Ep 13 - ADHD and Employment - What is a good job for someone with ADHD?

In this episode, we dive deep into the world of ADHD and employment. Are you wondering what the best job might be for someone with ADHD? Join us as we explore strategies, insights, and real-world experiences to help you or your loved ones navigate the unique challenges and strengths of ADHD in the workplace.

We discuss job accommodations, career choices, and share valuable tips to empower you in your professional journey. Whether you have ADHD or are seeking to better understand it, this episode provides essential insights to help you thrive in the workplace.

Tune in now to discover what job might be the perfect fit and how to make the most of your unique talents, or share this episode with someone who can benefit from it. Don't miss out on this informative and empowering discussion!

Chapters:

00:00 - Intro
02:19 - If the job that you're in isn't working, listen to this!
04:52 - What do ADHDers need when finding employment or a job?
09:28 - Here's another problem with ADHDers...
11:44 - This is what you should do instead when thinking about employment.
14:23 - What will happen if you don't check in with yourself?
16:04 - Say it loud and proud: "You are more than your ADHD!"
16:30 - What is a really good job for someone with ADHD?
19:32 - It's not about finding the right job; it's about...
21:43 - Outro
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Need ADHD coaching support? Feel free to DM me on Instagram @adhdcoachsky for personalized assistance and guidance.

Together, let's navigate the journey towards managing ADHD and unlocking your full potential.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:19 If the job that you're in isn't working, listen to this!
• 4:52 What do ADHDers need when finding employment or a job?
• 9:28 Here's another problem with ADHDers...
• 11:44 This is what you should do instead when thinking about employment.
• 14:23 What will happen if you don't check in with yourself?
• 16:04 Say it loud and proud: "You are more than your ADHD!"
• 16:30 What is a really good job for someone with ADHD?
• 19:32 It's not about finding the right job; it's about...
• 21:43 Outro

