What Is Neurodiversity?

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Neurodivergent Individuals have higher rates of burnout.

The job demands-resources model, seen through the lens of neurodivergence, can give us insights.

Individual accommodations are the best way to reduce demands and increase resources in all individuals.

ADHD is a condition that is characterized by issues regulating attention, executive function deficits, and even difficulties with emotional regulation. In a person's day-to-day life, this can pose social problems or make it more difficult to hold a job. People with ADHD are more likely to get fired from a job, have fewer progression opportunities, and suffer more from occupational burnout. This is also the case for people suffering from other mental or neurodevelopmental conditions, such as bipolar disorder, OCD, or autism spectrum disorder.

In general, individuals who fall under the neurodivergent umbrella appear to face more difficulties in the workplace, despite having different symptoms, issues, and difficulties due to their conditions. While different experts have theories as to what specific difficulties each neurotype faces, one model reconciles the lived experience of people with dyslexia and those with PTSD: The job demands-resources model.

Created in 2003, this model posits that in the workplace, there are two categories of variables: demands and resources. Demands are the things that require something out of us. It can be our work responsibilities, the emotional energy that it takes to resolve a conflict, or the time it takes to commute to work. We also face everyday physiological demands, such as hunger, thirst, or the need to go to the bathroom. All of these demands take up our mental, emotional, and physical energy every day—or our resources.

Resources are the things, traits, and energies we have that allow us to meet demands and to pursue our goals. Resources can be our physical and mental health, our material resources—such as a car—and, of course, job resources, such as flexible hours or a good relationship with a supervisor.

As a general rule of thumb, when resources exceed demands, we are in a state of growth, where we can decide to allocate resources to what motivates and drives us. But when demands exceed resources, we find ourselves in a state of stress that eventually leads to burnout. This model works for all employees, and research shows that when our jobs provide us with more resources, we are more motivated and engaged. On the other hand, an excess of demands has been correlated with an increased likelihood of burnout, turnover, and long-term sick leaves.

How does all of this relate to neurodivergence?

People with different kinds of conditions face more demands daily. People with ADHD have to fight their distractions continuously, especially in open-space offices where movement is everywhere. That increases cognitive demands and eventually leads to exhaustion. People with autism may have oversensitivities to sounds or lighting. This creates more demands for their sensory system. When they have to filter more information daily, they get exhausted faster. People with dyslexia, by definition, will struggle more when reading Slack messages or e-mails, which increases the strain they face every day at work.

All of these demand increases eventually erode people's personal resources and pave the way for burnout.

But we can take this a step further and see how the model encompasses not only neurodivergence, but also situations that are often invisible in the workplace.

New parents may have trouble sleeping, and they will have fewer personal resources for a time, which means that they will also be less capable of facing job demands, or they could find themselves being more easily overwhelmed by noises and sounds, just like people with autism.

Approximately 24.1 million families in the U.S. provide unpaid care for older adults. Caring for a parent puts a strain on resources, and the emotional toll is often high. This can mean that adults who have a parent in their care may have fewer emotional Resources to deal with conflicts at work. They may find themselves being more emotionally reactive, just like people with ADHD.

What Is Neurodiversity?

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It comes as no surprise that new parents and caretakers are at a higher risk for burnout as well.

Studies show that tailored accommodations often help reduce demands or increase personal resources in an empowering way so that individuals can thrive, not struggle day to day. It is not about reducing responsibilities or avoiding work, but about working in a way that doesn't burn resources beyond those that are necessary to carry out tasks.

A study in China showed that allowing employees to work from home improved their engagement and their performance, and reduced their anxiety levels. The effect was larger for people with longer commutes. The effect of individual interventions is bigger for people who face more demands. And the interesting thing was that the business benefited from this change too, not only individuals.

One could say that near-sighted people face more demands—that is, until they put on glasses. Research shows that accommodations help neurodivergent individuals thrive in the same way that glasses help near-sighted people see in high definition. What we can really do is ask ourselves, and each other, what demands are hindering us in our everyday life, and what kind of glasses we would need to see the world just a bit more clearly.

Demerouti E, Bakker AB, Nachreiner F, Schaufeli WB. The job demands-resources model of burnout. J Appl Psychol. 2001 Jun;86(3):499-512. PMID: 11419809.

Wissell S, Karimi L, Serry T, Furlong L, Hudson J. "You Don't Look Dyslexic": Using the Job Demands-Resource Model of Burnout to Explore Employment Experiences of Australian Adults with Dyslexia. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Aug 28;19(17):10719. PMID: 36078435; PMCID: PMC9518213.

Vargas-Salas O, et al. Neurodivergence and the Workplace: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation. 2025;63(1):83-94.

Tomczak MT, Kulikowski K. Toward an understanding of occupational burnout among employees with autism - the Job Demands-Resources theory perspective. Curr Psychol. 2023 Feb 25:1-13. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37359683; PMCID: PMC9958323.

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