’t understand the world of work, and sometimes they don’t understand the world of executive function. And so then there’s just really nothing. People are out there on their own trying to figure this out.
Marla (04:23):
And so over time, it sounds like professionally you were in this space and you had a personal interest, and then it just kind of burgeoned from there when you were recognizing the dearth of services in the corporate world and such an incredible need.
Kate (04:41):
Yeah.
Marla (04:43):
Let me ask you this then, before we start going into talking about, of course, my listeners are adults with ADHD. Before we talk about specifics about that, can you tell us a little bit about, from a high level, I’m super curious, what trends are you seeing in how companies are approaching neurodiversity? Where do you see this heading? I’m sure it differs, location, state and city. Is there a difference between profit, nonprofit, government, and is there a difference since the election? There’s a landmine.
How Are Companies Evolving In ADHD Support?
Kate (05:23):
Questions. Great questions. Yeah. Well, let me speak to the broader trend first. Because when I first started building specialty mental health and neurodiversity programs in the corporate space, that was about seven years ago. And even then we didn’t see people disclosing or reaching out for support unless they felt they were forced to. So we would typically see accommodation or leave cases after somebody had already been for quite a while. And then
Marla (05:59):
In what case would they be forced to? if they were already in trouble?
Kate (06:03):
If they ran into a performance planning, usually.
Marla (06:06):
Okay, got it.
Kate (06:07):
Or they felt like they had no other choice. So they felt like, if I don’t disclose this, then there’s no way I’m going to get the help that I need and then I’m going to have to leave my job. Or I’m going to get fired or quit or go on leave. But what we’ve seen even in just the past seven years is Gen Z is entering the workforce. We’re seeing people who had IEPs and accommodations in school and college are now entering the workforce, and they’re asking for accommodations or support on day one. And so that’s the huge
Marla (06:44):
Go gen Z.
Kate (06:46):
Yes. And there’s this stat that is pretty unbelievable that over 50% of Gen Z identifies as neurodiverse or neurodivergent. And if you take that into the employment space, I think it’s about 42% of Gen Z have actually requested accommodations at work.
Marla (07:07):
So are they pushing us older folk to do the same?
Kate (07:11):
Absolutely. So with that, like I said, it’s not just accommodations. People are saying like, Hey, is there a place, is there a group for professionals with ADHD at my company? Or what benefits do you offer? And so that’s where then the employee resource groups are starting the neurodiversity. Sometimes they’re mixed in with mental health, ERGs or disability, also ERGs, employee resource groups.
Marla (07:40):
Affinity
Kate (07:40):
Groups.
Marla (07:41):
Got it.
Kate (07:42):
Every company kind of has their own special flavor of what to call them. But basically anytime a group of employees with a shared interest is able to start talking together, then we see the magic happen because employees with ADHD get to share their experience and say what helps them or what didn’t help them. And then that decreases stigma. More people disclose, more people understand what’s available to them. And so then we see the companies, the employers responding to that by saying, oh, now we’ve got all these people asking for these services, and we don’t have anything.
Marla (08:23):
It’s not just a one off anymore.
Kate (08:24):
Yes. It’s not just a random, a flood of requests. And it’s the group, the neurodiversity affinity group at Amazon started it as a chat room with 15 people in it. And I think now there’s thousands of members.
Marla (08:42):
Wow. You go, Kate, you started that, right?
Kate (08:44):
I was a founding member, yes.
Marla (08:46):
That’s awesome.
Kate (08:48):
It’s pretty cool to hear that it’s still going super strong and that it’s just exploded.
Marla (08:55):
That’s so cool. That’s very cool. And so where do you see it going now? I know you don’t have a crystal ball. But do you have a sense of what’s happening now and where it’s going to go in terms of neurodiversity and
Kate (09:12):
Yeah,
Are ADHD Professionals Disclosing More In The Workplace?
(09:15):
What I’m seeing now is I do think the trends of disclosure and people talking more openly about things like mental health and ADHD. I think that’s going to continue and just get stronger. From the employer perspective, the trends that we’re seeing are, they’re starting to offer more benefits and accommodations, so more formal supports for those employees. But with, when you use the word like DEI, we’re also seeing a trend of all of these companies cutting their DEI teams.