Transcript

0:00

All of this internal chatter about literally how they are failing at life in regards to employment. And I think if you're an adult with ADHD and you have that mindset and then you have little people with ADHD, there then becomes this huge fear and anxiety for them around their future and their financial security and their employment. And it can become so overwhelming for so many people who have ADHD. I am so excited to be finally back talking to you all. Like it has been a red hot minute. So if you are new to this space, welcome. My focus, instead of just being on broad mental health, I've really kind of niched down a little bit in terms of ADHD. And so. What I want to do every week is answer your questions about ADHD. Hello everyone. Welcome to another ADHD chat. I really want to talk about such an important topic, especially for us adults, but also for the little people moving the ranks with ADHD, right? Is ADHD and employment? Now, I hear so many people when they come and talk to me, ADHD is saying that they, oh sorry, that they struggle with work, or that they just feel like they, they stuck at their job, or they're letting people down all the time, or they're fucking up, or they're not getting things right, or, Like all of this internal chatter about literally how they are failing at life in regards to employment. And I think if you're an adult with ADHD and you have that mindset, and then you have little people with ADHD, there then becomes this huge fear and anxiety for them around their future and their financial security and their employment. And it can become so... overwhelming for so many people, uh, who have ADHD. And here's the thing that I actually really, really, really need ADHD is all ADHD is to hear and even neurotypicals, right? Is that if the job that you're in isn't working and you're feeling like a fucker, then I really need you to check in and be super honest within yourself around these three things. One is, maybe you are in the wrong fucking job. Maybe the job that you're in, it's not for you. It's not the one that you had your heart set on, right? It's not the one that you dreamed about as a child. It's not the one that you thought you'd be when you were in high school. Like, it's just, it's the wrong job. It's not the job for you. And that's not your fault, right? You've ended up there and there's a responsibility piece. But, it's just the wrong job. The second one, is maybe the job's kind of okay. But the environment sucks, right? And maybe it doesn't suck from a place if it's the environment itself. Maybe the environment isn't conducive for you and your needs and your ADHD. Or, maybe the environment just fucking sucks, right? Like, everything in life is polarity. As much as there are going to be working environments that are fucking amazing and I've worked in those spaces, there's also going to be environments that fucking suck and I've worked in those spaces. So maybe the environment is not conducive to you and your ADHD. And then the third one is maybe the environment's okay. Maybe the job's pretty cool. Maybe it is the one you want. But your internal dialogue or your internal map or the way that you are showing up and the way that you are seeing yourself, or the way that you're managing your ADHD, is letting you the fuck down, right? And again, not from a place of it being, Oh my God, it's my fault. Like, let's not get caught up in that. But from a place of you're not have been able to be aware or at the moment, like you struggle with being able to manage your ADHD, which then impacts on the job, the environment and all of the things above. Now, if you actually look back at the research and Attitude magazine did a great survey and research around ADHD and employment, is that if you support ADHD is to find the job. That it allows them to excel, then ADHDers can actually, like, we can excel at jobs. We can be fucking phenomenal at our job, at our work, at what we do. It's just important in finding the fit. Hear the dance? Now, what is it that we need? And I think, to be honest, everybody needs... When we're looking at employment, and the first thing is that we need to find a job where we can find some part of it that we love. Now there are like, we are never going to find a job that we love everything about. And if you have found that, then fucking stay where you are. But I've never seen someone who loves all of the parts of their job. But if you can find a job and find a part of it that you love, that you can attach meaning and purpose to, Then you are more likely, as the ADHD er, going to be able to show up and do the thing. Remember, as the ADHD er, we want pleasure, we want dopamine hit, we want to feel good, right? We want the reward now, not later. We aren't focused on what we think is important, we're focused on what we think is going to give us a passion and purpose in the moment. So as an ADHD er, it is so important that when you are looking for a job, You are looking for a job where you can find some level of meaning or purpose within that job. The other thing as ADHD is that we need to be super clear on, which we're not always good at doing, is finding a job that strengthens our strengths, not highlights our weaknesses. Now, most of us are really good at knowing what our deficits are. Like when I see people for coaching or psychology or just talk to my friends or anyone in general with ADHD, People are really good at telling me, this is why I'm a shit person. This is what I do wrong. Like this is where I'm failing at life. And on some level, knowing where your weaknesses are can be helpful. But what is equally helpful and probably more helpful is knowing where you just fucking shine. Like, where are your strengths? Where do you not have to spend so much executive functioning energy on doing the thing? And let's fucking highlight that. Let's highlight what you do well. So when we're looking for a job, again, we want to know in our mind, what are my strengths and what are the areas that I struggle in? And if the job I'm applying for has more areas and demands on me that fits over here in the category of my areas of improvement, then it's probably not going to be the job for me. In the job, we want the job to have more of our strengths outweighing the things that we struggle with. Because if that starts to happen, and we go into a job, and it's got our strengths in there, and we feel really good, and we're getting the dopamine hit, which means our self esteem's going up, do you see where I'm going with this right? It builds our energy, then it's more likely that we have more resources then, to navigate the things that we struggle with. Whereas if we flip it around, And the job has way more of the weaknesses in it, then we don't have any extra