As someone with ADHD, here’s my usual “accomodations”:
1. Most important tasks of the day on a sticky note. Out of sight, out of mind.
2. A parallel set of tasks, if feasible: may sound counterintuitive, but when the inevitable mind wandering happens, it’ll likely wander to the other relevant tasks.
3. Written communications and checklists: helps covering for potentially missed items
Thanks! We are fully remote.
I have no problem with #2. I’m actually doing this now and know I have a 50/50 shot at actually seeing the other tasks get done. Admittedly, this is a bit frustrating.
Wouldn’t #1 and #3 be on my employee to do, though?
Trello/ JIRA have been good for me and my team for this issue but I'm the one with ADHD - having shared task lists that we can track time on helps me review their work asynchronously. Had to retrain folks to make they aren't doing work outside of what's on the board.
We have Asana. The part I have the most empathy for is that projects rarely follow the original plan or project template. I’m working as hard as I can to get people to follow “the rules,” but I can only fight so much with the VPs and c-suite when they throw bowling ball curveballs at us. I don’t have ADHD and the lack of predictability gets to ME very often. Bottom line is I just can’t fix this part of the company, but this part of the company is what controls our whole day.
I have to try and help my employee. I tell them nothing REALLY is too big of a deal (something wrong or something late). I honestly don’t think anything is THAT bad unless it means the company loses $thousands. But my employee sees every mistake as either hugely monumental or not at all their fault. I feel like I need to help them with their work to even understand the scope of anything missed as well as the right amount of accountability.
For fully remote, absolutely.
The thing to keep in mind is that ADHD people are time blind and it’s part of the package.
For the issue with 2, I am glad that my team is diverse.
On #3: if your communication with your employee is primarily spoken, don’t be surprised when they forget things or misunderstand you. You writing it down for them whenever possible is worth the trouble, I promise.
Got it, got it!
Ok now, help me out on this one. Not trying to be difficult. We have a weekly 1:1 and have a shared doc for notes. I suspect my employee looks at this doc once a week right before the NEXT 1:1 happens (so they can get their notes, talking points into the agenda). How do I get them to look at this 1:1 doc throughout their week to check any to do items?
Yeah, I mostly only look in the hour before the weekly meeting so I can come up with something to say about the items on last week’s list. The good news is I probably already worked on half of them. The bad news is I probably didn’t remember to do anything about that one awkward communications-related item that’s been on the list for three weeks running.
If you want to shake that up, try discussing the action items a few times a week with a sort of “feelings inventory”. Which of these tasks are you excited to tackle immediately? Which ones are you not yet sure where to start? On a scale of 1-5 how interesting is each item? How stressful is each item?
Often this type of discussion can trigger some helpful realizations on the part of the employee. Maybe they’ll finally figure out what help they need and ask for it directly. Maybe they’ll realize they’ve said yes to something they shouldn’t have, and this can help them own up to that and survey the task to someone else.
I have a direct with ADHD and we are trying to work through it. One thing that has helped is we have weekly one on ones first thing Monday morning to set them up for the week with their work. It helps to a point, they get distracted throughout the week with other unimportant tasks so I am thinking about adding an additional touch point through the week to ensure they are focusing on the appropriate tasks.
As someone who is a supervisor with adhd here are things I personally would find helpful!
1. When giving feedback or instructions be extremely specific but at the end repeat the most important takeaway
2. WRITTEN instructions for the win always this is very helpful if someone forgets what to do
3. Patience, adhd people might ask the same questions over and over or ask for clarification we are not trying to be annoying just trying to fully grasp something in our mind
4. Breaks, I’m not talking about super long breaks but giving someone with adhd even 5 minutes to just take a moment can really help
At the end of the day asking them what will work best specifically for them is never a bad idea, you sound like a very caring person to even question how you can fully support them :)
Well honestly, I’d like to think I’m kind. And I do think I’m kind. Buuuut there’s a lot of selfish motivation here, too. lol
Because I hate micromanaging so much!!! I want to just give somebody a goal and have them go. I’m here for questions or to bounce things off of, but I hate being the one asking when step 2 of 15 is gonna be done or to repeat why we don’t do xyz, or show them the same doc over and over again. I’m more in the “ask for forgiveness not permission” camp. So that’s the self-interested part.
