Are you neurodivergent? If you are, you are not alone. Many people, maybe a fifth of the population, have been diagnosed with or identify as living with ADHD, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), or other forms of neurodivergence. That might include you, even if you have never been assessed or diagnosed. In recent research that my organization carried out, 14 percent of people who said that they were sure or did not think that they had ADHD were scored as having “symptoms highly consistent with ADHD in adults” by a standard diagnostic checklist. More people in the workplace may be neurodivergent, or at least show behaviors typical of neurodivergent people, than is commonly realized.

What Does It Feel Like to Be Neurodivergent in the Workplace?

How is this relevant to work? Well, we found that neurodivergent people were, on average, much less positive about their workplace than neurotypical people were. In general, they felt less included, more stressed, and more likely to be misunderstood, and they expressed lower levels of satisfaction with their job. They were also less likely to feel that their organization had a positive attitude to neurodiversity and neurodivergence. Almost half felt that their neurodivergence had caused them problems at work. These negative effects were particularly severe among people with autism spectrum disorder but also significantly affected those with ADHD and other conditions.

Many neurodivergent people are wary of revealing their status in the workplace. In our research, almost half said that they had to disguise or “mask” their natural behavior at work, and a third felt that they could not talk about their neurodivergence at work. All of this can mean they feel more marginalized, less included, and less fully engaged in their work. Keeping up a mask and forced to do their job in a way that feels unnatural takes time and effort and saps their energy, leaving them with a reduced capacity to perform effectively. To quote the neurodiversity activist Colm McNamee, “If you ask a fish to climb a tree, it will go through life thinking it's an idiot.”

This is bad for the individual, but it is also bad for the organization. Neurodivergent people have many gifts they can offer, but they can only do this if the organizational setup allows them to. 64 percent of our sample felt that their neurodiversity allowed them to excel at aspects of their work, and 80 percent of these had been able to adapt or “craft” their job to make the best use of their neurodivergence. Of course, 46 percent did not feel that their neurodiversity allowed them to excel, and most of these had not been able to adapt their job.

Organizations are missing out on talent, and individuals are missing out on opportunities.

What Can Organizations Do?

It’s clear from our research that many neurodivergent people would welcome some more support and understanding at work. Only 27 percent felt that their manager was supportive of their neurodivergence, only 23 percent felt that their co-workers were supportive, and only 23 percent felt that their organization as a whole was supportive. And this makes a difference. Individuals who did feel more valued and supported had significantly higher levels of job satisfaction, and we know from other research that this is linked to improved performance and productivity.

So, what can and should organizations do? Based on our findings, here are some suggestions:

The results of the study suggest that neurodivergence may be under-diagnosed. Organizations should be aware that their employees might show a greater range of neurodiversity than they may realize, and that many people may have multiple forms of neurodivergence.

Education and training of the wider workforce, and in particular managers, on neurodivergence and what it implies should lay the groundwork to allow neurodivergent people to feel better supported.

Organizations should be open to different ways of working and acting. If someone is performing well at their job, but doing this in an unconventional way, should this be a problem? Allow workers, within limits, to adapt or “craft” their jobs. This could involve, for example, allowing two workers doing the same job to split tasks so as to suit their individual strengths, rather than insisting that each individually carry out all the activities involved. Allow people to specialize, don’t force everyone to be a generalist.

Traditionally, development programs have looked to identify development needs and apply training or other interventions to bring individuals up to an acceptable level across the board. This approach may work less well for neurodivergent people. Here, an approach that allows individuals to make the most of their strengths may pay dividends.

The results suggest a tendency to under-diagnose women with autism spectrum disorder, and/or over-diagnose men, something that has also been suggested by previous research. Organizations, L&D and HR specialists, and managers should be aware that women as well as men can have ASD.

Many neurodivergent people found MBTI feedback extremely useful, especially in helping them to understand themselves better.