Welcome And Topic Setup

SPEAKER_03 0:49

Welcome to the Visual Marketing Podcast brought to you by CI Marketing, where we explore how to show up consistently, be more visible, and connect with the right people through your marketing. I'm your host, Liz. Welcome to another episode of the Visual Marketing Podcast. Today we have a really interesting topic. We are going to be talking about neurodivergency in the workplace. And today we have Billy here from our office to tell us all about it and everything that she knows and share all her amazing knowledge. Billy, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Hi, thank you for having me again.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Firstly, I actually want to make sure that I said the right word. Neurodivergency. It's a bit of a mouthful.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Yeah, it's kind of like just the encompassing word that includes autism, ADHD, I believe even things like dyslexia as well come into that um category.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

Would you class yourself as neurodivergent? Is that the right way to say it?

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Yes. So I have ADHD and autism. I was I was called out for ADHD by a doctor when I was 16. Yep. And then at around 19, I discovered my autism as well.

SPEAKER_03 2:08

Interesting. What made you think there was something else in addition to ADHD?

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Um well, learning something like that about yourself um sparks a really long and in-depth journey about learning about yourself and why you are the way you are, and just connecting all these dots from your childhood and moments where you felt different to people and your learning differences and being like, oh, that's why I am that way. Um and I think I just because it made me start learning more about myself, I maybe realized that there was more missing to the puzzle.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

Right. So I'm gathering you sort of had like a like a list or like you

Billy’s ADHD And Autism Journey

SPEAKER_03 2:59

did some research on the symptoms of ADHD and you were like, this doesn't actually cover everything. That's me.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Yeah. Well, there was, you know, some things about myself that I felt different to others. And I would, you know, search it up to be like, is this how does this link to my ADHD? Yeah. And there was no link.

SPEAKER_03 3:19

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. That's super interesting. Did you know anybody else who had ADHD at the time or had similar symptoms to you?

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Yeah, I um it's so funny. The kind of people you attract tend to be the same as you.

SPEAKER_03 3:36

Yeah. Right. And um like a level of comfort, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Yeah, it's almost like like people, the same kind of people are magnets to each other. Um and like having a a bunch of friends and no one realizes they're autistic or ADHD or something until later on. And it's like you're all friends first before anyone knew that about themselves, which is really interesting.

SPEAKER_03 4:01

Yeah, that's super interesting.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

So I've found that um it is not very common for me to have friends, like close friends in my life that aren't one or the other, or both.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Purely coincidental. It's not like I'm taking a list. Yeah. You know, the people.

SPEAKER_03 4:21

Has that been the same for um like, you know, the family members that you're maybe more drawn to, or like your partners, or that kind of stuff too?

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Yeah, it's really interesting. I do feel like the family members that have gotten me most are the ones also with it.

SPEAKER_03 4:41

How would you describe your own neurodivergence in your own words?

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Um, well, my ADHD presents for me as being a bit of a daydreamer, um, getting lost in things. Um I can be very talkative and I have to be very conscious about not dominating conversation. It's just something I've had to unlearn. Um and I I do have hyperactivity in the sense of fidgeting.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

And I cannot sit still for the life of me. My whole life growing up, my mum would ask me if I had worms. It was just ADHD. I never had worms.

SPEAKER_03 5:31

That was that was that that like that error though, right? Like that was just the go-to saying that parents said, I think. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Which by the way, I only learned recently because we have mums in the office that worms are a real thing that kids can get. I didn't I thought my mum was just joking. Oh, that's hilarious. I didn't know it was a real thing. And so like I thought she was just, you know, because cats run run around and get skittish when they have worms. I thought she was comparing me to a cat.

unknown 5:59

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

I'm making a joke there. But no, it was it was ADHD. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and in terms of my autism, I definitely um I have my little weird uh special interests and hyperfixations on things. Um I can be really one or the other in terms of sociability and being all in in a conversation or being very drawn back. Okay. Um, and I often can be tiring, I often flip-flip through both. I get very overstimulated by lights and noises and stuff like that. So um I accommodate myself in that way. The lights putting you off.

SPEAKER_03 6:52

Now that I've pointed it out, like actually.

Sensory Overload In Real Time

SPEAKER_03 6:56

So, how do you deal with being in this situation? Like where the lights are. We have big, two big studio lights on us right now. Like, how are you dealing with that?