So the interesting thing about the neurodiversity space is that because it typically is covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act, that brings it from a space that isn’t just, Hey, we’re doing this because it’s the right thing to do, and it feels good to a compliance space of we have to do these things because we are legally required under the ADA to provide supports to our employees. And we can talk more about that later, but that’s where I’m not as afraid of the DEI stuff going away because there’s so many other ways to it.
Marla (10:36):
Just Kate, sort of at a high level, for listeners that don’t really know about the ADA, can you tell us a little bit about what it is and how it’s impacted neurodiversity in terms of giving services? I think a lot of people probably don’t know about it, or at least don’t know that it applies to ADHD, as well.
Kate (11:02):
Yes, yes. So sometimes we call it the D word, the word disability. People have so many strong feelings about that, and in the disability community, there’s a huge movement to de-stigmatize that word and to say disability is a strength. It’s not a word to shy away from. We shouldn’t use words like differently abled, things like that. And the reality is that no matter how you identify personally, the way the ADA defines disability is a condition that impacts major life activities, which can include things like communicating, sleeping, concentrating, performing work. There’s a whole list of it or somebody who has a history of a condition doing those things.
So that’s why if somebody had a cancer diagnosis 10 years ago, they’re still covered under the ADA as a person with a disability, even though their cancer’s been in remission for 10 years. And so that’s where it becomes important no matter how you identify, typically the ADA, you will qualify if you have ADHD or again, anxiety depression as having an ADA covered disability. And so that entitles you to things like accommodations that your employer is required to explore with you. And again, we can talk more about the accommodation process a little bit later. But in regards to work, that’s what it’s helping you do is to get the supports to level the playing field and to prevent discrimination.
Marla (12:53):
And like you said, I think a little bit later we’ll talk about how the ADA sort of wraps itself into what you decide to do.
Kate (13:04):
Yes.
Marla (13:06):
And so when we talk about common misconceptions about ADHD in the workplace, have you seen anything in terms of misconceptions amongst leaders, amongst managers? And is there something that we as professionals in our sphere can do to address that?
What To Do When Your Boss Is Dismissive of Your ADHD?
Kate (13:35):
Yeah, so from a broad perspective, when I’m talking to leaders or people in leadership about ADHD, there’s usually a general sense of understanding that this is something that’s real and that’s something that their employees are struggling with. However, when I’m working one-on-one with a manager who has an employee with ADHD, that’s where I hear more of the bias come out, where they say, regardless of this person’s ADHD, they’re just unmotivated. I think that’s probably the biggest thing that I hear directly from managers. Or that employees share with me their managers have told them like, oh, you just need to work a little bit harder, or you just need to get your stuff together. Those really general phrases that don’t really mean anything except to say, you are not doing enough and that’s a personal fault or that’s how they’re positioning it.
Marla (14:45):
So then how do you address that? I mean, I imagine you do address that with them, and how do you do that?
Kate (14:51):
Yes. So when I hear a manager use any sort of language that invites bias or discriminatory language, I do some education right there in the moment about executive functioning, how it impacts people. I give a lot of examples of how traits that are often associated with A DHD can show up in other people. Maybe, like I said, going back to somebody with a cancer diagnosis, if they’re going through chemo and are experiencing some brain fog or feeling really scattered, that’s something that they’re experiencing for the first time that they’ve never had to deal with in their career, versus there are people who have been struggling with these things throughout their entire career. So I start with just education and normalization.
Marla (15:48):
Totally.
Kate (15:49):
And sharing my own experience of what can happen when a manager does decide to actually support that employee instead of just blaming them or
Marla (16:02):
How it’s to their advantage. Right.
Kate (16:04):
Exactly. Yes, exactly.
Marla (16:07):
Well, so what would you say to Joe employee who hears this from his manager? What’s your recommendation? You are not there to sort of go to bat for them.
Kate (16:20):
Yeah.
Marla (16:21):
What should they say or do?
