By Rebecca Somer (22-23)

Introduction

Have you ever felt like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole at work? If you’re an adult with ADHD, you may experience challenges that make the corporate landscape feel like a maze of misfits. But what if I told you that understanding ADHD can be the key to not only surviving but thriving at work? Recent research unpacks the complexities and identifies essential elements that facilitate work-life balance and satisfaction for adults with ADHD. Here’s what the latest study reveals.

The Study’s Findings: Two Key Cycles

The research was designed to answer one primary question: What do adults with ADHD perceive are the barriers and facilitators to thriving at work? To tackle this, the researchers used thematic analysis to sift through the experiences and perspectives of adults with ADHD, resulting in two overarching themes:

The Cycle of Thriving at Work: This cycle involves four key sub-themes—Self-Acceptance, Proactive Self-Support, an Accepting Environment, and a Supportive Environment.

The Cycle of Struggling at Work: This cycle features the exact opposites—Lack of Self-Acceptance, Ineffective Coping, an Environment Not Perceived as Accepting, and an Environment Perceived as Unsupportive.

Self-Acceptance is Critical One of the most enlightening findings is the importance of self-acceptance. Participants in the study reported feeling more effective and less stressed at work when they accepted both their strengths and challenges. Instead of viewing ADHD as a liability, they considered it as part of their unique working style. By doing so, they were better positioned to develop strategies that allowed them to leverage their strengths while mitigating their weaknesses.

Proactive Coping Strategies. When it comes to coping strategies, the study identifies that being proactive is better than being reactive. It highlights the difference between “active procrastination,” where individuals consciously choose to delay tasks due to a preference for working under pressure, and “passive procrastination,” where the delay is caused by anxiety and indecision. Proactive strategies for managing ADHD-related challenges include simple yet effective solutions such as listening to music or changing physical environments to align with their mental states.

The Importance of an Accepting Environment. Your external environment can make or break your work experience, and this is especially true for adults with ADHD. Participants in the study reported thriving in workplaces that were inclusive and accepting of cognitive diversity. When you feel accepted and supported, you’re more likely to share your concerns, which means you’re more likely to receive the kind of help and understanding you need to be effective at work.

Structure and Autonomy. The last piece of the puzzle is finding the right balance between structure and autonomy. Adults with ADHD often require some external structure but also crave the freedom to approach tasks in a way that is most effective for them. In supportive environments, supervisors understand this balance, offering flexibility where possible while still maintaining some form of accountability.

How Does This Align With Existing Theories?

The findings closely align with Self-Determination Theory (SDT), which posits that humans are motivated by the needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. The study shows that when individuals with ADHD perceive their work environment as accepting and supportive, they feel a greater sense of autonomy and relatedness, which in turn fosters feelings of competence or effectiveness.

Practical Implications

So, what can you do with all this information? If you’re an individual with ADHD, consider seeking out ADHD coaching or cognitive behavioral therapy to help build self-acceptance. Also, be proactive in developing coping strategies and making work environment choices that align with your needs. For supervisors and organizations, the key takeaway is the need for a balanced approach that offers both structure and autonomy to employees with ADHD. Also, fostering an accepting work environment is crucial. Simple gestures like non-judgmental interactions and recognizing the unique strengths eachemployee brings can go a long way.

Conclusion

This research makes an importantcontribution to our understanding of how adults with ADHD can not just survive but thrive in the workplace. It moves us away from the old paradigm of seeing ADHD as a “problem” that needs to be fixed, emphasizing instead that with the right kind of support and self-management strategies, individuals with ADHD can turn perceived barriers into facilitators for workplace success. So the next time you feel like a square peg in a round hole, remember, the shape doesn’t need to change—the environment does. With the right support, self-acceptance, and proactive strategies, you can carve out your space and thrive at work.

By Hiran Reja (22-23)

Burnout has headlined to a great extent, becoming one of the greatest workplace hazards generating considerable attention from organisations and the government (Edú-Valsania, Laguia & Moriano, 2022). Burnout is believed to have financial implications on the global economy, imposing substantial costs for both individuals and organisations (Bakker, Emmerik & Euwema, 2006). For example, burnout is thought to be the cause of 50% of sick leave in the European Union, affecting up to 40 million workers each year, costing the healthcare system more than 20 million euros (Ochoa, 2018).

What is Burnout?

Burnout is a work-related stress reaction, as a result of prolonged exposure to chronic stress that has been mismanaged. The three main dimensions of burnout, include emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter, 2001). A recent theoretical model which has been used to provide an explanation for the cause of burnout is the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017). This model is extensively used in occupational psychology literature, to understand the dynamics of work-related factors and well-being outcomes such as burnout.

What are the factors influencing burnout?

Although each job has its unique risk factors which are associated with burnout, ultimately, there are two distinct variables that interplay within any job which are categorised as job demands and job resources. Job demands are the aspects of the job which require sustained physical and mental effort e.g., work overload, irregular working hours and time pressure, while job resources on the other hand include autonomy and social support (Demerouti & Bakker, 2023). The JD-R model explains that badly designed jobs that result in high job demands accompanied with inadequate resources can lead to job burnout. More recently, this model has included personal resources such as self-regulation in explaining the relationship with burnout (Bakker & de Vries, 2021).

What is self-regulation and why does it matter?

