robbinsUntappedPotentialAdhd2017

Cite

Robbins, Randall. “The Untapped Potential of the ADHD Employee in the Workplace.” Edited by Milena Ratajczak-Mrozek. Cogent Business & Management 4, no. 1 (January 1, 2017): 1271384. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2016.1271384.

Jeremy

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FirstAuthor:: Robbins, Randall
~> FirstEditor:: Ratajczak-Mrozek, Milena
~
Title:: The untapped potential of the ADHD employee in the workplace
Year:: 2017
Citekey:: robbinsUntappedPotentialAdhd2017
itemType:: journalArticle
Journal:: Cogent Business & Management
Volume:: 4
Issue:: 1
Pages:: 1271384
DOI:: 10.1080/23311975.2016.1271384

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Full Text.

Abstract

As diagnoses increase, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have come to the forefront of popular understanding. Subsequently, much discussion exists concerning the legal and social ramifications for those who have ADD or ADHD in the workplace. Although many people with ADD or ADHD will not qualify for special treatment under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the absence of legal requirements guiding management does not mean that managers’ responsibilities end. The greatest task for managers of ADD/ADHD employees will be working with their conditions, rather than against them, in order to foster efficiency and productivity in the workplace. Management solutions for employees with ADD and ADHD are compiled in light of their positions as valuable components of today’s workforce. .

Notes

Jeremy’s Review

Managing ADHD employees is important for a number of reasons. The author outlines the legal, ethical, and moral reasons to do so. A more productive workforce is a better for the individual and the community. Managing an ADHD employee well will give them value, and the accommodations you make for them will more than likely benefit the entire team that you manage.

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Annotations

Imported: 2023-10-26 5:13 pm

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Studies indicate that ADHD employees will make between $10,791and$4,334 less than employees without ADHD—which is surely significant considering this loss equates to nearly $77 billion a year of lost wages in the United States.
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• Employees with ADHD make less than their peers. That is a huge result across the employment sector.

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, diagnoses of ADHD in children have tripled from 5 to 15% of the population from the 1970’s to the early 2000’s (Data & Statistics, 2012).
Pg.3

• Learning how to manage ADHD employees is becoming a necessity as an increasing number of people entering the workforce today have been diagnosed with ADHD.

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Because every business is required to provide equal employment opportunity, failure to hire employees because they have ADHD is ill-advised. Compliance regarding discrimination is a civil rights issue, and judicial review is conducted under the highest level of scrutiny. If discriminatory hiring practices are proven, a firm could be reduced to financial insolvency for avoiding ADHD employees and could be saddled with near insurmountable compensatory and punitive damages.
Pg.3

• Learning to deal with ADHD ahead of time will help to protect businesses from being against the law and ultimately punished by lawsuits or fines.

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Employees with and without ADHD may benefit greatly from better management techniques, or techniques that are more sensitive to ADHD needs. There is ample evidence that ADHD employees feel underutilized and have low self-confidence within the firm because they are misunderstood, and are therefore, mismanaged.
Pg.3

• Learning to manage ADHD employees will raise moral and increase production by thsoe employees.

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Because America is a nation of hard workers and is founded on the ability to work and contribute, we have a moral obligation to remove obstacles for those who are willing to work and contribute. Thus, society at large has a compelling interest in and a pressing responsibility to break down barriers to contribution by assisting people who want to contribute, but are estopped from doing so.
Pg.4

• People who want to work and contribute to society shouldn’t have unnecessary obstacles placed in their paths.

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ADHD is relatively novel to the American workplace. Thus far, no clear solutions have been promulgated for addressing this condition in professional settings, and moreover, little information exists concerning adult life with ADHD.
Pg.4

• ADHD is a unique challenge to the American workforce (even as of 2022 when this paper was written). That means there is a lot of room to grow and understand how to best manage ADHD employees.

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Due to the majority of the scientific data on ADHD being derived from pediatric studies, adults are at a serious disadvantage for societal education—despite the reality that children with ADHD become adults with ADHD. The research associated with ADHD necessarily limits understanding it in broader contexts, such as within the firm.
Pg.4

• It’s not the fault of businesses not knowing how to manage ADHD. Adult ADHD is still in the beginning stages of being diagnosed and understood as most studies have focused on children.

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. In relation to someone’s value within the workplace, an employee with ADHD may be the quintessential “diamond in the rough.” Accordingly, ADHD employees have a special propensity to outperform other employees when managed properly. Specifically, C.H.A.A.D (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder), posits that adults with ADHD may be better equipped to perform in nonsedentary jobs, like sales, or in highly creative jobs, such as advertising and graphic design, than their non-ADHD peers (Succeeding in the Workplace, 2013).
Pg.5

• If an employee with ADHD is managed well, they will be high value contributors to the work force, especially in roles that require creativity and not sitting still.

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ADHD is considered a cognitive disability. As such, ADHD issues in the workplace are considered in light of the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Acts of 2008, or the ADAAA.
Pg.5

• ADHD is a protected class in the workforce. This is beneficial to force the issue of being better employees and advancing accommodations for those with ADHD (and other disabilities).