Kate (16:25):
Yeah. One of my first recommendations here are not necessarily a recommendation, but a reminder is that as an employee, you don’t need to tell your manager about an ADHD diagnosis. So you can talk about a struggle that you’re having related to ADHD without disclosing the diagnosis, private health information. You can say, I’ve got a health condition. What if they’ve disclosed.
Marla (16:53):
What if they have disclosed? And what they get from the manager is exactly what you were describing. You’re not motivated, you’re just not doing it.
When It’s Time To Go To HR to Talk About Your ADHD
Kate (17:06):
If they have already disclosed and they get that response, that’s when it might be time to go to the accommodation or HR team to get that disclosure documented and to see what supports are out there. Because now the disclosure is already out there. But you don’t have any protections. Right.
Marla (17:25):
And you know how your manager stands.
Kate (17:27):
Yes, exactly. So if you go and then have a confidential conversation with HR and accommodation, now the employer is truly on notice that you’ve disclosed a disability and that it’s impacting work. And whether or not you bring in your manager’s comments to that, that’s a personal choice. But
Marla (17:48):
Either
Kate (17:49):
You do start to introduce some of those protections,
Marla (17:52):
And we’re going to dig into that in a little bit. But that’s interesting because I was sort of expecting you to say, well, then you could say this. But that’s not what you said. It’s not necessarily a conversation that you have with your boss, educating them.
Kate (18:11):
I think it’s so dependent on the type of relationship you have with your boss. I’ve seen those conversations backfire to where then the employee is trying to educate their manager. And, one, it’s not your job to need to educate your manager on a medical condition, whether it’s spinal surgery or ADHD. They don’t need to be an expert on it. But I have seen it backfire where an employee has thought that they explained it really well. And that their manager responded with empathy and responded with kindness. But then still continued to move them down the performance management piece and didn’t change any of that formal stuff.
What Are The Three Level of ADHD Disclosure?
Marla (18:58):
Okay. So let’s go there then. Let’s delve into some of these questions because we’re already there that I frequently receive from my clients and listeners along with. As we were talking about whether to disclose or not. I’ve certainly worked with clients that are on PIPs, performance improvement plans, whether they’re doctors or lawyers or teachers or whatever. But before we go into that, before asking for help, are there any best ways that you would recommend for adults with ADHD to position themselves for success at work if they already know that they’re struggling?
Kate (19:47):
Yeah, definitely. There’s so many steps that you can do before requesting formal or informal support at work. The number one thing that I encourage people to do is just know how your brain does its best work and understand what kind of tasks can trigger shutdown or procrastination. What kind of tasks give you energy? What kind of tasks are at risk for something like hyperfocus? So having a really good, honest understanding of how your brain works at work is, I think, number one. And then the other thing is going back to that manager relationship. So without disclosing anything, employees often they aren’t getting effective feedback from their manager. So we’re seeing people who think that they’re doing pretty at work, and then, boom, they get a negative review or performance evaluation.
Marla (20:53):
Oh, really? There’s a disconnect. They think they’re doing well.
Kate (20:57):
Yes.
Marla (20:58):
From the perspective of their manager or their boss, they’re not. Wow.
Kate (21:02):
Yes. Or the employee maybe is hesitant to ask for direct feedback because they have some rejection sensitivity, and that’s a really vulnerable place to say, Hey, how am I doing at work? What can I improve on? So, so
Marla (21:18):
What if they tell me something I don’t want to hear.
Kate (21:21):
Exactly. Yeah, it’s terrifying. And so if the manager doesn’t introduce that conversation, then the employee doesn’t. Then sometimes we see that somebody is underperforming for a while without realizing.
Marla (21:40):
So Kate, so what I, oh, sorry for interrupting. Do you want to finish that thought?
Kate (21:44):
No, no, go ahead.
Marla (21:45):
So what I’m hearing from you is to the best of their ability, your recommendation is understand your brain, understand how you operate best in different situations, doing different types of tasks. And then beyond that though, you may do all of that, think you’re doing fine, and then sometimes find out that you’re not. So let’s talk about, you had shared with me there’s sort of three levels of disclosure, and that seems like a good jumping off place. So if you find out that you’re not doing well, what’s the conversation you first want to have with your boss. And how does that wrap itself into those three levels of disclosure?
