Disclosing ADHD At Work - What You Need To Know First

Hello Brains! There are people who have very strong opinions as to whether or not you should disclose your ADHD in the workplace. It usually is like, "Yes, you totally should because you have access to accommodations, and don't you want to be yourself at work? " And then there's also people who are like, "no, you should not disclose because there are biases and stigma, and it's going to impact your career if you disclose". The truth is, it's a lot more nuanced than that. So, let's talk about it. If you are considering disclosing your ADHD in the workplace, you are in the right spot. This video is going to talk about who to disclose to, why you might want to disclose, when to disclose. Like when's the best time, what to disclose? Who? What? When? Where? Why? Yeah, we're going to be journalistic about this. Let's do it.

so first of all, should you disclose your ADHD in the workplace? It depends. The truth is there's a lot of nuance to it. So what I'm hoping to do today is to give you some things to consider that might help you make that decision and then know where to start.

So first of all, there are a few reasons why you might want to disclose your ADHD. One is to access accommodations. You can go to askjan. org for more on this, but reasonable accommodations are something that we are entitled to as people with ADHD under the Americans with Disabilities Act, at least. And different places have different protections. But for the most part, if you have ADHD, which can be considered a disability, then you have the right to reasonable accommodations. So that can be one reason to disclose. Another reason to disclose might be to explain why you've been struggling so it doesn't look like you don't care. You can explain, "Hey, like, I actually have been trying really hard, and I have time management challenges that are getting in the way". And that can be a better, more accurate explanation than what it might come across as, which is that you're not trying, you don't care. You don't really want this job. If this job is important to you and you are struggling to meet certain expectations, you might disclose in order to explain why you're struggling or just to be able to be more yourself at work. I have had jobs where I did not disclose my ADHD, and then this job where I very clearly do all of the time, every day and every video, and I am so much more comfortable at work. Being able to speak openly about my ADHD.

When it comes to disclosing, you actually have three options as to what to disclose. You can disclose the diagnosis. You can say, I have ADHD. I have been diagnosed with this. Here's what that means for me. Or you can just talk about the struggle. You can say, hey, I have a hard time focusing in an open environment where a lot of people are coming to talk to me, or you can just disclose the accommodation that you think you might need. disclosing the actual diagnosis is going to afford you the most legal protections, but it's also going to potentially expose you to the most bias or stigma, especially if somebody has some preconceived notions about what it means when somebody has ADHD or they've personally had bad experience with other people with ADHD. there is an argument to be made for not disclosing the actual diagnosis, but instead disclosing the struggle. The specific thing that you are struggling with so that somebody doesn't assume X, Y, and Z about you when you're just struggling is one area. And then you also again have the ability to just say, " hey, I do best with, I work best If I'm able to wear noise canceling headphones, shift between a sit and I stand desk," That's a really good phrase to use. "I work best if... " is something that they're very little downsides to saying. And it also puts you on the same team as your manager, as your boss, you want to work your best. They want you Great. Like we're on the same team. And by the way, you can also self accommodate one of the things that I use to accommodate my brain is Sunsama, which is a really great way to plan my day. So that I can get good work done without burning out. I have a really intense work week this week, so it's going to be critical for me to plan in advance. Because if i'm trying to plan on the day, It's not going to go well. this was a trick that I actually learned from somebody at Sunsama, which is to plan my day at the end of my previous workday. And then I can always review and revise the next day, but I'm not starting from scratch trying to figure out "how I do my job? What is my job? What do I do? " I loved Sunsama since I started using it. But it is getting even cooler now that it has this AI smart assistant. it's learning me, it's learning my patterns, It's learning what types of work that I'm doing and how long it actually takes me. Which is good because I don't seem to learn that myself. So, let me add a task. I'm going to get camera ready. Yep. 15 minutes. All right, I'm going to post promote video. Yeah, it's social media that is the category and it's going to take an hour. edit record V. O. For short. This is for short shorts, and that's probably gonna take me an hour and a half. We will see. But if it takes longer than it will learn that and help me plan better next time. you need lunch and go to studio Move to studio? It's actually correct on that. 25 minutes is probably very Let's shoot long form video. But yeah, I got an hour for that. I also have an integration to shoot tomorrow. Shoot integration? Great. All right, so that's my day. And this is where it gets really cool. So I can document and share my plan for tomorrow so I can say, hey, here's what I've got planned here. The obstacles in my way. Obstacle tomorrow, I would say is, doing a type of content I'm not used to doing. Time estimates, maybe off. I don't currently have a lot of buffer time for tomorrow. And I suppose to stack, then confetti. Okay, that makes me feel good. insomnia is a way that I self accommodate my ADHD brain. Am I actually going to feel like doing these things in this order tomorrow? Maybe. Maybe not. But it's a lot easier to rearrange them than it is to try and come up with my plan for the day from scratch, which is one of the reasons why, since I'm it has been so, so helpful to me. Definitely a reasonable accommodation, I think. But if you want to try it for free Sunsama is really cool, Very ADHD friendly. They offer a free trial where you don't even need to put in your credit card upfront so you can try it out genuinely for free and decide if you like it. If you want to use it. So if you'd like to try that out you can go to sunsama. com/a/jessicafromhowtoadhd Also let them know what you think of the new features in the comments below. I'm sure they'd love to hear it. All right, day is planned, back to the video. I know myself. And if I don't plan my day in advance, then I'm going to go off the rails. I'm going to do way more work on one thing that I actually need to do. I'm going to not get to other things that I need to get to and then end up working late, and I'm going to burnout. And that's just something that I know about myself. so finding tools that can work for you and work for your brain and support your brain, that's also something you could do without even telling your employer anything. But then if you do want to talk to your employer, oftentimes that is a reasonable accommodation. It's something that you could ask them to pay for. And they honestly would probably be happy to, because the amount of productive that I am when I'm using tools to accommodate my brain, It is so worth it financially. The return on investment is really big. A lot of times ADHD accommodations are not very expensive, and they can provide a really good return on investment because they can help us in areas in which we struggle. Like time management, like planning, like prioritizing All of which Sunsama helps me with. so now let's talk about how to disclose, if you're going to disclose any of this