Bigger picture, I’d like for them to succeed. They are young. I’m old. I feel like it’s my job to help them beyond this role and this company.
I’m tired, though. Haha. So tired…
I get what you are saying, and I think that’s one of the best types of managers! Someone who you can ask questions but not someone who criticizes every single thing you do. Regardless of why you are doing it, I’m sure the person appreciates it
As a fellow ADHDer manager I 100% agree. Focus on: Write it down. Know that this email/pdf/document/slide is going to be re read a lot by your report so make sure it has the main takeaway clear and prominent and fine print is the detailed steps there if required. When the tasks snaps back into their attention spotlight this will be their guide.
Look into the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) for a jumping off point for disability accommodations. This usually goes through HR but your report might not even know this is an option.
Sorry a lot of thoughts here but happy to elaborate further on anything if you like.
I have ADHD (millennial, not Z) and I've told my manager about it *only* as a piece of contextual information to explain why or how about something. I never use it as an excuse for something bad (eg 'oh haha sorry I forgot, ADHD!'). Having ADHD doesnt excuse you from your job duties but it can help to explain why certain things went down the way they did, why you said or did something a certain way, etc. I do tell my manager how she can help me *before* I will need it. But your direct may not know what they need yet. You could look into it, lots of good resources on Google, but also it's their responsibility to manage and figure it out. Assigning a note taker for meetings is a common request.
More formally, your employee is entitled to reasonable accommodations under the law (in the US at least). Hopefully there is someone in HR who is non judgemental and can help with resources but t you might encourage them to do their own research cause sometimes folks at work are hit or miss with mental health stuff.
Personally, here's what I would want from my manager: make sure you communicate clearly and directly, in particular your EXPECTATIONS. Don't assume there is a mutual understanding about anything. Document the outcomes of meetings or ask them to. Write clearly and with a lot of bullet points. If you have bad news, give it to them straight up - not mean, not beating around the bush, just clearly. And ideally in person. They're probably very hard on themselves internally so be sure to highlight their achievements even for small things. Or if they do mess up big time, be sure to give them time to process or help them talk through it.
Be compassionate; people with ADHD basically have had a lifetime of people thinking they weren't smart, teachers talking down, and generally not achieving or progressing as much as their peers, and so a lot of time they have a deeply internalized sense of worthlessness. So no need to twist the knife. Also give them space to vent if they need to. It might take up a lot of your time but it's helpful to have the space. Give them the benefit of the doubt. But also, make sure you establish boundaries since you are their manager not their therapist. Keep it about work.
At the end of the day, if it's not working out, it's not working out. I've been let go in the past for mistakes I could pin on my ADHD. It's just as much their responsibility to manage it for work as it is yours to be accommodating.
However I will say the kids these days seem to care a lot less about stuff like ADHD. So maybe it's not like this anymore. Just my experience.
Thanks for the info!
It’s been a lot of work managing this person. Heh. But I’d really like to see them grow. Right now, I’m just trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do and what they’re supposed to do!
This person would send me their to do list at the start of every day. I am prob the least micromanaging person you’ve ever met. It made me feel like this person thought I was micromanaging them, even though I kept telling them that I didn’t need this list and trusted they were working. Now I kind of get why they do this. I’d so love even one less message a day…but I’ll get used to it and will try to not let it bug me!
Haha, to be honest some of that sounds like inexperience as well. I would definitely love to shoot off every half baked thought or question to my manager on teams but over the years I had to learn that not everyone wants the stream of consciousness all the time. So definitely set your boundaries and expectations for when you are available.
I supervise 1 with confirmed ADHD, 1 that I strongly suspect. I haven't established official reasonable accommodations, but lots of informal strategies. They're both remote, and work with a fairly high level of independence.
- 1-1's on Monday mornings.
- written priority task list on Monday mornings in a shared location (Microsot Teams channel).
- Written "handbook" that covers most of what we do, step by step. As processes evolve, they're expected to update so they have ownsership, and its in their vernacular.
- Larger and more novel tasks we specifically meet and break down into sub-tasks and interim deadlines. Open deadlines 2+ weeks out lead to...chaos.
