Why sharing your diagnosis at work shouldn't be a requirement
...and something to try instead
The gist of this post is:
There are lots of reasons why sharing a particular label or diagnosis at work may not be that helpful. Instead, it can make sense to talk about individual traits, challenges and support needs.
This is relevant because the challenges associated with different neurotypes tend to have a lot of overlap. For example, challenges with sensory sensitivities, working memory and executive functioning are associated with multiple neurotypes.
There’s also a lot of variation within neurotypes, meaning that the strengths, challenges, and supports that work for one neurodivergent person may not suit everyone with the same diagnosis.
Last but not least, it can be really expensive to obtain a formal diagnosis in New Zealand. So, if we restrict access to support based on a formal diagnosis, we risk excluding people.
It’s completely valid to frame our needs in a way that doesn’t reference a diagnosis. And in this context, it’s unhelpful for workplaces to require proof of a diagnosis to access support.
Hello to all my wonderful subscribers. Thanks for reading!
The early adopters out there might remember the very first Neurodivergent Leaders post, in which we unpacked the different things to consider when deciding whether to tell our workplaces about our neurodivergent brain wiring (scroll down to the end of this article for a link).
In this post, we’re flipping that question around to think about why it’s not that important to focus in on particular diagnoses.
Why is that? Well, neurodiversity includes many broad and overlapping neurotypes, and there’s a lot of variation in how people experience those.
Why a focus on diagnosis can lead us astray
Let’s unpack a few important reasons why a diagnosis shouldn’t be a prerequisite to workplace supports and accommodations.
Lots of neurodivergent struggles are also experienced by the general population from time to time
To be diagnosed formally with a neurodivergent brain type (like ADHD or autism), you will meet a threshold where specific challenges are impacting multiple facets of your life. However, many people will struggle with similar challenges from time to time, without meeting the threshold for diagnosis - for example, struggling to maintain their focus or attention. So much so, that in the book “ADHD 2.0” Dr. Ned Hallowell and Dr. John Ratey coined the term “VAST” - variable attention stimulus trait - describing the experience of having ADHD traits without meeting the full diagnostic criteria for ADHD. VAST is an acknowledgement that many of us experience variability in attention based on how stimulated our brains are.
Neurodivergent people have also been referred to as the “canaries in the coal mine” by Dr. Ludmila Praslova in her book “The Canary Code”. That is, neurodivergent people, through their different ways of processing information, tend to experience the effects of workplace challenges earlier and more intensely than other staff. Therefore, improving organisations to address the needs of neurodivergent staff members (in an inclusive way) can make conditions better for everyone.
Different neurotypes have overlapping symptoms and challenges
Many neurodiversity diagnoses have a lot in common with each other. For example, ADHDers and autistic folks share differences related to executive functioning, social interactions and emotion recognition and regulation (e.g. as recently summarised by Martinez et al.).
If you’re after more information on how different diagnoses overlap, my favourite neurodiversity-affirming resources are the Venn diagrams created by Dr Megan Neff in her “Misdiagnosis Monday” series.
Even within diagnoses, people will experience different challenges and strengths. These overlaps and differences can mean that it’s more useful to talk about the specific challenge that you’d like support with.
Requiring people to “prove” their worthiness for supports and accommodations makes them feel rubbish
This is something to consider for workplaces when creating their policies and processes around supports and accommodations: Are your employees going to lose the will to live jumping through bureaucratic hoops just to get their needs met at work? I’m talking about overly arduous approval processes, like having to get a doctor’s note or proof of diagnosis to request accommodations such as fixed desks in hot-desking offices, or flexible working arrangements. These barriers can create an atmosphere of scarcity and “us and them” thinking, potentially decreasing the sense of belonging among neurodivergent staff.
Getting a diagnosis as an adult in New Zealand is expensive, so if diagnosis is a barrier to receiving support, we risk missing people out
At the moment, it’s almost impossible to get a diagnosis as an adult under the NZ public health system, meaning that seeking a private diagnosis is the only route to diagnosis for many people. And that’s problematic, because seeing a psychiatrist or psychologist under the private healthcare system is prohibitively expensive for many. Which is one of the reasons why self-diagnosis is seen as valid by many neurodivergent communities.
Ways of framing your challenges that don’t refer to a diagnosis
With all of those points in mind, it’s completely valid to frame our needs in a way that doesn’t reference a diagnosis. Dr Ludmila Praslova recommends a couple of different subtle ways of communicating strengths and challenges at work, like:
“I am sensitive to noise, but that also means I’m highly focused at work.”
“I work better when I’m in a quiet space. It makes me more productive.”
You may also see advice about saying something like “I’m the kind of person who…”. This is OK too, but as my excellent coaching instructors at Gold Mind Academy have pointed out, this framing can encourage a fixed mindset. They recommend framing it in a way that’s less permanent-sounding, using “I have been” rather than “I am”:
“I have been finding it difficult to concentrate in open-plan offices, and find that working in a quiet place from time to time allows me to get my work done faster.”
For some related context, check out the very first Neurodivergent Leaders post:
Should I tell people at my workplace I'm neurodivergent?
This post is focussed on supporting neurodivergent folks in the workplace - up next, I’ll flip this around to speak to leaders of organisations.
Sources and further reading
Hallowell, E. M. & Ratey, J. J. (2022). ADHD 2.0: New Science and Essential Strategies for Thriving with Distraction--from Childhood through Adulthood
John Innes Centre (2025). Exploring Neurodiversity through an intersectional lens. (blog post).
Martinez, S., Stoyanov, K., & Carcache, L. (2024). Unraveling the spectrum: overlap, distinctions, and nuances of ADHD and ASD in children. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 1387179. [quick warning that this article uses highly disorder-focused language and frames neurodivergent traits negatively, but it is quite thorough, so on balance, I’ve decided to include it]
Neff. M. Misdiagnosis Monday (infographic series).
Praslova, L. (2021). Autism Doesn’t Hold People Back at Work. Discrimination Does. Havard Business Review.
Praslova, L. (2024). The Canary Code: A guide to neurodiversity, dignity and intersectional belonging at work.
It seems helpful for people to be able to use sense making to deal with neurodivergent traits that pop up in professional settings. In other words, to self-identity, to allow others to put a label on a trait or behavior that one might be displaying could be helpful to the observer. What do you think?
Such an important, and especially in the context of dyscalculia.