Self-regulation refers to an individual’s ability to regulate their cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to job demands and resources (Bakker & de Vries, 2021). Self-regulation essentially captures employee’s ability to control and impact upon their environment effectively, which has a direct link to their motivation in the workplace.The JD-R model highlights the important role of employee self-regulation in the relationship between job demands and burnout, helping to comprehend why certain individuals can learn and adapt to stressors effectively and thus buffer their burnout opposed to others.

Method overview

205 participants (97 males and 108 females) were recruited through various social media platforms to take part in a wellbeing survey. The participants ages ranged from 18-54. Additionally, more than half of the participants highest level of education completed was a bachelor’s degree (55%), followed by a master’s degree (24%). Finally, the majority of participants reported working between 30-39 hours (33%)  followed by 40-49 hours per week (31%). In the online questionnaire distributed on Qualtrics, participants were presented with a set of questions from 4 different scales.

The findings of this study

• Findings indicate that individuals who experience greater job demands paired with inadequate job resources are more likely to experience burnout.
• Individuals who experience high levels of work engagement are less likely to experience burnout.
• Self-regulation does not moderate the relationship between work engagement and burnt and similarly, self-regulation does not moderate the relationship between job demands and burnout, despite previous literature hinting at a potential moderating effect of self-regulation.
• This study is an exploratory study given that self-regulation is a more recent personal resource that has been discussed within the JD-R model. Therefore, given these non-significant results were expected and welcomed and as such can aid the existing literature on burnout, with a potential avenue of looking at self-regulation as a mediator rather than a moderator.
• These findings are of importance as organisations as well as individuals can look to regulate the onset of burnout at work, which has been linked to positive health outcomes for the individual but also positive financial outcome to the firm. For example, lowering the levels of absenteeism and reduction in labour turnover both important metrics that can facilitate employee retention (Hakanen, Bakker & Schaufeli, 2006). Therefore, given this organisation are encouraged to help employees mitigate burnout in the workplace if they are to maintain a competitive advantage.

What can organisations/people learn from this study?

• This research explored the important of self-regulation in moderating the occurrence of burnout. More noticeable strategies that individuals can employ is adequate recovery from work. It is argued that unwinding during leisure time can significantly contribute to the reduction of burnout through replenishing energy resources (Gluschkoff et al., 2016 ). Therefore, using this information, employees can work on managing themselves and ensure adequate recovery time to reduce burnout. Managers and supervisors can use this knowledge to help their employees avoid burnout and encourage recovery (Bakker & Demerouti, 2018).
• Organisations should note that self-regulation can be enhanced as well as replenished through practice and repeated exercise. Self-regulation is not innate but a coping strategy that can be acquired through training (Mackey & Perrewe, 2014). As such organisations can combine this knowledge with the use of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) based personality assessment as part of their selection process. This would mean that the organisations are well informed of employees who are likely to burnout and, as such, can work with them to reduce their job demands as well as enhance their resources. (Swider & Zimmerman, 2010).
• Furthermore, organisations can use the current findings and implement them into intervention programmes such as job redesign strategies to reduce job demands and create an optimal healthy work environment (Bakker, Van Veldhoven, & Xanthopoulou, 2010). ). For example, more recently, the introduction of the energy compass (EC) used to assess JD-R more accurately is a comprehensive survey used to evaluate psychosocial factors at work (Schaufeli, 2017).

References

Bakker, A. B., Emmerik, H. V., & Euwema, M. C. (2006). Crossover of burnout and engagement in work teams. Work and occupations, 33(4), 464-489.

Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2017). Job demands–resources theory: Taking stock and looking forward. Journal of occupational health psychology, 22(3), 273.

Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2018). Multiple levels in job demands-resources theory: Implications for employee well-being and performance. In Handbook of well-being. Noba Scholar.

Bakker, A. B., & de Vries, J. D. (2021). Job Demands–Resources theory and self-regulation: New explanations and remedies for job burnout. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 34(1), 1-21.

Demerouti, E., & Bakker, A. B. (2023). Job demands-resources theory in times of crises: New propositions. Organizational Psychology Review, 13(3), 209-236.

Edú-Valsania, S., Laguía, A., & Moriano, J. A. (2022). Burnout: A review of theory and measurement. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(3), 1780.

Gluschkoff, K., Elovainio, M., Kinnunen, U., Mullola, S., Hintsanen, M., Keltikangas-Järvinen, L., & Hintsa, T. (2016). Work stress, poor recovery, and burnout in teachers. Occupational medicine, 66(7), 564-570.

Hakanen, J. J., Bakker, A. B., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2006). Burnout and work engagement among teachers. Journal of school psychology, 43(6), 495-513.

Mackey, J. D., & Perrewe, P. L. (2014). The AAA (appraisals, attributions, adaptation) model of job stress: The critical role of self-regulation. Organizational Psychology Review, 4(3), 258-278.

Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W. B., & Leiter, M. P. (2001). Job burnout. Annual review of psychology, 52(1), 397-422.

Ochoa, P. (2018). Impact of burnout on organizational outcomes, the influence of legal demands: the case of Ecuadorian physicians. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 662.

Schaufeli, W. B. (2017). Applying the job demands-resources model. Organizational dynamics, 2(46), 120-132.

Swider, B. W., & Zimmerman, R. D. (2010). Born to burnout: A meta-analytic path model of personality, job burnout, and work outcomes. Journal of Vocational behavior, 76(3), 487-506.