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Ask HN: How to tell your manager you have ADHD?
At work I'm 10x more productive on tasks that interest me than on tasks that don't. I'm not exaggerating: it's the difference between working feverishly, losing track of the time, willfully going past normal work hours because I'm engrossed, vs. struggling to keep myself on track for even a full hour of productivity spread across an entire workday.
My manager has a vested interest in me being as productive as possible. But I also want to be a team player, and I don't know how to say "I'll be most effective if you give me the tasks I enjoy and not the ones I don't enjoy", without sounding demanding and self-centered. It doesn't help that the things I enjoy include refactoring/paying down tech debt, and the ones I least-enjoy include things like integrating third-party marketing scripts. I'm pretty sure most of the team would have the same preferences; so why should I get special treatment? Except that it really is a hamper on my ability to contribute effectively.
My company and my manager are generally accommodating and empathetic, focused on being as effective as possible as a team and not on judgement, etc. But I'm still worried it wouldn't come across the right way if I brought this up.
Any advice or anecdotes?
- aszantu 5y agoI found some coworkers who babysit me on tasks like not forgetting a meeting, talking to me about a memo i prolly didn't read. I'm skimming group chats for stuff i might have missed. I've got a very friendly boss. Still makes me anxious, cuz i always think i missed something when he wants to talk to me in person. I also keep a journal just throw everything on the pages and mark them. I've also talked about hyperfocus and brainfog to him and he knows about my frustration with certain processes. Else i can only recommend Marshall Rosenberg on YouTube 3 hr course but it's worth it...
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- retrac 5y agoDon't phrase it as "interest". That's a word with an emotional valence. ADHD hyperfocus is not the same "interest" as "I'm interested in this job" or "I'm interested in her". It's quite neutral. I can find myself doing things that are engrossing but entirely uninteresting. In fact avoiding that is a big part of managing ADHD, isn't it? At least for me. Some jobs simply require multiple roles such that any person is going to be juggling a few things, some of which are not their strong suites. I have to do some accounting stuff that I flounder with. No way around it. But otherwise, maybe tell your manager you want more work like X if possible because you blew through it with ease. If you keep churning out those tasks, and they have that work to be done, I'm sure they'll be open to accommodating that. I'm not sure you even need to mention it as being ADHD-related so much as just a good way to keep you highly productive. But you could phrase in it terms of how you manage your ADHD and why certain kinds of tasks are more productive than others.
- brundolf 5y ago> I'm not sure you even need to mention it as being ADHD-related so much as just a good way to keep you highly productive I guess I was thinking of phrasing it that way defensively; i.e. it's not just me being picky, it's a genuine trait that (I think) I don't have any control over
- retrac 5y agoI'd point out that people without ADHD don't necessarily have much control over what they're relatively good with, either! In a non-programming context for example, someone who is quite bad and slow with numbers yet good with manual tasks, might prefer to be reassigned from cashier to stock. Even without ADHD being mentioned, there's nothing too odd about that kind of request, though there's no guarantee it could be accommodated. Now, if you mentioned ADHD it might create a legal obligation to accommodate. (Not sure on your laws there.) If you think they're supportive I don't see the harm in phrasing it in terms of your ADHD to emphasize it's not you being picky, it's a practical way to keep you productive.
- brundolf 5y agoI guess I think the analogy would be more complete if nobody liked working cashier and most would rather be in stock. I'm claiming to be more productive at things that most people want to be doing anyway, so I could imagine there being an assumption that I'm just saying that