SPEAKER_00 7:05

It is, especially now that I've just pointed that out. It's all I am thinking about, it's all I can see. Um, my brain runs like a million times a minute. I'm never not thinking about 10 different things. And I I never realized that wasn't normal, that people have like one dialogue. Like I'm thinking about, I'm a little bit warm right now. I'm thinking about the light, I can see the monitors of the cameras flickering in the corner, and I'm thinking about talking to you, and I can feel, I'm like, I keep adjusting this because I am not quite happy with the way it's this fabric feels on my knees, and I'm thinking about the chair on my back. Like it's all of these things are all happening at once, and I keep looking over at the plant because that's the other thing in my other peripheral, and it's just I'm I really have to work hard on narrowing down on one thing. And I've gotten I've I've you know, I've my whole life I've sort of navigated each thing and concentrated on things with a million other things going on in the background. And it is a bit of a push-through. It is harder without some sort of output for so all of this is sensory input. Yeah. And uh a common way that I need to battle it is with sensory output. So fiddling, I rub my hands together a lot. I um like I'll like wiggle my toes and my shoes if I need to hide it, um, if I if it's not appropriate for me to be bouncing around. Um meetings where I'm supposed to be, you know, very pro like put together.

SPEAKER_03 8:56

This idea that you've got to be like perfectly professional, which you actually don't,

Masking And Social Scripts

SPEAKER_03 8:59

by the way.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

When when masking. Right.

SPEAKER_03 9:02

So tell me what masking is.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

So masking is let me refer to my definition I wrote down for myself. Nice. Um masking is suppressing natural traits in yourself to appear neurotypical, um, non-ADHD or non-autistic. And this is learned behavior um from trying to fit into um social expectations. Yeah. Um, it can be conscious or unconscious. Um, typically, the later you're diagnosed in life, the more unconscious your masking is because it's so deeply ingrained in you.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

Like becomes like a muscle memory, right? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Yeah. So being a completely different person behind closed doors when you're able to unmask. Um things, the ways I tend to mask is by thinking very heavily about my eye contact. Yep. And I'm like counting on making sure I'm looking at you for this amount of seconds and then I make sure I look away. And like things I've things I've learned that other people do so that I am doing the appropriate amount of eye contact.

SPEAKER_03 10:27

How did you learn that? Like just through watching them or yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Yeah. So I am, and I've found this with a lot of autistic people I know, are very observant of other people's behaviors and like almost like learn to read them like a book, in like in the most non-judgmental way, right? Um like a lot of people when it comes to knowing uh social cues, which is a big thing in autism, is not understanding social cues. Um that doesn't have to look like not getting it all the time.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Um for me, I was like, but I I do get it, but it's it's not because I get the social cues, it's because I have learnt everybody's behavior and I have like a script of what to do next when I recognize something it's someone else.

SPEAKER_03 11:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

And it's more like a test I've studied for than um second nature, which is the difference there. Um, so I I often mirror others. Um you might notice I tend to sit the way that other people are sitting, and it's totally unconscious, but I will uh respond with the same tone as someone else and mirror the tone of voice that they're using for different situations because on my own I might not necessarily have been able to guess how that tone of voice should be. Okay. Yeah. Um, so I do rely on taking note from others. Um uh the other thing is scripting. So like in my head having a plan of exactly what I'm gonna say and when. Whenever I have to make a phone call, I write down notes so that I can read off of them to make the phone call.

SPEAKER_03 12:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

I if I'm gonna ask a question, I replay in my head exactly the words I want to use over and over and over again until I think I've got it, and then I'll ask the question. Um hard conversations. Anyone would like prepare for those and figure out what they're gonna say. But I do that in most of my conversations, which is it can be tiring.

SPEAKER_03 12:53

I was about to say, this all sounds exhausting.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

It's a lot of brain space. Yeah. And so masking for people, especially when you're in that sort of situation where you have to suppress sensory output and stimming and suppress all these traits and think so much about what's going on, doing it for the negative effects is at the end of the day, you're tired, you're exhausted mentally and emotionally. And doing it long term every day for weeks, months, um, because of work, because of, you know, things you have to do and places you have to be and being out in society and constantly doing it, um, you know, that leads to to burnout and just exhaustion and increase meltdowns and shutdowns and it's it's got a negative impact on you. So I've kind of been able, now that I know this about myself, been able to come compartmentalize like private life and outside life so that as soon as I'm out of work or social events, I'm able to completely unmask and be a completely different person. Because if I before I was able to do that and I was still masking around the people I lived with at home and all that sort of stuff, I would just get burnt out really quickly. I do and it's a really hard thing to unlearn because you don't know who you are without it. Of course. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:41