Kate (22:37):
So if it is a broader conversation of, I’ve gotten some negative feedback, I want to find out what’s my standing. I’ve got a performance review coming up. I want to make sure I get a certain rating. Then one of the best things that you can do is have introduce that conversation with your manager to understand how they’re evaluating you and what they’re holding you to, and that you have aligned on the semantics. So what I mean by that is a manager says, oh, you need to show more ownership over this project. And this would happen a lot at Amazon, by the way, of people have 50 different definitions of what ownership actually looks like.
Marla (23:26):
Exactly. Yeah. What does that mean?
Kate (23:28):
Yeah. So the best thing you can do is ask your manager, okay, so to me, showing more ownership looks like this. Is that what you see as more ownership or do you see other things? So just getting that feedback broken into action that you can move on basically.
Marla (23:50):
Right.
Kate (23:50):
But
Marla (23:52):
I have these conversations all the time with clients where they’ll share with me some feedback they’ve gotten from their manager or their boss or whatever. And, on occasion I’ll say, well, what does that mean? And they’ll be like, I’m not sure exactly. I’m not sure. I just have to step up.
Kate (24:11):
Yep, exactly. That type of feedback is so unhelpful and can be. So
Marla (24:17):
Getting clarification.
Kate (24:18):
So get that clarification. And then, if you are thinking about bringing disclosure into it, then going back to knowing how your brain works best. So let’s say it’s helpful for you.
How Do ADHD Professionals Get The Feedback They Need?
Marla (24:33):
Well Kate, before we go there, I’m wondering, one of the questions that I get a lot is how would you recommend someone find out how they’re doing when they have a boss or manager that just doesn’t give regular feedback?
Kate (24:50):
The best way is just to use a one-on-one and say like, Hey, this is how I think I’m doing. I think I’m making good progress towards these goals. I’m meeting my key performance indicators. And then get your manager’s feedback on that. Because sometimes if you just go to your manager and say, Hey, how am I doing? You’re doing fine. You’re doing great. Keep it up. That’s not effective. So what you can do is kind of go into that meeting prepared with how you perceive that you’re doing and tying that to actions and
Marla (25:30):
Specificity.
Kate (25:32):
Yeah, like your goals, whatever’s on your last performance review. Usually you have certain goals that you’re trying to meet. And so relaying those to your manager and then asking them for their feedback. Do you agree that I am exceeding expectations right now? It doesn’t need to be that formal. But, yeah, just starting that conversation, that’s an easy way to do it.
Marla (25:55):
Wow. So I mean, what I hear you really saying is you’re recommending that people go out of their comfort zone. Because many don’t want to ask their boss how I’m doing because what if they say something I don’t want to hear? Right. That rejection sensitivity. So being brave and asking for that in hopes that then you won’t find out down the road as a surprise,
Kate (26:24):
Especially if you do feel like you’ve missed some deadlines recently, or if you have gotten negative feedback recently. That’s actually when it’s most important to get more feedback. And that’s when it’s most uncomfortable to ask for more feedback.
Marla (26:41):
And it sounds like you’re also saying even when you’re doing well, you should have those conversations even when you think you’re doing well. Because you may think you’re doing well, only to find out. Oh,
Kate (26:51):
Absolutely.
Marla (26:52):
Maybe not. That’s
Kate (26:54):
Most employers and good managers, they’ll weave this into their standard practices. But we all know that a lot of managers, so then it’s up to you to try to advocate for that feedback.
Marla (27:06):
Right. That’s awesome. We were going to go there. Before let’s go now to the, so you’ve gotten to the point, let’s say you’re asking for feedback and things aren’t going as well as you would like. The three levels of disclosure, what are they and how would you decide which to use?
Kate (27:35):
Yep. The different levels of disclosure, I like to break it up into basically non-disclosure, where you make a request without referencing any sort of medical condition. You just ask for a certain type of support. Then we have partial disclosure, which is you do make a request and tie it to a medical or health condition, but you don’t name the diagnosis. And then full disclosure is when you actually name the diagnosis and you say, I have ADHD, and it’s impacting me in these ways, and here’s what would be helpful for me.
