RESOURCES:
Websites:
American With Disabilities Act
Transcript
(00:00):
Are you wondering whether you should disclose that you have ADHD at work? Whether you’re an employee wondering whether to disclose to your boss or a boss wondering whether to disclose to your employees, there are steps you can take to figure this out.
(00:15):
You’ve tuned into Scattered Focused, Done Reimagining Productivity with ADHD podcast for ADHD adults like you who want to learn how to adopt the best strategies, tools, and skills 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’re joining me today on this journey to reimagining productivity with ADHD so you can get what is important you’ve done without trying to do it like everyone else. The question of whether to disclose or not comes up frequently in my work, whether in a session with a client or via email.
(00.55):
Usually it’s an employee asking, but sometimes the person asking owns a business and is the boss or manages people and wonders whether it makes sense to tell her employees or direct reports. I’ll cover the employee side first and in more detail, but if you’re the boss, I’ll cover your side in a bit. When it is an employee asking whether to disclose it is because they’re having challenges at work. Makes sense. And in some case are on a PIP, performance improvement plan.
(01:28):
One person wrote to me, I recently had another substandard performance review at work, and I feel that some of it has to do with my ADHD. I’m trying to decide if I should bring my ADHD diagnosis to the attention of HR. Where I’m struggling with this is how do I explain how my ADHD affects my ability to perform my tasks?
(01:51):
Well, do you have an article or some other handout that gives a simple list of how ADHD symptoms can negatively affect work skills? Another email I received asked, I would like to know your thoughts on discussing ADD / ADHD with your boss or coworkers and how to do it without making it sound like you’re giving excuses or requesting special treatment if you want or need accommodations to be productive. And my answer always, whether to disclose or not, is the same. It depends.
(02:29):
When I’m speaking with a client, the first question I always ask is, what do you expect to get from disclosing? Oftentimes the answer is, well, I just want them to know why I’m having challenges. And, if we dig a little deeper, sometimes not always, the underlying hope is that the boss colleagues or HR department will at least be more understanding and, perhaps, even tolerate some of their performance issues.
(02:57):
First of all, for sure, I have worked with plenty of people who are fortunate enough to work in an open and accepting workplace. So that they feel comfortable disclosing their ADHD to their boss and colleagues. If you work in such a place, that’s great. You have nothing to worry about. But we also know from anecdotal evidence that this is a risky gambit. That is, disclosing is a risky gambit, as the outcome of disclosure is uncertain at best. And the risk of a negative fallout is just too great to leave it to chance. So you want to be careful.
(03:35):
If you’re thinking of telling people, you can start by bringing up ADHD in a conversation. I don’t know how easy this’ll be, but you can try just to see what their response is. Then based on the response, you can decide whether to disclose ideally, your workplace, again, would appreciate even embrace differences and be willing to work with you to leverage your strengths and accommodate your ADHD challenges.
(04:03):
So you can offer the best of you to the workplace, but as I mentioned above, that’s not always the case. In fact, it’s possible that your boss and colleagues may think you’re just making excuses, although I know that’s not true, and then if they think you’re making excuses, they may treat you somewhat dismissively, maybe even pass you over pro promotion, and in the worst case scenario, fire you. It happens unfortunately.
(04:36):
So unless you have information that would allow you to confidently know that they will be receptive to your disclosure. It’s again, best to be cautious as you sort out your options because remember, you can’t take it back. The alternative and my suggested first course of action when you are having challenges is to identify those areas where you are having the challenges and then decide how you can address these using your own resources.
(05:07):
For example, one of my former clients was on a performance improvement plan. We went through each part of it and figured out specifically what she could do to address each of the areas where she needed to improve. One of the areas where she needed improvement was in identifying and asking for help sooner in the process when she was working on projects as she would get stuck, procrastinate, and then need to ask for help sometimes beyond the due date. Obviously, this was really problematic.
(05:43):
To address this, she reviewed her projects on a weekly basis with the team lead and then highlighted any areas she had questions about, and then she would follow up with the appropriate person to get answers to her questions on a regular basis so she wasn’t caught, so to speak, flatfooted when she needed to turn in the project.
(06:04):
Another example is from a client who was often late to meetings, maybe that sounds familiar, and sometimes it was because meetings were back to back. To avoid this, he did his best to build in a buffer at least 15 minutes between meetings, sometimes a half an hour, so he had time to transition and prepare for the next meeting so he could be present as he was working before the meeting. He also used a visual timer so he could see the amount of time he had left before he needed to stop and transition to the meeting.
(06:42):
So if you’ve tried addressing your challenges on your own and haven’t had as much success as you would like, it’s probably time to ask for help. You could start by asking a peer or you might decide to work with an ADHD coach. So where do you want to improve your performance? What would help you do that?
(07:05):
Again, if you’re not sure and you need help, who can you reach out to and when you’ve done as much as you can to address your challenges, perhaps even with help, you might still get to the point where you need to ask your boss for certain changes that you think will help you, but you just can’t implement on your own because you don’t have the decision making power to do this, and you can still do this without disclosing your ADHD, which again is what I recommend, unless you’re confident that they will be receptive.
(07:42):
Anyway, to start the ball rolling, ask your boss for a meeting to discuss how you are performing, so she heads a heads up. You might consider sending her an email with the areas you want to talk about, and you can save your proposed solutions for the meeting. Of course, if you want, you can just save the areas of performance and the solutions for the meeting entirely. Anyway, start off the meeting by describing how you work best and what you need to be able to do this. If you are going to talk about challenges, be sure to offer solutions. It would be best not to refer to these as accommodations, though, as the common wisdom is that it implies that you’re going to disclose your reason in your case, your ADHD, and you might not want to do that.