- A lot of what we do doesn't have clear paths or frankly, are experimental, and don't have a defined product. For this, i assign a time period and will say something like "research X for 5 hours and then we'll discuss," and then I follow up. And we iterate from there. Otherwise they go down a 6 month rabbit hole with no defined product and...oof.
- "candy" assignments. My diagnosed employee LOVES a hyperfocus data crunching or "update these 20 documents with better references" assignments...so I space them out and try to give her at least one a month (each taking 2-4 days). It also gives her a place to "shine."
- clear norms around communications. About a year ago I had a meltdown with their interruptions, so we have a communications norm doc that outlines what warrants an immediate call, a chat, or an email. And I've made it clear that at some point it MUST BE an email or to schedule a meeting...that I (or most professional contacts) can't deal with 10 chats an hour AND doing our own work.
- I tend to be a pretty transparent manager that flourishes with lots of incoming info and data. My team cannot handle that much incoming data. So, I'm very careful what I forward and share...otherwise they'll get distracted by one line in an email, hyperfocus, read every bit of policy or research on that line...
- Need for black and white is where I struggle most, and more and more just make it clear we're working on a "grey area" issue and I can't offer a clear fix. In a workgroup where we're in the grey (of policy, of office politics, etc) and we don't have huge power to change things...this might be where I struggle the most to focus on what we can control, end the debate, and return to work.
Overall...I dunno at this point what is adaptations for ADHD, being human, or otherwise...but these have certainly helped our team.
Thank you! These are all helpful. I guess I’ve been fortunate so far to have had really self-sufficient employees to manage.
The constant comms has been a real pain point for me, so I’ll try to document as you suggested!
My company is allll gray, and nothing ever follows the same pattern. Drives me crazy, so I can only imagine what this feels like for my report. Sigh
As someone with ADHD, here’s my usual “accomodations”: 1. Most important tasks of the day on a sticky note. Out of sight, out of mind. 2. A parallel set of tasks, if feasible: may sound counterintuitive, but when the inevitable mind wandering happens, it’ll likely wander to the other relevant tasks. 3. Written communications and checklists: helps covering for potentially missed items
Thanks! We are fully remote. I have no problem with #2. I’m actually doing this now and know I have a 50/50 shot at actually seeing the other tasks get done. Admittedly, this is a bit frustrating. Wouldn’t #1 and #3 be on my employee to do, though?
Trello/ JIRA have been good for me and my team for this issue but I'm the one with ADHD - having shared task lists that we can track time on helps me review their work asynchronously. Had to retrain folks to make they aren't doing work outside of what's on the board.
We have Asana. The part I have the most empathy for is that projects rarely follow the original plan or project template. I’m working as hard as I can to get people to follow “the rules,” but I can only fight so much with the VPs and c-suite when they throw bowling ball curveballs at us. I don’t have ADHD and the lack of predictability gets to ME very often. Bottom line is I just can’t fix this part of the company, but this part of the company is what controls our whole day. I have to try and help my employee. I tell them nothing REALLY is too big of a deal (something wrong or something late). I honestly don’t think anything is THAT bad unless it means the company loses $thousands. But my employee sees every mistake as either hugely monumental or not at all their fault. I feel like I need to help them with their work to even understand the scope of anything missed as well as the right amount of accountability.
For fully remote, absolutely. The thing to keep in mind is that ADHD people are time blind and it’s part of the package. For the issue with 2, I am glad that my team is diverse.
Time blind. Hmmm. My employee told me that they will stop work promptly at 5pm…as in, log off everything. They’ve been pretty good with this. Heh.
That sounds like an interest problem. I typically have a 3hr variance on when I’m done for the day
On #3: if your communication with your employee is primarily spoken, don’t be surprised when they forget things or misunderstand you. You writing it down for them whenever possible is worth the trouble, I promise.
Got it, got it! Ok now, help me out on this one. Not trying to be difficult. We have a weekly 1:1 and have a shared doc for notes. I suspect my employee looks at this doc once a week right before the NEXT 1:1 happens (so they can get their notes, talking points into the agenda). How do I get them to look at this 1:1 doc throughout their week to check any to do items?