resources to tap into to manage the problem area. And then the last thing that we need to be mindful of, and this one often meets me with debate, right? Is that the environment that we're in, in terms of our work, absolutely on some level needs to accommodate for our shortfalls. Now, that's not to say that you are not responsible for your ADHD and your work environment is. What that is to say is that when you advocate and share with people what it is that you need so you can do the job that you need to do, there are accommodations that are allowed within that work environment to support you. A simple example with one of my coaching clients. was that because their office is open plan, the minute they get hyper focused and in the groove of their work, what would happen is, is that Betty would talk to them and then Bill would interrupt them and then Jill would have a conversation. And so we simply talked about having a sign that was full permission that they could put up that said, Hey, I'm in hyper focus mode, please be respectful and come back at 11 and I'll have a conversation with you then. I'm just making the time up. Right. And so what that did, what is it? It created an accommodation within the environment to support her in being able to do the work that they needed to do. And what she found was most of the time, people were respectful of that. Because again, we need to be mindful if that if we're trying to accommodate and not ask for more than what maybe isn't like necessary and the environment doesn't support that. I flip back to what I was saying before, that maybe the job isn't for you. The other problem that I think with ADHD is, is that we're not always good at advocating for ourselves. Because let's face it, there are negative views about everything in life, like everything in life is polarity, there will be people in your life that understand, or are willing at least to understand ADHD and see it for what it is. And then there's equally going to be people in life Who don't wish to understand it, and who actually choose to form a story around what they think is going on themselves. So there's going to be times in your life where you're going to be around people that put you down, or call you lazy, or call you stupid, or throw shit at you. And what we don't want to do in those moments is get caught up in, Oh my God, they're right. I should be able to get my shit together. I should be able to do things better. I should be able to self motivate. I should, I should, I should. When we spend too much time in the shoulds, when we don't spend enough time advocating for ourselves, when we buy into the story that comes in from other people, what I notice happened with ADHD is, is that we start to do one of two things. We either set the bar so low for ourselves that we're now in jobs that we don't like. that aren't financially secure, that don't make us feel good because we've lowered the bar so low compared to what we want to achieve, right? I think according to your own values there, right? Or we find a job that we think we should be able to do and we get so caught up in anxiety and perfectionism and obsessiveness because we just have to get it right. Neither's fucking helpful. Both are way outside of your area or zone of genius. Both are way outside of what you actually need to be focusing on. And both take up so much fucking resource and energy that you don't have extra available to you, that we burn out. And then we experience things like rejection sensitivity and burnout and ADHD paralysis and like, I don't know, stomach issues and skin conditions and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? Comorbid conditions. All of this shit starts to happen, none of which is helpful. So what I ask. people to do when they come to me and they start thinking about employment is to really start checking in firstly with self like really sitting in a space of okay. If I just thought of a perfect world right now, right, we know that one does not exist, that's fine. But if I just sat in a perfect world right now and allowed myself to just purely explore what brings me joy, what lights me up, what gets me excited, what I can engage in hours for, right, what I do well, you know, what people might say to me, I do well. And I asked them to write that down. And I asked him to get super clear on it because somewhere in there is your zone of genius. Somewhere in there is your passion and purpose. Somewhere in there, you can create a meaning in a job. Somewhere in there is the employment that is suitable for you. But if we don't take time to understand that part of ourselves, and instead we focus on, as I said before, what we should be doing or what we have to be doing or what we think we're only worth doing. Then we're going to keep getting caught up. So I strongly encourage you, take time to sit down and check in with this. And then if you're currently employed, you might want to check in with yourself and go, Is there any part of that that I can see in my current job that I can start drawing from if I actually shift the lens, the lens and look at my job from a different point of view? Like if I actually come into the job I'm doing and look at it and go, Oh, where can I find excitement in the job? Where can I find joy in the job? Where can I find my purpose and passion in this job? And the answers will be really telling because you'll either be like, fuck, I've been overlooking this. Like I fucking love planning and organizing. And I am Sky's admin assistant and she's fucking hopeless at it, which means I can take that off her and I can just zone in and do that and feel really fucking good doing that. Right? So maybe you find it in the job that you're doing. Or maybe what you find is that you've actually been pushing shit uphill for way too fucking long and you actually need to start thinking about a plan for moving on, finding a different job, changing the environment that you're in. You know, people often say to me that it's really, really tricky to kind of look at other forms of employment, especially if, uh, maybe you have a lot of financial stress on you, if you have family. We know things are going up, there's a, like a, there's a huge cost in life, like we need to afford to live. But I often say to people, while that is true, what is the cost to you, to your mental health, to your physical health, to your relationships, to the way you parent and show up for your kids, to your life, to your self esteem, I could keep going, if you don't actually spend time checking in with how you can make some positive change. And maybe you can't jump ship straight away. I'm not saying you can. You might not be able to. And equally, though, how can you start shifting things differently? How can you maybe start