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First, the company for which an employee works or applies to work for must employ more than fifteen people to be considered a “covered entity” under the law. Covered entities are the only businesses that are subject to ADAAA regulation. Here, it is important to note that civil rights law does not ban all discrimination, it merely prohibits some types of discrimination in some limited circumstances. Thus, employers may lawfully discriminate against disabled employees on the basis of their disabilities provided that their companies do not meet the fifteen-employee threshold.
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• It is important to note the limits of the ADAA. Typically 15 employees or less is exempt from a lot of the requirements to protect those with disabilities.

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In effect, and without belaboring case law, courts’ interpretations have been exclusive of many people with significant ADHD impairments despite the above-referenced intent behind the ADAAA. Because the interference required by the first prong is practically raised to the level of severity and not merely to substantiality, the activities in which to exhibit the requisite interference are so limited that employees rarely qualify.
Pg.6

• Even though ADHD is covered by the ADAA, it is hard to prove the case because the person must show substantial limitations in a major life activity. The law is meant to be inclusive in its writing, but is often interpreted exclusively in scope of limitations and activities.

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Because ADAAA regulation applies narrowly to cognitive disabilities, an employer is not typically bound by any legal obligation to accommodate an individual on the basis of mere ADHD diagnosis. To activate any affirmative duty upon an employer, an employee must make his disability known if the disability is not the type that would be facially obvious. Moreover, employers are not responsible for intuiting that an employee has ADHD because courts do not expect laypersons to possess medical knowledge. Importantly, questions of ADAAA compliance only arise post-malfeasance. In other words, the ADAAA works retrospectively—not prospectively. This often means that neither the employer nor the employee knows whether the employee qualifies as disabled until after an alleged harm has occurred and the employee has submitted a claim to the EEOC.
Pg.7

• Basically, it is hard to prove discrimination based on ADHD because everyone has to know that the condition exists and an alleged harm must have been committed and then litigated through the courts.

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4.3. The why: Why is ADHD of consequence in the workplace? Although there is minimal legal protection afforded to people with ADHD in the workplace, as well as a lack of adequate information on the prevalence of ADHD in the workforce, the rise in ADHD diagnoses means employers have a vested interest in understanding and managing ADHD in order to facilitate productivity
Pg.7

• Putting the legal ramifications aside, to manage an ADHD employee well is to manage productivity well.

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Further, while many generally accepted or perceived legitimate medical disabilities are not even covered by the ADAAA, ADHD has a uniquely distinct uphill battle: many people believe it does not exist or is merely an excuse given by undisciplined people.
Pg.8

• ADHD has a hard road because it is perceived as either a childhood dysfunction, or simply an excuse to be lazy or undisciplined.

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Hiring someone without ADHD simply to avoid accommodation costs could potentially mean that the company is hiring a less productive team member. Many business analysts suggest that this type of short-sighted cost-cutting is not a helpful philosophy for businesses that aim for optimum productivity (Henkoff, 1990).
Pg.8

• Don’t treat people as cost cutting measures. To avoid accommodations (which are often times relatively insignificant) so that a business can save money, may in the long term, be less productive.

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Thus, accommodations for one ADHD employee would not only help that individual worker, but would help those who are undiagnosed and those without ADHD.
Pg.8

• Accommodations for one known employee will likely benefit all employees.

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Whether based on profit-driven, legally driven, or morally driven reasons, managers will want to enable their employees to achieve the greatest level of productivity possible. In order to create such strategies for managing ADHD employees, managers must understand the needs and difficulties of people who have ADHD
Pg.9

• No matter the motivation to be more ADHD friendly, be educated on the challenges faced by those with ADHD.

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As particularly important to successful management with any employee, managers of individuals with ADHD would need to make sure that the employee’s job description and task assignments are clear. A manager’s clarity with respect to task assignments is particularly crucial to successfully completing them.
Pg.10

• Again, consideration for those needing accommodations will make managers better leaders of people.

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Specific to the work place, literature suggests a phenomenon called “emotional contagion” occurs when co-workers, supervisors, and supervisees may exchange and absorb each other’s moods (Emens, 2006). The moods of ADHD employees can affect others positively or negatively, and improving the well-beings of some employees could improve overall morale.
Pg.10

• Care for the emotional state of your employees and the effect will spread.

The Ted Lasso effect.

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Lastly, as ADHD becomes more well-known and more prevalent, an ADHD employee may feel more confident and less isolated. This means that employees may not be as burdened with the depression and hardship that is sometimes attached to ADHD. Consequently, an employee can be more empowered. If an employee is better able to communicate and feels management is sensitive to her needs, there is certainly a great chance for unlocking the full potential of an individual with ADHD.
Pg.10

• The more open people are about their ADHD, the more empowered they feel (and empower those around them), which leads to better productivity and better emotional states of people.

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Further, informed commentary on the subject strongly indicates that these accommodations can be made at little cost to the employer, in addition to benefiting the company and non-ADHD employees as well.
Pg.11

• There is no excuse not to make the small, easy accommodations to benefit the employee with ADHD, but also the entire workforce.