ADHD

Our office is full of oddball people. Tips first:

I think making friends is the most important move. Talk with people a little even if you don't personally need it. Learn how they talk, what they are working on, what are the pain points for them in their own work.

Pay attention to communication styles. The VP of finance, I can just send her a message like "hi, X, you didn't send the file, could you send it?" But my boss (who does have ADD) I have to go talk to him before I send him anything, and repeat what I told him inside the email, he is not bothered by that.

If you are good at getting to the end product using different paths, that shows more understanding than someone who can follow a process without missing steps. Make sure to ask more about what result they want, or what they want to know, less about how to do it.

And know when to cut your losses - I know about myself that I shine in a startup situation and at a chaotic time at any company. I can solve problems for other people! If I worked somewhere people didn't like to get suggestions, I would be so irritating, right? So I don't work in those places and I cultivate the environment I want too. Eventually this job will get too corporate and I'll probably find a startup for my last job then retire if possible.

Being in tune with other people works so well that I tell you here - we have a boring daily meeting and I was in there one day just trying to think of animals whose names started with the letter C. Because man, that meeting is so dull and repetitive. The next day I asked when we went in "what animals start with the letter D?" Everyone plays this game during the meeting now, even my boss. We did animals, jobs, now movies. Because it's not so distracting or disruptive, and it makes the meetings more fun, every once in a while someone will stop and say "Fast and Furious!" And I write it down.

If their struggle is because they are in a more political sort of bureaucratic place, where the heirarchy is strict and enforced, 'you have your boss talk to my boss" place, where people are angling to take other people's jobs and you are given responsibility without empowerment, I would say find a different job. There are positions where the ability to ride out chaos and see new ways of working are valuable.

I am a senior now and a lot of what I do is take the harder tasks, try to clean them up and then hand them off to someone else, now with a good process. There is always another problem.

It will sound stupid, but the main thing you need, to succeed in a job, any job, is to understand people. It comes naturally to some. For those of us not natural at it, you have to do it on purpose - mirror people's communication styles some, remember to say good morning.

Also set so many reminders on your laptop or phone.