So you obviously got these diagnoses,

Burnout And The Need To Unmask

SPEAKER_03 14:44

you know, in your um mid and late teens, and then you're going into the workplace essentially around those times. What did that look like for you to navigate workplaces? I know you've worked in a variety of different situations.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Yeah. Um when I I got the ADHD diagnosis before I went into um the workforce. By the time I was in it, I kind of understood that my mind did go a million miles an hour. It's and I was really able to play my strengths. I was so much better at working in restaurants and stuff. Um, high pressure working in a kitchen. Yeah. Um it was my favorite way to work, just constantly under stress. And I was quite good at it because I was I can think of many things at once.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

Is it because like you don't have time to be distracted by stuff because you're so busy? Is that why it worked well?

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Yeah, I mean, it fills the void. ADHD calls for all sorts of stimulation going at once when you need sensory input. And um thinking about the stuff around you, what you're doing, customers um calling out things, uh just thinking about a million jobs all to do at once, it fills all those voids, and you like I could get lost in it for hours and do it for hours. I mean, it would completely exhaust me, but I was having the best time.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

Yeah, and you were probably very good at it too.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Yeah, yeah. Um kind of I think there's some jobs like that where um ordering a kitchen around and organizing everything coming in and out, which is what I did. Um I think you have to have some certain

Finding Roles That Fit

SPEAKER_00 16:44

level of something there to create your own systems and to be able to handle that stimulation and think of a million things at once and um actually enjoy it and not find it just stressful.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so um in that way, really, you're you're actually almost an asset. Well, you are an asset, because you're able to be um very uh fast and efficient at your job. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

Well, yeah, in that in that context, it it made me better at my job. Um there's plenty of jobs out there that I would probably suck at because you can't be thinking of other things and running around in said jobs. Um but it's you know, it's person to person. I have a much better balance of it now, which I learned I needed when I figured out I have autism. Um so now I'm kind of able to do both and balance it pretty well. Um in saying that though, I still send tend to like seek that sort of rush of um pressure and put it on myself and my hobbies and my home life because um I just I find it um like addicting to be in that in that mindset of working under pressure.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Um but like I say, it was completely burning me out. So it was it's important now that I'm not doing that all the time.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

So how do you manage burnout?

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Um, it's a lot different to regular burnout. Regular burnout, as everyone knows, it is chronic stress um from work and life, and you'll have brain fog, tired, bad concentration, low productivity. Um but it doesn't fundamentally change how you process your environment whereas um autistic burnout does. So it's chronic stress compounded by sensory overload and daily efforts of masking,

Autistic Burnout And Radical Rest

SPEAKER_00 19:14

um which instead of just brain fog and concentration and feeling low and tired, it's um a lower threshold and higher sensitivity to all those struggles that autistic people usually experience, like um sensory, um, having a lower tolerance to your sensory issues and it faster leading to um meltdown and shutdown. And um the other thing that comes with it is that makes it different is skill regression. Um stuff like normal everyday tasks, your ability to manage a routine, um, things in your work life that were once easy now seem way harder. Um people speaking um consistently and clearly is an issue. That's that's a personal one for me. The the more burnt out I get, the more often I get in states where I just don't talk. And like I'll talk at work, I'll go home, and I won't speak for hours and I'll have to tell the people around me I'm not I'm out, I'm done. Yeah. Yeah. And then finding other ways to communicate if I need to. And yeah. Um so autistic burnout often the instead of having a um a getaway to recover from regular burnout or fixing your work-life balance and boundaries um and working on it that way, it requires more radical rest as well as regaining those sort of skills and that confidence that you've lost, um, which can take more time. Um, and being able to get back your ability to do those tasks that now seem a hundred times harder than they did before.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

