Date: March 4, 2021

ADHD Reality#3 - Take Your Job and Stick It

Those of us with ADHD are used to losing our jobs. We get fired, made redundant, not called back, removed from the roster and ‘let go’ on a disturbingly regular basis. And the annoying thing about it is that for the most part we can fully understand why.

We get fired for pretty obvious reasons that manifest themselves when you’re being paid money for your labour and when the person footing the bill has certain expectations of you. We cannot plan ahead, we lack the willpower to get things done, we are accident prone, we lack a social filter, we are impulsive and we are prone to anger. If any employer knew that we were saddled with that bogus shit-show of a shopping list of negative characteristics they wouldn’t even entertain the thought of employing us. So what actually happens is that we shine at the interview, get the job and then we fuck things up — sometimes slowly over a period of months or even years and sometimes really quickly. I’ve been fired within the first hour of a job on no less than three occasions.

Boring or repetitive jobs are usually an absolute disaster for people with ADHD. And since most of us will never have dream jobs centred around something that intensely interests us, pretty much all of the jobs we do will be boring and repetitive.

Every job I’ve ever had has ended badly. I was either fired, made redundant or (in the case of freelance or casual work) simply never contacted again. We (that’s Catherine and me) have come to the conclusion that I’m basically unemployable. Like most people with ADHD I’ve been self-employed for most of my life as a result and, since we’re being honest here, I’ve actually been straight-up financially supported by Catherine for about 75% of our married lives. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a Catherine in their lives though and things get shitty pretty fucking quickly if they don’t.

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