"ADHD has rewired the workplace. This is what it means for bosses and workers"
The start of the article focuses on the situation of a deputy store manager at a supermarket chain, who'd told his bosses he'd been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), was called to a disciplinary meeting after breaking company rules by using equipment he hadn't been trained to use, and was dismissed for gross misconduct. He successfully appealed the decision and was offered a lower-paid role. He rejected it and took his case to a tribunal and was awarded compesation when the judge found his former employer hadn't fully taken his ADHD diagnosis into account during the disciplinary process.
Other excerpts summarising key points:
- Thousands of people have been diagnosed as neurodivergent in the last few years, an umbrella term that covers autism, ADHD and other conditions such as dyslexia and Tourette's syndrome. Since the pandemic in particular, diagnosis rates for ADHD and autism have been rising, and they're featuring more regularly in disputes in employment tribunals.
- Cases going to tribunal can be around employers not making those adjustments, but they can also be about how people are treated at work, such as a 2025 tribunal found a software engineer who had ADHD had faced discrimination because a manager sighed and made other expressions of "non-verbal frustration" towards him. One diversity and inclusion adviser comments "What we're seeing in tribunals is rarely the result of deliberate discrimination. Cases commonly stem from reasonable adjustments being overlooked, performance processes that were never designed with different thinking styles in mind, and managers lacking confidence because they haven't been given the training or the time to have the right conversations."
- Diagnosis levels aside, there has been a huge increase in awareness of the challenges neurodivergent people can face - whether it's in communication preferences, personal organisation, or sensory needs. In workplaces, many describe "masking," a term which means trying to hide their traits in order to fit in - something which can put a huge strain on the person's wellbeing, which I personally relate to from my earlier career when I hadn't declared the condition to employers.
- One business decided not to wait for individuals to ask for adjustments - but instead offer them to all staff, introducing flexible working, fidget toys in meeting rooms, and red or green "busy lights" on desks, that allow staff to indicate whether they're happy to be disturbed. This means the business was "getting the best out of everybody" and retaining skilled staff, however, showing the polarisation around the topic, the director has also been criticised for being "woke".
- A professor heading up a government expert panel being set up to look at improving the job chances of neurodivergent people, says a "medical" model of providing adjustments is inadequate where what is needed is making neurodiversity a part of how workplaces are designed. The same professor also raises the concern that rising numbers of tribunals could have the troubling effect that "Some employers will go, 'these people' are potentially going to cause us lots of problems," she says, adding that this could lead to a "hidden bias" in recruitment, where employers consider it too risky to take on someone they believe to be neurodivergent and so find a reason to give the job to someone else.
- A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson told the BBC: "For too long disabled people and those with a neurodiversity condition have been left behind, ignored, and not given the support they need to get into work."