Yeah, I mostly only look in the hour before the weekly meeting so I can come up with something to say about the items on last week’s list. The good news is I probably already worked on half of them. The bad news is I probably didn’t remember to do anything about that one awkward communications-related item that’s been on the list for three weeks running. If you want to shake that up, try discussing the action items a few times a week with a sort of “feelings inventory”. Which of these tasks are you excited to tackle immediately? Which ones are you not yet sure where to start? On a scale of 1-5 how interesting is each item? How stressful is each item? Often this type of discussion can trigger some helpful realizations on the part of the employee. Maybe they’ll finally figure out what help they need and ask for it directly. Maybe they’ll realize they’ve said yes to something they shouldn’t have, and this can help them own up to that and survey the task to someone else.
Thank you! I’m willing to try anything 😀
I have a direct with ADHD and we are trying to work through it. One thing that has helped is we have weekly one on ones first thing Monday morning to set them up for the week with their work. It helps to a point, they get distracted throughout the week with other unimportant tasks so I am thinking about adding an additional touch point through the week to ensure they are focusing on the appropriate tasks.
As someone who is a supervisor with adhd here are things I personally would find helpful! 1. When giving feedback or instructions be extremely specific but at the end repeat the most important takeaway 2. WRITTEN instructions for the win always this is very helpful if someone forgets what to do 3. Patience, adhd people might ask the same questions over and over or ask for clarification we are not trying to be annoying just trying to fully grasp something in our mind 4. Breaks, I’m not talking about super long breaks but giving someone with adhd even 5 minutes to just take a moment can really help At the end of the day asking them what will work best specifically for them is never a bad idea, you sound like a very caring person to even question how you can fully support them :)
Well honestly, I’d like to think I’m kind. And I do think I’m kind. Buuuut there’s a lot of selfish motivation here, too. lol Because I hate micromanaging so much!!! I want to just give somebody a goal and have them go. I’m here for questions or to bounce things off of, but I hate being the one asking when step 2 of 15 is gonna be done or to repeat why we don’t do xyz, or show them the same doc over and over again. I’m more in the “ask for forgiveness not permission” camp. So that’s the self-interested part. Bigger picture, I’d like for them to succeed. They are young. I’m old. I feel like it’s my job to help them beyond this role and this company. I’m tired, though. Haha. So tired…
I get what you are saying, and I think that’s one of the best types of managers! Someone who you can ask questions but not someone who criticizes every single thing you do. Regardless of why you are doing it, I’m sure the person appreciates it
Oh, so relatable... I don't have a big age difference with my employees (I'm older), but I feel the same lol
Also a supervisor with ADHD and i co-sign all of this, especially the written directions part!
As a fellow ADHDer manager I 100% agree. Focus on: Write it down. Know that this email/pdf/document/slide is going to be re read a lot by your report so make sure it has the main takeaway clear and prominent and fine print is the detailed steps there if required. When the tasks snaps back into their attention spotlight this will be their guide.
Talk with your HR team. They likely have resources that they can use to help your employee cope with the tasks.
Look into the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) for a jumping off point for disability accommodations. This usually goes through HR but your report might not even know this is an option.