it's a really good idea to have in mind what you're looking for. What is your goal here? the way that it works is it's the employer's job to provide the accommodations. It's the employee's job to request the accommodations. ideally you want to come in already having some sort of idea of what it is that you're struggling with and what might help, what kind of supports you might need. Are you going to know for sure that they're going to work for you? Probably not. Right. Some really common ADHD accommodations are: "I need instructions written down" "I need clear expectations" "I need regular check ins or shorter deadlines so that you're not handing me a big project that's due in six months". Time blindness, it's going to be really hard for somebody with ADHD to plan and prioritize their time around this long six month project if they're trying to get the whole thing done all in one, all in one chunk, versus being given smaller chunks to do and shorter deadlines that can often be better for our brains, One of the really important things to know about ADHD accommodations is that they are not one size fits all, and what works for you one day might not work for you the next, it's not a one and done thing. It's not like, hey, this is what I need and will always need every day, all of the time. And that will also solve all of my ADHD woes. And I won't struggle at work at all. Not generally how it works. So part of this process of disclosing and asking for accommodations is to check in every once, and be like, " how is this working? " "How is this going? " "Is it working or do we need to try something else? "

but I'm talking about a conversation, right? Who do we disclose to in the first place? A lot of times people will disclose to their manager if they are comfortable doing that. If not, you can also disclose to HR. because this is protected medical information, at least in the United States, the way that it works is you can tell HR, "This is what my diagnosis is, these are the accommodations that I'm thinking that I need". And then HR can then communicate that to your boss or to the manager and say, "This is what accommodations this person needs", without disclosing the diagnosis. So if you're in a position where you are worried that your manager might have a bias toward you or against this diagnosis, you don't actually have to tell them. Even if you're disclosing the diagnosis to HR, your manager does not have to know, which is really nice. It's nice to have that just as an option. So you're aware.

And then finally, when is the best time to tell? Ideally you want to disclose before problems come up. Two reasons: People are often a lot more willing to work with you at that point because you're telling them you're giving them a heads up in advance, right? You're setting expectations. "Hey, this is something that I struggle with". if something goes wrong and you are late on a project, they're like, yeah, that makes sense. We knew that this was something that this person struggled with or with them. If you don't bring it up until after you're already running late, missing deadlines, etc., it can come across as a bit of an excuse But the other reason, I think, to bring it up before problems come up, especially if you're in a place where you're doing really well at your job, is because it helps to combat the bias and the stigma against ADHD and makes it safer for other people. So my general bias is if you can disclose your ADHD because you are doing well at work, you're in a company culture that feels safe, you are in a high enough position that you're not worried for your job. Whatever it is, if you feel safe enough to disclose, you are now making it safer for everybody else, which is a wonderful thing, because there are people who are going to struggle and be in a place where they really don't feel safe bringing it up because they don't know anybody else in the workplace who is open about their ADHD. So they get the message that it's not okay to be open about their ADHD, and then they don't bring it up until they're struggling so bad or about to get fired that they have no choice but to say, "Hey I have ADHD, and I need accommodations", which perpetuates the stigma, perpetuates the bias, makes it less safe, frankly. So that's another reason to do it before problems come up. I guess there's like a third one, which is because if you put supports in place ahead of time, you may actually prevent the struggle from happening at all. If you need clear expectations or instructions written down and you were trying to get by without that and you're missing things and you're messing up, that could have been prevented if you said to begin with, "Hey, like, I work best if instructions are written down so that I can make sure that I'm checking it off, I delivering on what you're expecting me to deliver on". So it can prevent struggles, it can prevent stress. It can prevent a lot of shame, I think. In reality, very often, depending on the culture of the company and your own comfort level around your diagnosis. You're not going to feel comfortable disclosing until you need to, until it would be less safe not to, right? So a lot of people don't disclose their ADHD diagnosis until their jobs are at risk or until they're getting written up. It's not the ideal time, but for some people, like that is when it makes the most sense because they didn't feel comfortable before, or the risk of disclosing felt greater than the risk of not disclosing and just trying to keep up with the workload without the accommodations that they need. So no judgment wherever you're at. as an employer myself, I would definitely rather somebody come to me after the fact and be like, "Yeah, I've been struggling with this. I thought I could handle it. And it turns out I really do need the accommodations, and I wish that I'd spoken up sooner, and that's on me. But this is how my brain works. And if I'm going to meet the expectations here, then I'm going to need X, Y and z accommodation or something similar, right? " I would prefer that than nothing. Yeah, that's my, That's my $0. 02. I hope this was helpful. Thank you so much to our brain advocates and all our Patreon brains for supporting the work that we do on this channel. If any of you, by the way, have experience with disclosing a diagnosis, please let me know in the comments. How did it go? what are you glad that you did? What do you wish you had done differently? What accommodations ended up helping you in your workplace? I would really love to know. So yeah, let me know in the comments. That's it for this week. Like subscribe, click all the things and I will see you next video. Bye, Brains!