Yeah, wow. Um so what do you have to do to overcome that? Like I know um obviously we have a team here and um I do encourage everybody to, you know, take their breaks, whether they do or not, is um another story, but also to um, you know, to use their their leave as well and you know, go and go and have a break. Like they're there, it's there for a reason, and that's obviously more important for you.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Yeah, well, it's really interesting because I sort of had this curse on myself at my past workplaces that made me feel really like incapable. We're at about 18 months into a job, I'd get burnt out. And around the two-year mark, I I'd push and push and push, and at around the two-year mark, I couldn't do it anymore. And I had to leave and take rest or cut down my hours radically, or um just yet sometimes that looked like just having to put in my two-week and not knowing what comes next because I'm physically incapable of doing my job well and taking care of myself and like being left with no choice. Um whereas what I've sort of learned being here, like is that around The 18-month mark of being here, nothing to do with burnout. I had booked a trip away. Yeah. And I went to the UK for just over a month. And I had never taken leave that long before. And it just happened to be right around the time that I tend to get burnt out at jobs. And I had I had felt it coming. The the couple months leading up were getting harder and harder, and I was getting more um emotional and frustrated, and um life just felt harder the more I went on. So seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of going away was like kind of what I held on to. But I came back and I felt so much better and I was able to carry on, which it sounds self-explanatory, but I had never been in a workplace that allowed me to take that much leave at once. Um, like you get your your four weeks, but um, you're only allowed to use two weeks of it at a time. Yeah. Which for a lot of people under really severe burnout and stress isn't enough to recover from. Um especially for my own autistic burnout. And so what I've found now is two years into being here, I didn't feel like I needed to quit. So which was something that I learned about myself that now I know I need I in the future, I should preemptively make sure I'm taking those breaks. But I would have never learned that about myself if I wasn't somewhere that allowed me to do that.

SPEAKER_03 24:45

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Um so it's kind of shown to me that I'm not incapable. I just

Confidence, School, And Unlearning Shame

SPEAKER_00 24:54

wasn't accommodating my needs the way they needed to be met. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

You're not broken.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

No, I'm not broken. So ADHD can come with heightened levels of low self-confidence, which naturally stems from feeling bad at the things you do. Right. It like it takes starting in school, a good student sits still, listens, works to deadlines, um, all of those things. But that directly contradicts the symptoms of a lot of ADHD children. Yeah, that's a good point. Um, not being able to sit still, getting distracted, struggling with the deadlines, and it didn't matter, it doesn't matter how intelligent you are, or if you got to the final product in the end of learning something or an assignment. Um if the journey that it took for you to get there looked different to the expectations, that automatically teaches you that you're a bad student. I felt really bad at school. That's horrible. Which I I sort of believed um dictated my intelligence. I wasn't smart enough. I wasn't what the teachers were looking for because you know the way that system is set up directly contradicts an ADHD student's um needs. And so if that's the very first thing you learn in that kind of environment where you have expectations on you, then um that can set you up quite negatively for the future. Absolutely. Um so for me, having to unlearn that and realize that just because it the journey of completing things looks different for me, um,

Strengths Employers Often Miss

SPEAKER_00 26:59

that doesn't dictate whether or not I'm good at it, the final product does.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

Absolutely. It's interesting that point that you bring up because um if I was to put my mind into say, like a business owner, a manager, an HR manager, something like that, and they're listening to this right now, I mean, they're just seeing red flags everywhere from what you've said, right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. This is a lot. It's almost too much. Like, I don't want to employ someone who is neurodivergent at all because there is just too much for me to deal with here. Um, obviously, I've had first hand experience of you being with us for now over two years. Um, and you're incredibly hardworking. Every single thing I've ever given you to do, you've picked up and run with it. You've picked it up faster than anybody I've ever met in my life. Not only have you picked it up quickly, you're really good at it. And I've given you everything from photography to accounts to uh social media work to uh baking for clients. I mean, like you you've I mean you've learned how to program elevator screens. You've every single thing that we've thrown at you, you've just taken run and done at a hundred percent pretty damn quickly. So can you help an employer understand what on the flip side, okay, sure it sounds like there's a bunch of red flags, but on the flip side, what are all the good things?

SPEAKER_00 28:31

It's interesting because um it would sound like red flags to an employer. And that is the reality. A lot of um autistic and ADHD people really struggle to find work or keep jobs. Um and that's not necessarily meaning that they're getting fired or removed. It's that they don't feel like they're able to keep up themselves and they're making that decision alone. But there are plenty of reasonable accommodations that aren't gonna cost anything, that aren't don't actually when you actually implement them, you realize that it's actually not that deep. Um and it unlocks this whole new genre of employee that is gonna bring so much value to your team that you otherwise would have missed out on.

SPEAKER_03 29:29

What are some of those values do you think? Like what what are the what's the value that that neurodivergent people can bring to a team that neurotypical people maybe don't have those skills?