But going back to non-disclosure, what that would look like is, again, if you know how your brain works best and you know that it’s helpful to have meetings recorded. So that you can go back and watch them, it might just be going into a meeting and saying, Hey, it’s really helpful for me to be able to record meetings or at least important moments of meetings when maybe we’re talking about something tactical.
(28:40):
Do you mind if I turn on the recording? So that’s a way of asking for what you need without disclosing anything. Then with partial disclosure, somebody might say, Hey, I have a health condition that just makes it hard for me to multitask or keep track of a bunch of things at once. Do you mind if I just turn on this recording so that I can make sure that I capture everything from the meeting today? And so there you’re sharing that it’s related to a health condition, but you’re not sharing what it is versus the full disclosure. I have ADHD and it’s helpful for me to record things.
Marla (29:22):
So who do you have that conversation with? If you decide to disclose? Are you having that conversation with your manager or boss, or are you having it with hr?
Kate (29:36):
So in those situations I just mentioned, it’s a little trickier even than that because you might be having meetings with stakeholders like people who aren’t your manager, people who are on different teams than you. If you’re looking for a broader disclosure, again, the thing that I just like to remind people is your manager doesn’t need to know your diagnosis. You can go to accommodations. If your employer isn’t large enough to have an accommodations team, you can go to that HR team and ask to have a confidential conversation with them.
And so I typically recommend with always starting with the least disclosure and then moving up as you feel comfortable. And similarly, for once you decide to disclose, start with a place where you can have a confidential conversation just to explore what might be available to you and how the process works before sharing with your manager or your team members or somebody that you work with more closely.
What To Do When You Get A PIP (Performance Improvement Plan)?
Marla (30:47):
And it sounds like Kate, for our earlier conversation is that if you manager boss is not positively receiving your needs, that might be a time when you go and get some protection by disclosing so that then you’ll be protected by the ADA. Can I ask you, and I know that you work with clients on your own that have a pip. Once people, let’s say they’ve done all the things that we’ve talked about, they’ve had these conversations, they’ve disclosed, and now they’re on a PIP, a performance improvement plan. What do you recommend that they do next?
Kate (31:42):
Sorry, did you say in this situation they’ve already disclosed or they haven’t?
Marla (31:48):
Oh, interestingly, I hadn’t thought about that. I don’t know.
Kate (31:51):
Yeah, let’s say they haven’t disclosed yet and they’re put on a PIP. The first thing I would want to evaluate is the ADHD actually impacting your ability to perform and to do the job? Or is it something like you don’t have a technical skill that maybe the role needs? Because if it’s a technical thing, then maybe you can ask for extra time for learning those skills. But if you find that it’s been hard to meet your expectations because you’ve been having ADHD shutdown or trouble hyper-focusing or multitasking, whatever that looks like. Then you can decide to have a conversation with HR or the accommodation specialist and just start to explore what could be available to you.
(32:48):
Just understand what your employer’s accommodation process is. And the idea is that you can have that safe conversation without your manager being aware of it. So now this changes if you work for a small 10 person company where there is no HR team, but for most employers, there’s going to be a dedicated HR team, and they’re going to have some confidentiality standards. So even before you disclose to hr, you can say, Hey, what are the limits of confidentiality in our conversation? If I do share a diagnosis with you, will it be shared with my manager? You can ask those direct questions just so you understand their process and the standards they hold themselves to.
When Is It Time To Take A Disability Leave?
Marla (33:35):
Right. Yeah, because I know sometimes, as I’m sure it’s true with you, people will come to me once they’re on a pip. It’s gotten to the point where they need more support. So one of the last questions I wanted to ask you is, when might taking a leave be beneficial and how would you approach it? Let’s say you’re just way over your head. Would you ever recommend taking a leave and when would that be?
Kate (34:09):
Yeah, so this is definitely where it can get complicated because let’s say you’ve been put on a PIP, you’ve had a conversation with HR and you’ve disclosed to them like, Hey,
Marla (34:27):
Or maybe you’re not on a pip.
