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What most IT people think of as “real work” is being able to concentrate on a problem and work towards solving it. This is a creative type of work, and requires

by orev 3y ago

What most IT people think of as “real work” is being able to concentrate on a problem and work towards solving it. This is a creative type of work, and requires a quiet mind that can focus. When you’re in fire-fighting mode, the fight/flight/freeze survival hormones are active, which suppresses creativity (it’s not smart to be thinking about your next cave painting when there’s a lion stalking you). Being in one or the other mode is normal, and not related to ADHD.

maxbond 3y ago
Can we not do this? Being in a "ready mode" because you have a meeting in an hour is a common experience among those with ADHD. It's totally unrelated to a "fight or fight" response. When someone relates an experience you don't understand, it's a natural reaction to assume it's actually a different experience that you do understand. I know because I catch myself doing this all the time, too. But let's understand that we have that cognitive bias and resist the temptation to "well, actually" people. (One technique that's helpful to me is to rephrase my comment as a question instead of a correction.) As for different types of work, meetings are important and are work, but it still is frustrating when they make it difficult to get your other work done. That's not about whether certain kinds of work are legitimate. If you're late on something and you tell your manager that you had too many meetings and couldn't get into a productive flow on those tasks - that will not be seen as a legitimate reason not to have completed your assigned tasks. (Similarly, having your flow interrupted will not be seen as a legitimate reason to have fewer meetings. I've had a manager deny my request to skip a meeting - while I was fighting a production incident preventing a "must win" customer from using the product. This was something the CEO had directly told us was priority 0.) Thus, you end up working more hours, and you can't dedicate as much time to other parts of your life, like family and self care. Which can lead to burnout.

by orev 3y ago

maxbond 3y ago

Can we not do this? Being in a "ready mode" because you have a meeting in an hour is a common experience among those with ADHD. It's totally unrelated to a "fight or fight" response. When someone relates an experience you don't understand, it's a natural reaction to assume it's actually a different experience that you do understand. I know because I catch myself doing this all the time, too. But let's understand that we have that cognitive bias and resist the temptation to "well, actually" people. (One technique that's helpful to me is to rephrase my comment as a question instead of a correction.) As for different types of work, meetings are important and are work, but it still is frustrating when they make it difficult to get your other work done. That's not about whether certain kinds of work are legitimate. If you're late on something and you tell your manager that you had too many meetings and couldn't get into a productive flow on those tasks - that will not be seen as a legitimate reason not to have completed your assigned tasks. (Similarly, having your flow interrupted will not be seen as a legitimate reason to have fewer meetings. I've had a manager deny my request to skip a meeting - while I was fighting a production incident preventing a "must win" customer from using the product. This was something the CEO had directly told us was priority 0.) Thus, you end up working more hours, and you can't dedicate as much time to other parts of your life, like family and self care. Which can lead to burnout.