weird work problem | ADHD Information

Well, um, mopw stands for my own private wasteland which is where I was for a while.

I changed from The Resistance to mopw but I hit the log out button and when I went to log back in it still had The Resistance! in there to log me in and I figured, what the hell.

I'll keep y'all posted if anything big happens.

you own your own land???? you lucky, lucky, lucky sod! (apologies to monty python or whoever it was with their lucky, lucky, lucky b*stard jokes)...

I found it works best for me to schedule a routine as much as possible.

Try to figure out when you are most likely to be able to accomplish certain mandatory tasks that can be done at your option. Once you have that figured out, don't allow yourself to think of them as something you can do whenever. That time you determined as the best is when you HAVE to do it, just as though someone were standing there looking over your shoulder telling you to stay on task. Once you start letting yourself put things off, it will snowball fast!

I think many of us tend to get into trouble by proscrastinating, and you have to get the mindset that at work, there is no procrastination, no putting things off until you feel like doing them or until you might have more time. Just tell yourself that everyone has things they hate to do or get bored with or days when they don't feel like doing it and DO IT ANYWAY! (FYI, many of us also think that non ADHDers don't have to deal with things like this. They do. They just seem to be able to make themselves do it anyway.)

That said, there are times when my mind just doesn't want to function well enough for me to do a specific task. I try to think of things I can do, and switch the two around on my agenda for that one time only. Routine is so important.

I got a job in October.
I love it, very physical, never sit still, work with a pack of kids.
Low pay, great hours and fab benifits that make working here very nice.
I am a TOP employee. They love me.
In fact they love me too much and want to promote me.
I am reluctant to move up to a better paying and physically easy position.
But I am 40+ doing a job mostly done by people half my age it is so demanding. I'm not positive my body can do the job for many years.

I think I'll likely take the "better" position. I need the money and they need me. But the paperwork and responsibilities, including managing and even firing people, offer so many chances to screw up......

The good part is, the only "desk" I'll have is a stand-up workstation.

I knew you folks here would see my point.

What I had found living with ADHD is that it can really be a blessing. I, for the most part, love it. The only thing I didn't like about it was one bad episode I had had where my brain was racing. Besides that, having found out recently that it IS ADHD that I had, I can now deal with it, and am so glad to know I wasn't crazy. In this new found knowlege, once I learned the little tricks like list writing, and as it was mentioned in another reply, not to rely so much on memory. If you get them established, along with meds, you will see that you, then are just as good as everyone else. In my opinion, a little better, as we tend to be bright. Good luck!

Yes! Take the job and screw it up! (Just kidding) What does your heart tell you to do?

Well there are always ways around it. If you think you're going to screw up than you will. You need to stop that frame of though. Instead, think of HOW you may be able to organize yourself in a way so you won't be making these mistakes ..

Give it your best shot and if you come across something difficult, take a deep breath - go for a walk and come back w a solution. You can always come here and see if we can help. You're not going to screw up. That's just you thinking.

Hang tight!

Take the job. You will screw up some as anyone would.

If you don't already know how, learn to organize. Even though I'm ADHD, I learned how to organize and that made my job so much easier. As you are training take notes on what they tell you to do. Then organize your notes for quick reference and keep them handy. Don't depend on your memory for everything.

You will probably have enough variety so that you can move around some. At least you don't have to sit still.
Yeah, I'm going to take it. Saying no IS an option but not a good one.

I just see myself forgetting some important details here and there, and attendance has to be nearly 100% and being late isn't a good option either.

But, I can do it.

Of course you can do it and you'll probably be super. Just remember "to err is human..." Ok so you are human. If you make a mistake admit and get over it. Your good points will outweigh the negatives. Your rant is ever so tasty. Mmmmmm.

The Peter Principle holds that people will rise to a level of incompetence, rise to a level where they can't do the job. Right?

I CAN do the job. The question in my mind is if it will turn into a soul-sucker as described by you above. I don't want the old cycle of grand success slowly turning into boredom and poor job performance then job loss.

I'm afraid of the old cycle in my current job too. Driving in in the early AM in freezing cold weather to work myself to exhaustion I think will lose some of its appeal. It is not too damn easy to face, it isn't a job I love at all times but I do love it.

The new job has more money, less back-breaking labor. I am 43 (just turned.) The average age has to be below 25 of the people engaged in my work. I'm not sure my body can handle it long term. I am already thin and toned up. Ache all the time.