Kate (34:29):
Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So the reason that you would consider taking a medical leave is if your ADHD or often we have co-occurring diagnoses. So if you are unable to functionally get productive work done, a certain amount of time that it is impacting your performance going on, leave again can actually protect you. Right? Because if what we see so often is employees struggling to not drown in their work while their ADHD is getting exacerbated, their executive function is declining, their anxiety or depression is ramping up, things are going downhill.
And they’re still trying to manage their mental health, manage their A DHD and dig themselves out of maybe a performance hole. That is a recipe for burnout. But it’s also a recipe for getting fired because then you are setting yourself up to try to improve your performance while you have of these other things that are piled on top of you. And you will probably get burnt out. I won’t say you will, but you probably will and reach a point
Marla (35:46):
That, and can you take FMLA then?
Kate (35:49):
Yes. So that’s for things like leave FMLA is federal, that’s in every state. Some states are paid, some are not. And then I would encourage you to look at your short-term disability policy at work. Every employer has different ones. But people are surprised to find out that they can take up to two months off of work and get 70% of their pay while they’re out. Every policy is different. And imagine if you’re at,
Marla (36:23):
My company doesn’t offer it.
Kate (36:26):
Yeah. Well, you would have to go on FMLA through your state. So yeah, if you reach the point where your performance is suffering and you are at risk of getting poor performance reviews or getting fired, and your health is to the point where you’re not able to productively work or effectively work, that’s absolutely want to leave might be appropriate.
Marla (36:52):
Right. This is awesome. Thank you so much, Kate. So I actually have one last question. So if you were to, maybe speaking to all of those companies out there, all of those managers and corporations and stakeholders, how can they better support Neurodiverse adults in general? And because my audience is ADHD adults, how can they better support their mental health and executive function challenges and what’s in it for them to do that?
Kate (37:22):
Yeah. Oh wow. Good question. So I’m going to go in this maybe an unexpected direction here. And say that what companies need to do is well beyond just education and doing an ADHD webinar or even forming an employee resource group. Those are great first steps. But I think what employers need to do is they need to be offering accommodations for neurodiversity. And that should be not kept, not hidden. And beyond that, they should be offering benefits. So we see all these companies that have benefits for, of course, things like therapy and mental health, but then we see they have a benefit to pay for your pet insurance or for your gym membership. And so if your company is paying for your gym membership, they should be paying for an executive function coach or executive function support.
Marla (38:21):
Right on.
Kate (38:22):
And yeah, we’re just starting to see companies do that.
Marla (38:25):
Awesome. Yeah, and it’s a good ROI for them.
Kate (38:29):
Well, oh, sorry. Just one last thing I’ll say about that is what’s in it for them is the reduced risk of employees going out on leave. So going back to companies do this because, not because it’s the right thing to do. But because there’s a quantified ROI, when companies implement these supports, they have fewer employees going out on leave. And that leave is very, very expensive for employers. So they’re pretty incentivized to try to help people stay at work.
Marla (39:01):
That’s awesome. Well, that’s it for now. Kate, thank you so much for joining me today. This was a great conversation. I enjoyed it tremendously. To find out more about Kate or her work, you can go to thynkstack.com. That’s T-H-Y-N-K-S-T-A-C k.com.
If you want to continue to learn how to work with your ADHD, please sign up for my biweekly newsletter. You’ll get time-tested ADHD friendly strategies and resources from me straight to your inbox. And you’ll also receive a complimentary guide I created called Six Common Planning Mistakes Adults with ADHD Make (and How to Avoid Them).
You can find the link in the podcast description, or you can go to marlacummins.com/planning. That’s M-A-R-L-A-C-U-M-M-I-N-S.com/planning, P-L-A-N-N-I-N-G to sign up and get the guide. Until next time, this has been Scattered, Focused, Done – Reimagining Productivity with ADHD. I’m Marla Cummins, and I’m glad you’re here doing the work. Keep it up. You’ve got this.
Links and Resources
- Get your Free Guide: 6 Common Planning Mistakes Adults with ADHD Make from me.
- An episode about the 5 strategies ADHD managers need to be better leaders
- Learn about the Americans With Disabilities Act
- Here are accommodation ideas for ADHD professionals from the Job Accommodation Network
- Check out ThynkStack, Kate’s Company
