Can Being Neurodivergent Help You at Work?

Summary: Yes, being neurodivergent can help you at work when you learn to harness and manage specific symptoms related to conditions considered neurodiverse/neurodivergent – i.e. attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) – and leverage them to meet and exceed employer expectations.

Key Points:

• Neurodivergent and neurodiverse are nonmedical terms that refer to the fact that some people have brains that develop and/or function in an atypical manner.
• Symptoms of developmental disorders associated with neurodivergence and neurodiversity can cause significant functional impairment across multiple life domains, including relationships, school, work, and social activity.
• The same symptoms that can cause problems – when identified, understood, and reframed – can help a neurodiverse individual thrive in the workplace.

Neurodiversity and Neurodivergence: No Pollyanna, No Sugar Coating

In this article, we’ll focus on two diagnoses associated with neurodiversity: attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, the broad term neurodiversity may refer to the following diagnoses/conditions, in addition to ADHD and ASD:

• Specific learning disorders
• Auditory processing issues
• Sensory integration disorder
• Dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalcula

We’ll address those topics later, in another article. In the meantime, we’d like to direct attention to the neurodiversity movement founded by the sociologist Judy Singer. To learn more, please visit her website: Reflections on the Neurodiversity Paradigm. We’ll also discuss the neurodiversity movement in another article: it’s an interesting, empowering, and somewhat controversial take on neurodiversity with which not everyone agrees.

Now, back to our narrowed-down discussion of neurodiversity, and how being neurodivergent can help you at work.

We know that children, young adults, and adults with clinical diagnoses for developmental disorders such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can experience severe impairment in important areas of life.

In many cases, people with ADHD and/or ASD require professional support to help manage their symptoms. People with ADHD may need medication, coaching, and various types of external support throughout their lives. People with ASD may need professional support during their early years and learn to create strategies that allow them to succeed in typical classrooms, social situations, and work environments.

With some exceptions, people with ADHD or ASD – if they choose to do so, emphasis on their choice – can learn to manage their symptoms and integrate seamlessly into a variety of school and work environments, from those that provide a wide range of accommodations for neurodiverse individuals to those that provide no accommodations at all.

Three Symptoms That Can Become Advantages at Work

A vast majority of work on neurodivergence focuses on mitigating the impact of deficits with external supports and accommodations. However, it’s possible to view symptoms considered deficits as advantages, once an individual learns how to not only mitigate the impact of that difference when it interferes with tasks/goals/responsibilities, but also direct that neurodivergent difference in a way that improves those same tasks, goals, and responsibilities.

We’ll look at three qualities associated with neurodivergence in ADHD and ASD: hyperfocus, attention to detail, and affinity for routine.

First, though, we’ll share that many of us here at Crownview Psychiatric Institute – aside from our roles as mental health providers – have been in work situations where we’re the manager, supervisor, boss, or person in charge. In those positions, three things we value most in the people we’ve managed/supervised – and there’s near-universal agreement on this – are the following:

1. Reliability
2. Timeliness
3. Consistent quality of work.

As we discuss the following three qualities associated with neurodivergence, we encourage you to consider how they may promote the three things we value in the people we’ve managed, which, incidentally, are also three things most people value in their coworkers, i.e. peers at the same level of employment.

Hyperfocus

Hyperfocus is sustained, intense concentration and complete absorption in a task. When a person with ADHD or ASD directs this quality at a work task, they can achieve things that people without hyperfocus may not be able to achieve. This may mean tuning out distractions, sustaining attention for several hours without a break to solve a problem or meet a deadline, or sustaining interest/attention in a project that takes weeks or months to complete. In either case, hyperfocus can improve both time to task completion and overall productivity related to those tasks.

In that way, hyperfocus is an advantage, not a disability.

Attention to Detail

Attention to detail among people with ASD can be truly astounding. Evidence indicates people with ASD may show savant/genius level ability with:

• Numbers: recognizing patterns, instantly identifying if a number is prime, the ability to multiply three and four figure numbers in their head, the ability to do long division in their head, the ability to look at a complex equation or problem and supply the answer without writing anything down.
• Calendars: ability to tell – instantly – the day of the week a date will fall.
• Drawing: ability to perfectly reproduce/replicate things they’ve seen, advanced understanding of shape and perspective
• Music: ability to accurately analyze complex melodic and harmonic structures, ability to reproduce melodies and harmonies with perfect accuracy.
• Memory: ability to recall long numeric sequences with perfect accuracy, e.g. the digits of pi (π) ability to recall facts of interest with perfect accuracy, e.g. sports statistics, movie release dates, etc.

When a neurodivergent individual learns to direct this quality to a work task, they can achieve things that are beyond the capabilities of people without similar attention to detail. In some cases, attention to detail can derail a person with ASD: inconsistencies can be upsetting. However, it’s possible for a person with ASD to reframe their response and focus on their ability to notice differences in systems that others can’t. This type of pattern recognition, or identifying when something is amiss with a pattern, whether that pattern exists in numbers, in a functioning machine, in an architectural design, or in a scientific process, is a valuable asset which, when harnessed and directed, can improve work product and be an immense advantage in a variety of work environments.

In that way, attention to detail is an advantage, not a disability.

Affinity for Routine

When people with ADHD learn to manage symptoms, their routines can become the backbone of their success at work. They develop systems that work for them and can implement those systems to their advantage. From the outside, it may appear as if people with ADHD are scatterbrained, but when they find a system or routine that works for them, it can unleash productivity by directing the excess energy they have, compared to others, and containing it within a system that enhances any job or project they’re involved in.

For people with ASD, routine can be everything, and an essential component of how they organize their thoughts and their behavior. When a neurodivergent person with an affinity for routine integrates work and work tasks into their routine or can adapt their routine to include specific work tasks or their work in general, they can excel, and may become the most consistent and reliable employee in the entire organization.

In that way, affinity for routine is an advantage, not a disability.

Knowing Yourself, Reframing Scripts, Building Skills that Empower You

It’s clear that without understanding, awareness, support, and practice, it may be difficult to reframe symptoms or deficits associated with ADHD and/or ASD as advantages and label them – as some neurodivergent people do – as superpowers that actually help, rather than impair, your performance at work. However, with understanding, awareness, support, and practice, it is – with some exceptions for people at the extreme end of the severity continuum – entirely possible.

You can harness what others call a disability, reframe it, train it, and transform it into an advantage.

There’s something else we failed to mention – yet. Before writing this article, we did an informal poll among peers, asking the question:

“Does Being Neurodivergent Help You at Work?”

One common answer was one we didn’t anticipate. Many people told us that being neurodivergent makes them more empathetic, compassionate, and understanding towards others. Their neurodivergence taught them – and continues to, daily – that they don’t always know what’s going on with others, they should not assume they know what internal difficulties they may have, and that they may be doing their very best with the tools they have.

For example:

• Teachers told us being neurodivergent helps them understand their students with learning challenges or difficulty speaking in class
• Physicians told us being neurodivergent helps them have more compassion for their patients with hidden challenges associated with physical problems.
• One respondent told us it “helps them remember what’s special about others” and enables them to love them and care for them more deeply and authentically.

That last one hit us right in the heart. In a work context, that might mean, “As a manager, being neurodivergent helps me remember details about my employees, and identify and appreciate the unique qualities they bring to the job every day.” However, we think that harnessing a neurodiverse trait to increase the amount of authentic caring in the world is one of the most encouraging things we’ve ever heard, so we’ll end this article on that note.