Helping employees manage their ADHD in the workplace.

Sarah was a busy career woman in her early fifties when, while working through her teenage daughter’s ADHD diagnoses, she realised she too had all of the symptoms of  Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. 

Outwardly none of her colleagues could have guessed – Sarah was hugely successful in her high-profile field. She had won numerous awards for her work and was a well-known professional. Her eventual diagnosis too was an enormous relief. 

“It meant a breakthrough in understanding a lifetime worth of issues that I had always put down to inadequacies on my part,” she says. “Understanding that my brain worked in divergent ways gave me an understanding of why I felt the way I did – that in itself was a huge step forward in being nicer to myself.” 

Previously at work, Sarah would berate herself for “not being as good as I should be”. Information or task overload would feel “like I was reading a foreign language that I didn’t understand”. Her desire to say yes to too many work requests would quickly become overwhelming and she would have difficulty completing them. 

At other times she would go too deep into a task and struggle to come up. Her empathy for others could sometimes feel paralysing. She thought she suffered from anxiety. “It wasn’t long ago that we thought ADHD was just about naughty boys and I certainly didn’t know that menopause can also exacerbate symptoms.  

Like many neurodiverse New Zealanders, however, Sarah has not told her employer of her diagnosis. For managers and HR leaders this can be a challenge – it’s hard to accommodate different ways of working, and harness the benefits of different ways of thinking, if you don’t know what’s going on. 

But Clearhead Clinical Lead Barry Kirker says that is changing – he is now contacted “all the time” by adults thinking they have ADHD and employers asking for help in how to work best with a staff member who has been diagnosed. 

“There does seem to be much less stigma, and a real desire from employers to find solutions in the workplace if there are issues,” he says. “What can be difficult is if you don’t know that someone has been diagnosed. People with ADHD can present with very different symptoms, and sometimes they may not be symptoms of ADHD at all.” 

Kirker’s advice for employers is to: 

• If someone is having issues at work and say they have ADHD, ask them about their diagnosis 
• Ask how they are being treated: are they seeking psychological help? Have they been prescribed medication? 
• Discuss the symptoms together, and what changes could be made, within reason, to keep the person working well. 

“Sometimes that may be not overloading someone with too many tasks at once. Perhaps giving a couple of jobs to do, then more when those have been completed,” he says. “There are accommodations that can be made but break down each of the issues and make a plan around them if you can. Sometimes it can help people just to conceptualise their strengths and weaknesses.” 

Kirker says that ADHD has a ‘sweet spot’ in the relationship between stress (arousal) and performance, which is known as the Yerkes-Dodson Law. People with ADHD often experience fluctuations in arousal levels, and finding the place where they are sufficiently stimulated to maintain focus without becoming overstimulated and overwhelmed is when they are performing at their best. Understanding and applying the Yerkes-Dodson Law can help in developing strategies to manage tasks effectively, ensuring that arousal levels are conducive to optimal performance. 

Clearhead has a suite of products including recorded webinars and information on neurodiversity in the workplace which Kirker says is proving increasingly popular. He also knows of several large workplaces where rainbow groups or cultural groups have been joined by a neurodiversity interest group.  

In her workplace, Sarah has yet to acknowledge her ADHD but she works hard through the usual wellbeing methods – sleep, exercise, eating well – to keep herself feeling at her peak. And medication has been a game changer too. 

“I can use my hyper-focus to be super productive when I’m working on something complicated and my ability to juggle different things can help too, as long as I don’t take on too much. 

“I wish I had been diagnosed 35 years ago because for years I thought it was anxiety but it wasn’t – I just didn’t understand the way I was processing things which was making me feel like I was stupid and underperforming,” she says.  

“Now that I know, I feel more confident in my abilities. I’d hate to do a PR job on ADHD because no one wants or asks for a neurodiversity diagnosis, but it is true that when well managed, it can be a powerful tool.”