(08:35):
Let’s look at the example of Casey who was having a hard time working in an open floor plan as there were just too many distractions. He met with his boss and shared the following. I do my best work and think I can deliver more effectively in a quiet environment, which our open floor plan just doesn’t afford me. I thought of a few options that I wanna run past you to see if they were possible. Right now, I’m working one day a week at home. Would it be possible to work two days a week at home? Also, I noticed that there’s less traffic by the cube in the far right. Would it be possible to change to this one and would it be okay when I’m in the office to schedule time in the conference room? And of course, if you have any other ideas, I’d welcome those as well. Notice the focus is on what he needs and possible solutions. He was not focusing on what was wrong or asking for accommodations.
(09:38):
He also involved his boss by asking if she had any ideas. So, where do you want to improve your performance? And, in addition to what you can do on your own, what might you ask your boss for? Some requests might be written instructions for more complicated projects, assistance in approaching and breaking down large projects, maybe a coach, additional training, regular feedback, and maybe even tools such as noise canceling headphones or a white noise machine. The key is to be solution focused as you are advocating for yourself for more ideas.
(10:18):
I’ve included a link with the podcast on my website to Jan, which is the Job Accommodation Network. So let’s do a little bit of recap right now before we move on. First step, make any changes you can on your own to help perform better. And if you need help figuring this out, ask someone. Maybe it’s a peer, maybe you hire an ADHD coach.
(10:44):
Then if there are changes you need that you can’t implement without your boss’s approval, set up a meeting. Describe what you need and offer possible solutions without referring to accommodations. So what if your boss is not willing to provide the changes you need? And without those, you can’t perform up to expectations and might even lose your job because of this.
(11:11):
At this point, you should think carefully about your next steps. Wilma Felman, who’s a career expert and ADHD expert recommends the next step would be to tell your boss or human resources that I need in her words, X, Y, Z, whatever it is, because I have ADHD, and then I would work more efficiently if I got X, Y, Z, whatever that may be. She notes At this point, you do not want mention disability, as that might imply you are getting ready to take legal action to get accommodations, and you don’t want to appear adversarial.
(11:51):
If you’re unsure how to proceed, and, again, you think you are in danger of losing your job, you may wanna consult a lawyer who specializes in disability law so you can understand your options and the potential consequences. I’ve included a link to legal resources provided by ada, which is the Attention Deficit Disorder Association with the podcast on my website. Okay, so now we’ve come to the point where you’ve asked for changes to be able to do your job better, but your boss or HR turns you down. So what comes next? The final step, which is certainly fraught with uncertainty, is asking for accommodations under the ADA or American With Disabilities Act. As ADHD is a covered disability at this point. If you consider going down this road, you’ll also want to at least consider with an attorney even if you decide to proceed on your own.
(12:53):
In short, you would need to make a formal request in writing, disclosing your ADHD and show that you, in the words of a d a, have an impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. In this case, the life activity is your ability to do your job. Where it can get tricky, of course, is that, uh, the accommodation must be reasonable, which is where all of the disagreements come up. I won’t go into more detail because I think the vast majority of people listening will hopefully not get to this point, but I did at least want you to know that it is an option. And if you’re curious to learn more about the ADA or American With Disabilities Act, you can find more information@wwwada.gov.
(13:49):
Okay, so let’s turn our attention for a moment to managers or bosses, maybe owners of companies. Obviously, employees need to be much more circumspect in deciding whether to disclose they have ADHD or not. But if you’re the boss and you’re trying to decide whether to disclose or not, you don’t have to worry about the same kind of fallout, of course, and I think there are advantages to disclosing.
(14:17):
For one, if you’re willing to disclose your ADHD, you can help create an inclusive environment, maybe even one that celebrates neurodiversity and disclosing your ADHD might even be good for your bottom line as your employees can feel comfortable getting the support they need to do their best work. But disclosing your ADHD to your employees is also about creating an environment that helps you do your best work. So you will want to think about the changes you want to make to be able to do this, and since you’re the boss, it will be much easier to implement these changes.
(14:52):
Of course, here are two examples from former clients who both struggled to do their own work because of interruptions from employees.
(15:01):
In one case, a former client, a partner in a law firm, was constantly interrupted by associates who would drop into his office to ask him questions throughout the day, and because he thought it was his responsibility to support the associates, he allowed this to happen. The downside, of course, with that, it was hard for him to do his own work with all these interruptions, so he decided to have office hours when the associates knew he was available to help them.
(15:31):
In another example, a former client, again, who is the owner of an architect firm, was bombarded with questions as soon as he got into the office. So again, he wasn’t able to do his own work. He decided to spend a couple of hours at home each morning doing his drawings and writing before going to the office. Then he had a quick meeting with all the employees once he got to the office to answer any questions that they had so that they can continue on with their work.
(16:06):
Well, I know the common wisdom is that you shouldn’t disclose your ADHD at work, I don’t think that’s necessarily true. And there is no right or wrong answer to making this decision, but it’s just that you want to think carefully about what it is that you want from disclosing and what are the possible consequences of doing this before you make the decision so you can get the best outcome possible.
(16:38):
That’s it for now. I’m really glad you joined me and stayed until the very end. If you’re interested in learning more about my work with adults with ADHD, please check out my website, marla cummins.com. Of course, if you’ve learned a thing or two from today’s podcast, please pass along the link to anyone else in your circles you think might also benefit. And until next time, this has been Scattered Focus Done. And I’m Marla Cummins. Wishing you all the very best on your journey to reimagining productivity with ADHD.