Written by Susan Fitzell

The difficult conversation we need to have before diving into neurodiversity in the workplace

We understand that the reason businesses exist is to make money. So naturally, an employer wants people who can best contribute to that goal. From the start of the industrial revolution, the ideal employee had no “hindrances” in helping the company meet its goals. As such, types of work were divided along gender lines. The striation is evident even today. Thankfully, the needs of society in the 1700s are not the needs of today. Further, current issues need innovative, out-of-the-box solutions, so a cookie-cutter “ideal” doesn’t have to exist for many roles.

Written by Susan Fitzell

Historically, people have viewed neurodiversity from a deficit model point of view. Unfortunately, I’d say that this is the prevailing view. The world is still very much neurotypical-centric. Consider that neurodivergent brains are the other side of the same human neurological coin.

Humans tend to categorize, sort, and normalize information. In short, we do this to facilitate our understanding of a complex world. This tendency to categorize makes things manageable so we can focus on what we need to do. Unfortunately, this approach fails us when attempting to understand humans. We desperately want human interaction to be simple, but it isn’t.

Written by Susan Fitzell

Oh! and all your other employees, too!

Neurodivergent employees approach work a little differently than their neurotypical colleagues. Depending on their specific challenge, whether they’re on the autism spectrum, have ADHD, or have another learning disability, certain aspects of what others would consider a “normal” workday are very challenging for them. For some, it’s a sensory issue; for others, being distracted or having their schedule changed may zero out their productivity for the day.