Fitting in at work and surviving the corporate rat race is difficult on its own, but having a spectrum disorder such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can make it much harder. The trait is often stigmatized or underdiagnosed, and treatment is sometimes out of reach, but that doesn’t mean people with ADHD can’t thrive in their careers, as attorney Haley L. Moss knows firsthand.
In some respects, Moss is a real-life version of her hero Elle Woods, the glamorous fictional lawyer from the “Legally Blonde” movie series. For much of her professional life, Moss can be found in court or on the speaking circuit. Yet as the first openly autistic woman in Florida history to become a lawyer, she subsequently developed a substantial following as a neurodiversity influencer.Perhaps for this reason, Moss has a lot of empathy for neurodivergent people who struggle in the workplace because of ADHD.
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“People with ADHD can struggle with executive functioning tasks, such as organization and prioritization,” Moss said. “They can also be curious and novelty seekers, which can present as easily distractible. A lot of ADHD-related traits are often misconstrued as that people with ADHD are lazy, unprofessional or unmotivated, when really they are passionate and their neurodivergence can make certain expectations and tasks exceedingly difficult.”
The underlying difficulty associated with ADHD, as Moss alluded to when referencing struggles “with executive functioning tasks,” is that patients struggle to focus for extended periods of time. Imagine watching a television where an impolite houseguest holds the remote control and arbitrarily changes the channels. In a similar fashion, a person with ADHD may need to force themselves a little........