Hey all!
We have a new CodeNewbie Podcast episode coming out tomorrow about neurodivergency and we thought this would be a great opportunity to discuss accommodations in the workplace!
Here is our link to where you can find our new podcast episode, which premiers tomorrow with our guest Frankie Nicoletti!
For those who aren’t familiar, neurodivergency or neurodiversity is a nonmedical framework that is used to describe folks who have differences in cognition/brain function than other folks. This term was built around the autism rights movement and the social model of disability and can be used to describe folks with autism, ADHD, anxiety, OCD, Dyslexia, and other learning disabilities and conditions.
So, my question for you all is for my neurodivergent (and neurotypical too!) folks out here— what accommodations do you have in place at your work or in your workflow that help you mitigate burnout, overstimulation, etc. ?
For myself, as someone with OCD and ADHD, I have a a bunch of different strategies that I use to keep myself feeling my best. I will share them below, and would love to hear what everyone else finds helpful in the discussion!
Top comments (5)
So glad to see this post here on DevTo!
In my case I have Asperger's (in the process of being diagnosed) and having my personal space helps me a lot.
Music and headphones, also a must in my case. No one coming in to personally interrupt me, making me take off my headphones and take my mind off the task at hand.
The organization! Organizing what I am going to do tomorrow is a must for me. So I talk to my colleagues so that they know what tasks I have to do tomorrow.
As you said in your comment, I also work from home. It's absurd to be in the office with people who are working and focused on their work and I feel uncomfortable, isn't it?
The schedule is another necessary thing for me. If it's my time to leave (because I'm going to the gym or whatever) and I have a task to almost finish, the best thing to do is to leave that task until tomorrow because sadly it would mess up my schedule and I would feel that I'm not fulfilling...
The conversation with colleagues, many times it is difficult for them to understand me and also for me to understand what they are explaining to me. Many times I ask them other questions so that I can understand the subject we are talking about and sometimes they are surprised because I still don't understand.
I could go on writing a lot of things but I would also like to read comments from other people!
HEADPHONES! Agreed to all of these but especially the need for not being interrupted, I got a great pair of over-ear headphones a few years ago that scream "I'm busy" and they are a true lifesaver. Also agreed on schedule, it can be easy for me to pile on tasks over and over if I do not build in breaks, I relate!
It's nice to see this, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for responding Rachel!
I wanted to ask you about meal times.
In my case until I finish a task or something I'm doing (even if it's lunchtime) I can't stop until I finish it. I feel that pause as part of "something new" I have to do but without having finished the previous thing.
Thank you very much!
Hey! I am no expert whatsoever and this is definitely a struggle for me too! I normally block off a certain time for lunch according to my schedule, so that I can prioritize tasks beforehand that will finish around the time, so it isn’t an issue when the time comes. If I am not finished with a task, sometimes I set a timer for myself to finish as much as I can before I need to take a break, and then set a timer once I am on break so I don’t loose my stride! Everyone is so different, I hope you find something that works for you!
Okay! As promised, some of the things I do/accommodations I have tried below!
In school, I struggled a lot with misophonia, I specifically am more likely to lack the ability to focus when folks are eating during class (such a hard thing for me because I also love food, and wish SO MUCH that this wasn't the case!). I had an awesome advisor who was able to get me a hearing device where my teacher had a mic that would hook up to an earpiece for me, helping me focus during class on what my teachers were saying. Needless to say, I work remote now, so this is not/never an issue anymore, but this was so awesome at the time.
One that I haven't done since Zoom college was adding in subtitles through a plug-in for meetings! I find that pairing audio with text helps me remain focused during important, dialogue heavy meetings! I believe they now offer Closed Captioning via Zoom which is great!
As a teacher, I utilized presentations as a great tool to keep my students engaged during long lectures, filled with so many images. I find that this works super differently now, but on my team we use Notion along with our meetings which is super great for me to have an organized list and itinerary so I can know what to expect! We all collaborate on our meeting agendas before our meetings also, which I love.
SCREEN BREAKS! Now that I work from home, I also struggle from migraines by being on my laptop all the time, so I have worked into my schedule enough time between meetings and important tasks to take a break and look outside a window, read a book, sketch some ideas, etc. I love having a flexible workday and using our Slack statuses to tell my team when I am taking a break, just to make sure folks are filled in on my status too.
Okay— that is all I can think of for right now!