SPEAKER_00 29:40

Um well, it depends if you want ADHD or autism. ADHD. The creativity that you bring forward and the completely different approach, um, working under pressure, um picking up on new skills, um, and being being quick to learn. On autism, you have pattern recognition. Um I feel like I'm really good at noticing things that are not right very quickly. Um and being really thorough with um the work that you do do. Um, very autistic people are very good at very um systematic and detail-oriented jobs. Um because there's just a level of attention to detail that is heightened. Um when a neurodivergent person is working on something that they find interesting that sparks interest, um, it's so all in. Um for And I've seen that in you for sure. It becomes a special interest or a hyper focus. Um and who wouldn't want someone like completely and entirely dedicated to something on their team, right?

SPEAKER_03 31:02

100%.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Yeah. Um it's funny that you bring up that I'm a fast learner. And I think I've never qualified myself as a fast learner. That's not some a word I would have used to describe myself because the way I see it is if I don't get something completely right on the first go, um the anxiety of doing it wrong or disappointing like you or colleagues is so strong that I'm I won't stop thinking about it and asking questions and working it out until it's completely right. And I've also noticed that the threshold of whether or not you are able to do something is different to neurotypical people. So um if there was a job, if someone, and you may not be an expert on it, a neurotypical person who has a general idea of what to do would say, I can do it, but I'm not an expert.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

Whereas for me, a general idea isn't isn't good enough. I would say I can't do it. I don't feel like I can do something until I am an expert on it. And that level is different.

SPEAKER_03 32:28

Aaron Ross Powell Which is why you're so good when you do something because you're you actually have a higher um you hold yourself to a higher regard. Like you you must be perfect at it.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

Yeah, I think so. I think um I don't feel like I could trust myself in a job until I know exactly the ins and outs of it. I see. Um which is an interesting difference I've noticed with um neurotypical peers is um qualifying of knowing how to do something, what that looks like.

SPEAKER_03 33:04

Um and on the flip side, a neuro neurotypical person could quite often um basically half do a job and think that that's enough and and go, oh yeah, no, no, I I'll I'll push through, like it'll be fine. I'll I'll get through it, I'll I'll figure it out, I'll work it out as I go along. It might take them longer, they might not do it to the same level or the needed, expected level or degree of of quality of the work or how far it gets finished as well. Um that's never gonna happen with you, right?

SPEAKER_00 33:36

Yeah, well, never say never. I'm not I'm not perfect, and and um sometimes being more detail-oriented can be a fault if there's a time limit in terms of um uh spending more time on something. But I think maybe a strength of mine personally is um think looking at something from every angle before I think it's completed. Yeah. And um and not guessing. The idea of winging it gives me so much anxiety. Really. I I don't understand people who can wing something. It's so terrifying. Um and like if I if the most irritating thing on this planet, because I ask a lot of clarifying questions, which is something that both ADHD and autistic people um probably do a lot more than not, is ask a lot of clarifying questions when given a task or a job or to learn something. Um and that comes not only from wanting to look at everything from all angles, but also the communication differences between you and neurotypical pairs and wanting to make sure you have it right. Because um uh sometimes those differences uh can be really anxiety-inducing or mean that I go down a completely wrong path than um than what you expected me to um if I weren't to ask a lot of questions.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

You've just brought up something interesting that I've never told you. Sometimes I've asked you to do something and you have gone down a completely different path than what I expected, but I like your path better. It's a path that I wouldn't have chosen, and I love that you've gone that way. And I'm like, why didn't I think of that?

SPEAKER_00 35:37

It's so it is actually so funny. I'm I'm it's maybe a bit of a um uh a negative in some people's eyes, but I I fully believe that as long as I have all the information, um, I always know the best way to do something. And if it if that wasn't true, it's just because I didn't have all the information. Like I think I'm so analytical. Yeah. Um a lot of uh like friends and loved ones in my life will trust me to map out what a day should look like because I know I'm thinking about times, efficiency, like locations and logistics, and I know exactly how we should do things. So I need you to plan my next holiday, basically. I I get way too into stuff like that. Yeah. But um sometimes that can seem like, especially when you have uh someone who likes control or likes things done their way, that can seem like a negative.

