Sasha Boersma occasionally gets a calendar booking from one of her dozen or so employees for a quick meeting. The employee has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and just wants to talk. More specifically, they’re struggling to stay awake and need someone to draw their attention for twenty minutes until their medication kicks in and they can finally focus.
Compared to their neurotypical colleagues, neurodivergent workers are far more likely to be fired, underemployed or unemployed. The employment rate for autistic adults is, according to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. That is compared to more than 60 per cent for Canada as a whole.
“It requires you, as managers, to trust that you’ve hired good people who want to do their job,” Ms. Boersma says. “It does require a certain maturity to take responsibility for themselves and their actions. And as long as we have that relationship, then our system of flexibility works.” Force someone with ADHD to work a specific schedule not suited to their brains, like a 9-5, and they might end up going to work exhausted. All of this weighs on a company’s productivity.
These flexible work arrangements are something that Samuel Dunsiger, a 36-year-old neurodivergent writer and accessibility consultant, says are crucial. Neurodivergence can often be episodic, he says. Sometimes, someone with a neurodivergence like autism, ADHD or even Tourettes can power through work as fast as their neurotypical colleagues. Other times, they may struggle to keep up.