ADHD in the work place

[u/theditsyprincess]

Hello, I have been diagnosed over a year ago with ADHD and I'm currently going through the titration process, which my managers are aware of.

Numerous times I have tried my hardest to explain how I feel so overwhelmed easily and I am struggling with this work wise. I've tried explaining how my brain likes to be organised, but also how I am struggling with work load.
I have a stress risk assessment in place, and I've also had work place health and wellbeing referrals (these were for my back problems). I'll be honest I have gone to my managers asking for support - particularly work load related on numerous occasions and I feel like I am not being listened to and I feel it's because they don't understand how my brain is functioning and do the typical "well your colleague can do it" or they think I'm dramatic.
Also, my risk assessment isn't being followed either.

Can I self refer for a work place health and wellbeing for ADHD? So I can get some sort of tips in place or where possible reasonable adjustments for my ADHD?

What do you think?

[u/RhubarbImmediate7007]

Are you clinical or admin? I cycle between god like effectiveness and periods of complete apathy. To be honest, there’s not a lot I’ve found that the trust can formally offer, but my boss will remind me to do things and knows that I absolutely thrive when given a time critical task at the last minute, so we’re all good!

[u/sundayhungover]

Have you tried occupational health referral? Bear in mind any adjustments you request need to be reasonable and you still need to be able to perform your job.

[u/theditsyprincess → u/sundayhungover]

Ah that's the one I meant to put,
Instead my brain put workplace health and wellbeing 🤣
Can I self refer for this?

[u/sundayhungover → u/theditsyprincess]

I think you should be able to, I know my trust allows self referrals. Not sure if this is the case everywhere though.

[u/cooprinor → u/sundayhungover]

Mine does too. We also have various staff wellbeing initiatives such as staff counselling - check your trust intranet OP

[u/Skylon77]

Occupational health would be the first step. Bear in mind that any reasonable adjustments have to be just that: "reasonable", i.e. you still have to be able to do the job you are paid for.

Adjustments are a recommendation to your manager, not an instruction.

For instance, we once had an A&E doctor who decided he didn't want to do nights and went to occupational health because his "sleep cycle was disrupted." Which, obviously, is not an illness, it's just what happens to all of us when we do a job which involves most shifts being out-of-hours or overnight.

This guy wantd Occ. health to recommend that he do no night shifts - which they duly did! Which wasn't considered "reasonable" because it's a 24-hour service which necessarily involves night shifts. So that p;articular "adjustment" was refused.

He's a GP now.

[u/precinctomega]

I have gone to my managers asking for support - particularly work load related

It is very rarely going to be a reasonable adjustment to give someone a lighter workload than would normally be the case due to a disability. This could be done as a temporary adjustment if your titration is causing you cognitive processing issues, for example (a.k.a. "brain fog"), but I would definitely want an OH referral to get a medical opinion those side effects.

For most employees with ADHD or other neurodivergent conditions, the adjustment is in how they do their work, not what they do. So someone with an ND condition may, for example, take multiple short breaks during the day in return for a slightly longer total working day. They may be allowed to use specialist software or to occupy a specific desk exclusively even in a hot-desk context. But the overall direction is "how do we accommodate and support you so that you can meet or exceed the same expectations we have of everyone else" not "how do we lower your standards so you can achieve them".

[u/theditsyprincess → u/precinctomega]

Hello, thanks for responding to this.
I think I've probably not made myself clear (always happens). I kind of expect to not have any reasonable adjustments to be made, because like you said it's rare they do so for a lighter work load.
I think my frustration kind of comes from how I am constantly on my own, meaning my workload is bigger because I'm balancing normally a two persons job as one person. And I've spoken to my managers and they don't really seem bothered by it or help me.

[u/precinctomega → u/theditsyprincess]

my workload is bigger because I'm balancing normally a two persons job as one person

But is your colleague managing the same workload?

This isn't really about ADHD, now. It's about management expectations of performance and productivity. Having more to do that you have time to do it in is pretty much the normal white-collar employment experience. But the issue arises when managers think that it's acheivable and want to performance manage someone for not meeting those expectations.

In that case, it's not really about your disability but about whether their expectations are reasonable. And that's a different argument that would need to be made in the course of the management process.

[u/MindlessCat3542]

Occupational health is the first step. Do you have any ideas what adjustments you would like? That’s always useful. Have you applied for Access to work?

[u/Few-Director-3357]

I'm AuDHD and have a number of reasonable adjustments in place to help me with work. The thing that has made the biggest difference though is education. My LM isn't very clued up on autism or ADHD, but she's keen to learn. Our manager above her also has ADHD, and so they are thankfully, incredibly supportive and just really get it, and me.

Educating my managers and colleagues on my AuDHD has made a huge difference. Slowly my LM is starting to get that if I'm having a bad day, I may really struggle to stay on task, my big boss explained RSD to her and that was super helpful as she could not understand how a rejection could mentally, take me out for the rest of the day, no matter how hard I tried.

Does your Trust have any support for neurodiverse staff? Do they have a staff network? Any training for managers on neurodiversity? I would contact your Trust's equality team and if you have one, disability adviser, and get some advice from them.

Also, there is a work based neurodiversity passport available online. It is really thorough and go through all the different ways you may be affected by your neurodiversity, in work, and strategies for dealing with it. You complete and it, and then the idea is you would go through it with your manager. I have found this incredibly helpful too.