SPEAKER_03 36:41

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

But for people close to me who know me, often are happy to take the back seat in some situations and like let me do my nerdy thing of researching and making sure that everything is perfect.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

Um and I I do often see the way people are doing things and think that could be done so much easier. And like I've had to learn like when it's okay to say that and when I should bite my tongue.

SPEAKER_03 37:13

Yeah, that's so interesting.

SPEAKER_00 37:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:16

Um, you mentioned a little while back in the conversation, you mentioned

Simple Workplace Accommodations That Work

SPEAKER_03 37:20

um accommodations in the workplace. Um, tell me what you mean by that.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Um an example of an accommodation I received in an old workplace. Um so I worked uh in a deli that I had to wake up ridiculously early for, and I don't think I'd ever be equipped to do a job that early ever again. Um and uh what that would look like is in the morning before the shop opened, there would be a couple hours prep. And I worked uh four days, two days with one manager, two days with another. Um manager allowed me in the mornings to wear noise-cancelling headphones um all morning while I was doing my jobs, um, with the completely reasonable condition that when customers come in, they go away. Yeah, cool. Um those days I was so much happier and sociable. I was so much more ready to talk to customers once they started coming in. Um, my jobs were done quicker. I felt calmer and I was going home at the end of the day more myself and more put together.

SPEAKER_03 38:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

Whereas the other two days of my job, when that wasn't an option, I actually found myself getting home at the end of the day and being exhausted and not feeling like I have anything left in the tank to do things for myself, like cook and clean and all that sort of stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:07

Or any do chores. You were sort of in your own experiment. That's insane.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

Yeah. Yeah. And and then having that clear and the difference of waking up two of the mornings, absolutely dreading the day, yeah, versus the other two mornings waking up and feeling ready for, you know, for a nine-hour shift. Um was huge. And stuff like that, like the the having time by myself, A, where I didn't have to talk and B um the noises of things rattling and people yelling out to each other because it was a very wide space and things clattering and all that, I didn't I didn't have to deal with that and take that input. So it kind of protected my brain until it really needed to use all of that energy um on battling the sensory input. And like my manager knew if she needed to talk to me, she could. Yeah. She'd just wave her hand or tap me and I would immediately turn around.

SPEAKER_03 40:22

Like you're not you're not being rude.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

No, no. And it was all fine. And um, she completely understood it, and so did my colleagues. And, you know, that's something that I do here. I mean, a few of us do. We have headphone time. I'd say I probably have headphone time quite a bit more than everyone else. But I know when I need that, I will just put on my headphones and enjoy some quiet. And all of you know that if you speak to me, I hear it. And um it's really not that much of an issue. Yeah, absolutely. It a lot of people find it um find it quite root, which I understand.

SPEAKER_03 41:04

Um I guess it depends on a workplace. Like you say, there's there's workplaces where that doesn't work, especially if you're customer-facing. Yeah, exactly. So there might be other things that you you need to come up with.

SPEAKER_00 41:15

Yeah. Um and but that's an accommodation that costs nothing, that once communicated and had like proper conversation about, you know, and everyone understood each other. And there were there's there's rules in every aspect of a workplace. And accommodations should be no different. They should be open um conversations. I agree. Um and it made the world of difference to me. And that's amazing. To the point where I reached my burnout in that job, I cut down to just working those two days. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. Because they were the ones that were better for me.

SPEAKER_03 41:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 41:55

Um and here, especially the way we have this office set out. Um I'm able to get solitude where I need it, which make really does make a world of difference. Um if it's not headphones, I will just do another task downstairs where it's quieter, or if there's loud music blasting downstairs, I will run away upstairs.

SPEAKER_03 42:29

Um we have different spaces upstairs as well for you to move to if you need to.

SPEAKER_00 42:34

I kind of have those options of um where I need to go. And sometimes I'll take my laptop and I'll sit on the couch to do something. Especially if I know it takes um, it's gonna take a lot of focus. Because if I I can put way more of myself into that if I'm not going to be distracted about the swivel chair that I can't get quite comfortable in, or um the fidgetiness or like I need my legs like crossed. Yeah. Um, or people talking behind me. Um, or even having the multiple monitors at my desk and a lot of light coming in at you, sometimes that's not necessary.

SPEAKER_03 43:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 43:18

And so if I just have one screen that I can dim, it I can tend to um lock in on um projects a lot better sometimes that way.

SPEAKER_03 43:28

We are going to take a break here.

Break And Part Two Teaser

SPEAKER_03 43:29

Tune into the second half of this episode available now.