How to Understand—and Help—Your Neurodivergent Employees

I have a friend—let’s call her Laura—who’s a 28-year-old executive assistant in the fintech industry and finds the office environment to be “incredibly taxing,” leaving her feeling “burnt and crispy” by the end of the day. 

As an individual with autism and ADHD, for Laura the excess of social expectations—such as being interrupted or pressured to join in on collective cubicle conversations—is more difficult and taxing to process and navigate than for folks who are not neurodivergent. 

That’s because neurodiverse people tend to get overstimulated—or understimulated—pretty frequently, depending on their sensory environment. Things like noise, lighting, texture, smells, and temperature are significant factors. So when gossiping co-workers begin yapping at full volume again and the fluorescent lighting resembles that found in a train station bathroom (you know that lighting), Laura, and other neurodiverse people, have an outsize reaction—whether you can see it or not. 

According to the American Enterprise Institute’s study Embracing Neurodiversity at Work (April 2024), ADHD and autism are two of three major neurologic conditions falling under the neurodivergent umbrella, the other one being dyslexia. Collectively, neurodivergent people make up roughly 15 to 20 percent of the adult population, and 30 to 40 percent of that group are unemployed. 

“If you want me to produce the type of work that I know you want, then I need to be in a different environment,” Laura says to me over the phone. But her company expects her to be in the office at least three or four days a week. 

Another friend, Cameron, who works in public health as a program coordinator at the University of California’s harm reduction nonprofit Amend, learned of his neurodivergence in the later part of his high school years. After he was diagnosed and granted the right accommodations, his grades increased significantly. 

As part of his diagnosis, he learned he has a processing speed disorder, which manifests in slower reading comprehension. When he was diagnosed, he learned he reads at a speed that’s 25 percent slower than the majority of his peers. He was granted private rooms for testing throughout the remainder of high school and all of college, allowing him to read words out loud. Now, working in the public health industry, Cameron is able to replicate this environment at his home, where he routinely works. 

However, when Cameron applied for the position, he admitted to not clicking the disability box, possibly out of fear. With his company’s policy for office attendance being once every two weeks, you could say that he really lucked out.

Temple Grandin, a well-known advocate for the neurodivergent community, says that most of the time, neurodivergent people think more creatively and analytically than the average person would. So, if they’re leveraged correctly, everyone benefits.

In fact, according to Accenture’s Disability Inclusion Imperative (2023), the companies that lead with disability inclusion are 25 percent more likely to outperform their peers in productivity. It is the unique perspectives of the neurodiverse that fosters their strength in data analysis, pattern recognition, anomaly detection, and other quantitative skills. And, according to their 2018 report, companies that do nourish the neurodiverse achieve 28 percent higher revenue, double the net income, and 30 percent higher economic profit margins.

Alex Suggs, co-founder of Different DEI, a global diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting company, and recent founder of Shift and Shape, a culture counseling and leadership development firm, says there are practical steps and policies for creating neurodivergent-friendly workplaces. 

As a neurodivergent employee, Suggs has struggled in the past with lack of clarity around communication, and feeling unsafe sharing their needs. In a work environment centered on “neurotypical communication,” hiding their needs has felt necessary to avoid being seen as “difficult” or “less capable.” This conformity has caused burn out again and again.

According to People Management’s Neurodiversity at Work report, approximately 63 percent of neurodivergent employees report engaging in conforming or masking at work. This looks like an attempt to appear “normal,” or neurotypical, which may originate from fear of stigma or discrimination. This causes overextending, or working extra hard to suppress internal struggles with executive functioning and sensory overload.

Overextending can also look like taking on excessive workloads or neglecting self-care, leading to mental and emotional exhaustion, two symptoms of burnout. And 50 percent of neurodivergent employees experience burnout compared with 38 percent of their neurotypical peers.

This looks like providing meeting agendas in advance and allowing multiple ways to participate—like written input instead of verbal input, which also helps introverted employees, non-native speakers, and internal processors, opening up space for a more diverse workspace. 

Noise-canceling headphones, protected heads-down time, flexible work arrangements (work-from-home options), structured task prioritization, and leaders who actually understand neurodiversity make a huge impact. And for more recommendations on hiring a neurodiverse workforce, check out Inc.’s guide to doing just that.