‘People with ADHD can be incredibly valuable at work’

Lack of awareness of the behavioural disorder has meant many people found it difficult to hold down jobs. But proper diagnosis and support are allowing more employees to make the most of their talents

‘As an employee, I wasn’t very good because I was inconsistent,” says Jannine Harris, 44, from Northampton. “I’m brilliant, and then I’m rubbish. And that’s obviously frustrating for an employer to contend with because they don’t know which Jannine they are going to get.”

Harris says she lost, or left, more than 40 jobs before she settled in her current role at Billing Brook school as a special needs teacher. “I’ve been dismissed from so many jobs,” she says. “That was the cycle of things. The only time I managed to hold down a long-term job, before my current one, was when I worked for myself for six years, but I only managed 13 months in a job prior to that.”

Related: Undiagnosed adult ADHD could cost UK billions a year, report finds

I’m brilliant, and then I’m rubbish. And that’s obviously frustrating for an employer to contend with

Related: ‘I assumed it was all my fault’: the adults dealing with undiagnosed ADHD

I spent the last 30 years thinking I was inferior, because I found it harder to do things that most people take for granted

Continue reading... March 18, 2018 at 09:30PM