showing up for yourself in the job differently? How can you advocate with your boss differently? How can you maybe work on your mindset differently? How can you maybe start opening up to the possibility of maybe studying part time so that you can actually look at a new career in the future? Or how can you maybe reduce the hours in your current job so you can look at employment somewhere else? Like my brain, and I know it's not the same for everybody, is like, there's always a way, right? Are there consequences? Fuck off! There's consequences everywhere in life, but there's always a way if we put our mind to it. But anxiety, fear, the unknown, low self esteem, like the rejection, the shame, what it does is it shuts down opportunity, choice, or being able to see anything outside of what is currently there. And that's why I talk a lot with ADHD about learning to be an advocate for yourself. It's fucking hard, don't get me wrong, and equally though, and I know I say that polarity sucks sometimes, it's important. You know, we want you to learn that you are more than your ADHD. You are more than your deficits. You are more than your weaknesses. You are so much more capable of doing things than you think you are. You're just focusing in the wrong direction. You know, I get asked the question a lot, which is, Okay, well, if that's the case that maybe the job isn't for me, then what is a really good job for someone with ADHD? And my answer to you, and it frustrates people, is whatever job you can find meaning and purpose in, you know, a lot of the times A D H D is like, we need creativity in our world, we need variety. We need to be able to move. Like you can see on these lives, I'm always moving, right? A lot of us, not all of us, but a lot of us, large majority, like we wanna help in some capacity, whether it be people or animals or whatever it is, right? We wanna help. Okay, and while we need structure, like as ADHDers, we fucking, we need to have a guideline and a structure. There needs to be flexibility and allowance to pivot around that and for innovation and growth. And if you think about it, any job could give you that. Like if you think about a teacher. Right? A teacher gets to be creative in, I've seen some of their rooms, like they are fucking phenomenal in how they create and set up their rooms for their little people, in how they present and deliver information and the learning to kids. There's a creativity in that. Right? They get variety in terms of the different subjects they teach, the different kids they get to see, the different classes they go to. But the sports carnival, athletics, like there's variety in there. Right? Movement can come in the form of like standing up the front of the classroom. You know, doing sports or dance with the kids, practicing the meditation. Going and doing cross country, I'm just making it up now, right? They help our little people be educated and learn about so many things in the world. And they have a structure, they have a routine throughout the day. Like, that's just one example. Like me, psychologist. Like, I get to be creative in my delivery of information to you guys, like on the Facebook Live now. Right? I get variety in my day because I can jump between one on one clients, and then I'm doing a Facebook Live, and then I'm going to run a group, and then I'm going to run a program. I get to move because my clients are so accommodating. It would be like bouncing in my chair, right? Or I get to move in between clients. I work for myself, which is a luxury there because I get to go for walks. I went for lunch today with Hubby. I get to help people every day with their mental health and to learn about themselves and to understand. And there's a structure in terms of my calendar and my diary, right? Think about a cleaner, a cleaner. There is creativity in how they come into a space and clean it and design it for some like this cleaner. And she was fucking awesome. She would just come in and organize and rearrange things. And I'd be like, Oh, breath of fresh air. You are my friend, right? Variety is going to the different houses, meeting different people, seeing different places. They literally move, right? Like, it is a hard job cleaning, my friend, right? I have a friend who's a cleaner. It's fucking hard. But they help people. Oh my god, the feeling that you get to come home, especially if you have ADHD with a clean house, how calm and grounded you can feel. Cleaners are fucking amazing humans that help people have that experience and that feeling. Right? And there's a structure. Again, they have this house and then this house and then this house. They have their diary. I could keep going with any job, like insert any job, right? It's not about finding the right type of job as an ADHD er. It's about finding the job that has meaning to you and that you see within that job where you can actually put those things in place for you. And most importantly, it's doing something that you love. And as I said to you, you are not going to love all of the parts of your job. That is not. possible. I don't love all of the parts of my job, but the parts I love is working with people, is seeing people fucking shine, is allowing people to witness me, witness them in their vulnerability and be with them in that space. Like that is such an honor that I get to be part of. And they're the parts that I love connecting, talking. You can see I fucking like to talk, right? They're the things. So I would love for you. To almost like do like a bit of a stock take on your current employment if you're already employed. Or if you're not employed, really get clear on understanding yourself a little bit more so that when you actually go out into the world of employment or when you start looking at the new job or changing the current one, that you are doing that and coming from a place of what you need and what's going to support you, because I guarantee you, if you focus on understanding and supporting your needs in the moment, right, and not from a place of Not appreciating that other people have needs, but coming from a place of what works well for me, because I guarantee you the more you come from a place of what works well for me, the more productive you are going to be for any employer, any employer, and for the people that come into whatever service that you give. So as usual, like jump in the Facebook group. Let me know what you got from this live. Let me know what are your struggle points with employment? What's worked for you? What hasn't worked for you? Do you have the job that you love? Do you not have the job? Like I am always open to talking. I think I could talk with marbles in my mouth underwater forever. So jump in and have a conversation and I will talk to you all next week.