WORKING WITH NEURODIVERGENT PEOPLE

Being neurodivergent means being different from a neurotypical person. These are some of the things that a neurodivergent person may experience within the workplace: it may look like you get in trouble for asking questions, bringing things to management or letting them know that something may be going on within the company. 

Neurotypical people may think their colleague struggles in their job, don't socialise with the team enough and have high outputs that outperform others. People that are neurodivergent find they can be given extra work because of their high performance and an inability to say no.

These are some of the things that a neurodivergent person may experience within the workplace.

Qualities of neurodiversity:

• Honesty
• Sense of justice
• Perfectionistic attention to detail
• Highly focused
• Aims for quality of work more than social relationships. 

These are positive qualities and traits. These can have different impacts on different people. For example, a person may not mind doing extra tasks at work because it is within their own ethics and personal justice to be involved and to help lift those around them. 

Tips for neurotypical people:

• Ask open questions to clarify what you heard
• Be able to admit when you are wrong and be accountable
• Show patience. That attention to detail takes time
• Show interest in the person process and encourage discussion over instruction
• Celebrate good work and don't pressure anyone to socialise beyond their comfort

What you can do is to understand that not everyone is the same and people work differently. 

Check out this Linkedin post which highlights a video that describes how neurodivergent individuals navigate the workplace.  https://www.linkedin.com/posts/caroline-mrozla-toscano-phd-bb457618_this-tiktok-video-describes-some-of-the-nonsense-activity-7016395942010519552-ckkf