Question

Can you share your experience at work? How did it feel to realize you are a neurodivergent individual or start identifying with that collective group? How was it at work before? Maybe it was a little confusing, like things aren't working for me as they are for other people. And how was it afterwards as an employee? Was there a difference?

Response

I think that it was only after I left this job in April 2022 that I really started exploring neurodiversity and thinking about the conditions that I have been diagnosed with in relation to neurodiversity and what that meant for myself.

Prior to that, in employment, I found it very challenging at times because I would have certain needs related to understanding why we're doing something or ways I would communicate that felt authentic and fair to me, but they would be received quite poorly. This was a consistent issue throughout a lot of my work life, which can be really challenging because effectively then you're being told you're wrong a lot and the way you're doing things is right in some way.

You're constantly thinking, "Okay, well, how do I contort myself so that I'm not getting this feedback?" as opposed to thinking that just my way is acceptable and is fine, but that the majority potentially don't think like this, or kind of receive it in the same way or have the same social cues or behaviors and communication. That's where the challenge is.

With a greater understanding of neurodiversity and others that experience similar things to myself, one can empower themselves to feel like even if I'm in the minority, the way I'm doing things isn't inherently wrong. But feeling isolated and without that contextualized sense of self is really challenging.

So to answer, it's a bit of... I can't really answer your question exactly, but I can speak to my future work in which a greater sense of self-awareness and understanding of my needs and also how potentially I communicate and behave is confusing at times or interpreted in ways that I don't intend it to be. I can't say if someone's misunderstanding something; they're understanding it, just maybe not in the way that I'm intending it to be understood.

I definitely feel, in future work, a lot more empowered. A lot of the work I'm doing now is driven by myself to an extent, but I feel more confident now. It's definitely been very challenging in previous employment, and I can speak a bit to that if you're interested.