If you have ADHD, or a lot of the traits, and work in the UK, or you manage someone like me, this is for you. I’m dyslexic, with a lot of ADHD traits, and I run two businesses, so both sides of it interest me. I’m not a lawyer or a doctor. The legal bits come from GOV.UK and Acas, read on 27 October.
ADHD will often count as a disability. You don’t need a diagnosis to ask for changes, and your employer pays for the reasonable ones.
What ADHD at work looks like
The NHS list of signs of ADHD in adults includes “being easily distracted or forgetful” and “finding it hard to organise your time”. The Acas guidance on neurodiversity at work adds that someone with ADHD might “be good at thinking creatively”.
I have a mix of working styles, but I tend towards more things rather than fewer. It’s more like “have seven ideas before breakfast, hyperfocus on one for 90 minutes, completely forget the other six existed, then remember them all at 2am.” I can do 12 hours of work in 4 hours, then nothing useful for the rest of the day.
I know what my team sometimes thinks, even if they’re too kind to say it. Another new idea from Chris. Another change in direction. Another Monday morning where everything we agreed on Friday gets rearranged because he had a thought over the weekend. But the tension between “visionary founder” (yes, I said visionary) and “guy who changes his mind a lot” is something I navigate every single week.
Is ADHD a disability at work in the UK?
Often, yes. Under the Equality Act 2010 you’re disabled if you have a physical or mental impairment with a “substantial” and “long-term” negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities. GOV.UK says substantial means “more than minor or trivial”, and long-term means 12 months or more.
Acas says being neurodivergent, which includes ADHD, “will often amount to a disability under the Equality Act 2010, even if the person does not consider themselves to be disabled”.
It also says: “A worker does not need a diagnosis to be considered disabled under the Equality Act 2010.” Your employer can ask for proof, like an NHS letter, but you’re not legally required to give it. And the NHS says you may have to wait several months or years for ADHD specialist services. I’ve never had a formal ADHD diagnosis myself.
The Equality Act doesn’t apply in Northern Ireland.
Reasonable adjustments for ADHD at work
Reasonable adjustments are changes your employer must make so you aren’t “substantially disadvantaged” doing your job (GOV.UK). Acas says the employer pays, and must make them once it knows, or could reasonably be expected to know, that you’re disabled.
The Acas page on adjustments for neurodiversity gives examples, including:
- regular check-ins on how work is going
- planners that visually highlight deadlines and appointments
- extra reminders, and breaking work up into smaller tasks
- headphones, or a quiet place to work away from distractions
- instructions broken down into clear steps
The NHS adds “having written instructions as well as spoken instructions” and “having help from another person to plan and structure your tasks”.
Acas says what’s reasonable depends on the situation: the change should reduce the disadvantage and be practical and affordable.
If you manage someone with ADHD, Acas says to offer support whether or not they have a diagnosis, and to listen rather than assume.
Access to Work is a separate government grant for support on top, and Acas says it “is not a substitute for the employer’s legal obligation”. I wrote about Access to Work and ADHD last week, so I won’t repeat it here.
How to ask for reasonable adjustments
Acas says nobody has to tell their employer they’re disabled. Once you do, your employer has a legal responsibility to support you.
1. Write down what goes wrong
One line each, as specific as you can. For example, “I lose track of conversations mid-sentence” tells a manager more than “I struggle with organisation”.
2. Ask in writing or in a meeting
Acas’s guidance on asking says you can ask by letter or email, in a meeting with your manager, or through your organisation’s own process. It has a free request letter template.
3. Say what you think would help
“Employers should take the lead from the person asking for reasonable adjustments,” Acas says, because you might know best what would help.
4. Get it confirmed in writing
Acas says agreed adjustments should be confirmed in a letter or email, and reviewed regularly.
What helps me at work
None of this is advice, just what works for me.
1. Know which hours are good
My brain at 9am with 20 terminal windows open is electric. My brain at 3pm is soup. I know a thing or two about myself by now, how my brain works, how I cope, and what happens when I don’t.
2. Running and closing the laptop
What works for me is boring: running, boundaries and actually closing the laptop.
3. People who push back
I have good people around me who push back, who ask “is this actually a priority or is this Tuesday’s idea?”
ADHD at work: what I’d tell a friend
If ADHD makes parts of your job harder, you can ask for changes, and you don’t need a diagnosis to do it. Put the request in writing and get what’s agreed confirmed.
If you think ADHD is affecting your work, the NHS says to make an appointment with a GP to find out what support is available.
About Ultrathink
I built Ultrathink for myself. It’s a knowledge base for anyone who saves a lot and struggles to find it again. You throw everything in, fast, without deciding where it goes, and ask for it back in plain English.
Links, notes, voice notes and files go in with one click. Then an AI pass fixes my spelling, writes a short summary and adds tags. It isn’t a reasonable adjustment or a medical product, and nobody has recommended it as one. There’s more on choosing a note-taking app for ADHD elsewhere on this blog.