I'm taking the job.
For the money and to give my knees/shoulders a break.
Because I DO think I'll like it too.
If they value a good job while I'm in action, I'll be fine.
If detailed paperwork and deadlines etc. count for more, I'll be canned in time. I don't want to say that is a sure thing at all, don't believe it is but if precedent means anything......

well you go for it. as long as it is your decision - you won't regret it. we have great intuition (most ADDers) and i reckon we kinda know what's gonna work and what ain't - and it's when we go against that that we come a cropper.

it's not that i thought you were not capable of doing the job on a mental capability level - most ADDers are very bright - presumably your employers saw that quality in you hence wanted to promote you.

but intelligence, or lack of, isn't what stymies the job for most of us, the intelligence to do it is there - it's the ADDledness that gets in the way and sabotages it but as long as you like it............. hopefully the ADDledness won't kick in. i do think that with ADD one of the key things is to LIKE your job, consider it worthwhile etc. etc.

hey are you the same Resistance that changed his name a while back? or is that someone else and how do you connect to mopw..... all too confusing for my small brain.

[QUOTE=chjones]

hey are you the same Resistance that changed his name a while back? or is that someone else and how do you connect to mopw..... all too confusing for my small brain.

[/QUOTE]

Me too.

well mopw --- just to be different. if you love your job why change it to one you won't like?

call me crazy (you won't be the first) but that sounds crazy to me. you LIKE your job --- you know perfectly well that there is nothing worse than being in a job you hate, or feel incompetent at, that you dread getting out of bed for, that you have to drag yourself into, torture at every step - worrying when the chop is going to come and they are going to realise that you are not up to it. urghhhhhh!

you do what you want, of course. but i think you are crazy - you have found a job you love (you are SO lucky) why the b******* would you give it up then???

is it me? or is it the rest of the world that is mad? sometimes i begin to believe it must be me.

i don't want to hold you back from progressing --- but why is this considered progressing, according to whose program? someone presumably who hates running around and likes sitting on their arse! for them it is a progression, someone who considers working with children to be demeaning???? is that it? someone who thinks paperwork is more important than a loving, caring, enthusiastic, inspiring teacher who makes children love learning. that sort of person? why do want to listen to what they have to say? why would you want to march to the tune of their drum. these idiots, technocrats, progressives - who know the price of everything and the value of nothing????

having said all that. do what you want!

ps did anyone read the book 'The Peter Principle'????? ain't this the same thing going on here?

chjones38713.5190740741

[QUOTE=mopw]
The good part is, the only "desk" I'll have is a stand-up workstation.

I knew you folks here would see my point.

[/QUOTE]

I find it interesting that you think having a stand-up workstation would be easier. I have had great success with the exercises from the book Stopping ADHD and in the book it says that if your arms and legs are bent at the same time that a reflex that was with us as babies is still bothering us. (It claims that most people mature this reflex by crawling properly and for 6 months - but some of us don't for many different reasons)

Anyway, if you stand up at a desk or counter, the reflex won't be bothering you because your legs won't be bent.

I did an experiment to test this claim when I read the book's claim. I corrected all my homework papers and test papers (I am a teacher) standing up at a counter. My handwriting improved and I stayed focused better.

Since that experiment of my own, I have done the exercises and they have really helped me in all aspects of ADD.

Good luck in your new job. I think you should take it!!! If you think you will like it.

I think we all can dig it, and understand the need to move it as well. The remedy for that is to get away from the desk for a few moments if you have things you need to do away from it. For example when I needed to get up and walk around, I'd find something that I needed to copy. Or take a walk on my break. I could usually cover up the need to move around. If I had to sit for too long, I was so bored I'd get drowsey.

As you get older, you'll be glad you don't have to be quite that active. But I expect you will nearly always want to move. It goes with the territory.
I think I'll like it. The only trouble really is that I am a smashing success in my current position and with my work history, well, it isn't a stellar work history, you know? I'd be apprehensive about ANY job change.

You can dig that can't you??

I don't know about all that crawling stuff, I just work better while moving about, waving my arms and shouting. :-)

My only desk job where I was expected to sit and concentrate and be productive was tortuous to me. It was bad in many ways really so I have little to compare to it. I like to MOVE. I've driven a truck and it was OK but it was still moving, ya know?