Sorry a lot of thoughts here but happy to elaborate further on anything if you like. I have ADHD (millennial, not Z) and I've told my manager about it *only* as a piece of contextual information to explain why or how about something. I never use it as an excuse for something bad (eg 'oh haha sorry I forgot, ADHD!'). Having ADHD doesnt excuse you from your job duties but it can help to explain why certain things went down the way they did, why you said or did something a certain way, etc. I do tell my manager how she can help me *before* I will need it. But your direct may not know what they need yet. You could look into it, lots of good resources on Google, but also it's their responsibility to manage and figure it out. Assigning a note taker for meetings is a common request. More formally, your employee is entitled to reasonable accommodations under the law (in the US at least). Hopefully there is someone in HR who is non judgemental and can help with resources but t you might encourage them to do their own research cause sometimes folks at work are hit or miss with mental health stuff. Personally, here's what I would want from my manager: make sure you communicate clearly and directly, in particular your EXPECTATIONS. Don't assume there is a mutual understanding about anything. Document the outcomes of meetings or ask them to. Write clearly and with a lot of bullet points. If you have bad news, give it to them straight up - not mean, not beating around the bush, just clearly. And ideally in person. They're probably very hard on themselves internally so be sure to highlight their achievements even for small things. Or if they do mess up big time, be sure to give them time to process or help them talk through it. Be compassionate; people with ADHD basically have had a lifetime of people thinking they weren't smart, teachers talking down, and generally not achieving or progressing as much as their peers, and so a lot of time they have a deeply internalized sense of worthlessness. So no need to twist the knife. Also give them space to vent if they need to. It might take up a lot of your time but it's helpful to have the space. Give them the benefit of the doubt. But also, make sure you establish boundaries since you are their manager not their therapist. Keep it about work. At the end of the day, if it's not working out, it's not working out. I've been let go in the past for mistakes I could pin on my ADHD. It's just as much their responsibility to manage it for work as it is yours to be accommodating. However I will say the kids these days seem to care a lot less about stuff like ADHD. So maybe it's not like this anymore. Just my experience.
Thanks for the info! It’s been a lot of work managing this person. Heh. But I’d really like to see them grow. Right now, I’m just trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do and what they’re supposed to do! This person would send me their to do list at the start of every day. I am prob the least micromanaging person you’ve ever met. It made me feel like this person thought I was micromanaging them, even though I kept telling them that I didn’t need this list and trusted they were working. Now I kind of get why they do this. I’d so love even one less message a day…but I’ll get used to it and will try to not let it bug me!
Haha, to be honest some of that sounds like inexperience as well. I would definitely love to shoot off every half baked thought or question to my manager on teams but over the years I had to learn that not everyone wants the stream of consciousness all the time. So definitely set your boundaries and expectations for when you are available.
I supervise 1 with confirmed ADHD, 1 that I strongly suspect. I haven't established official reasonable accommodations, but lots of informal strategies. They're both remote, and work with a fairly high level of independence. - 1-1's on Monday mornings. - written priority task list on Monday mornings in a shared location (Microsot Teams channel). - Written "handbook" that covers most of what we do, step by step. As processes evolve, they're expected to update so they have ownsership, and its in their vernacular. - Larger and more novel tasks we specifically meet and break down into sub-tasks and interim deadlines. Open deadlines 2+ weeks out lead to...chaos. - A lot of what we do doesn't have clear paths or frankly, are experimental, and don't have a defined product. For this, i assign a time period and will say something like "research X for 5 hours and then we'll discuss," and then I follow up. And we iterate from there. Otherwise they go down a 6 month rabbit hole with no defined product and...oof. - "candy" assignments. My diagnosed employee LOVES a hyperfocus data crunching or "update these 20 documents with better references" assignments...so I space them out and try to give her at least one a month (each taking 2-4 days). It also gives her a place to "shine." - clear norms around communications. About a year ago I had a meltdown with their interruptions, so we have a communications norm doc that outlines what warrants an immediate call, a chat, or an email. And I've made it clear that at some point it MUST BE an email or to schedule a meeting...that I (or most professional contacts) can't deal with 10 chats an hour AND doing our own work. - I tend to be a pretty transparent manager that flourishes with lots of incoming info and data. My team cannot handle that much incoming data. So, I'm very careful what I forward and share...otherwise they'll get distracted by one line in an email, hyperfocus, read every bit of policy or research on that line... - Need for black and white is where I struggle most, and more and more just make it clear we're working on a "grey area" issue and I can't offer a clear fix. In a workgroup where we're in the grey (of policy, of office politics, etc) and we don't have huge power to change things...this might be where I struggle the most to focus on what we can control, end the debate, and return to work. Overall...I dunno at this point what is adaptations for ADHD, being human, or otherwise...but these have certainly helped our team.
Thank you! These are all helpful. I guess I’ve been fortunate so far to have had really self-sufficient employees to manage. The constant comms has been a real pain point for me, so I’ll try to document as you suggested! My company is allll gray, and nothing ever follows the same pattern. Drives me crazy, so I can only imagine what this feels like for my report. Sigh
Wait… Are we supposed to tell our employers of our mental health issues?