Working from home and neurodiversity: why it doesn’t always work

For the past seven years, Lindsey Milner has worked from home as a fully remote worker. In 2017, she started working from home as a freelance copywriter and digital marketing support service to creative and marketing agencies around Manchester.

Since then, while raising two young children, she has also done two permanent, part-time jobs alongside the freelance work. This now includes Kind Works, a copywriting and ED&I service for HR and progressive organisations. In term time, she works up to 30 hours a week in a remote capacity.

In March 2023, at the age of 43, she was diagnosed with moderate – severe combined type ADHD.

Here, she talks to The Homeworker about the impact of her diagnosis on her personal and professional life, and how the different working styles can help or hinder her productivity.

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Lindsey's story

I’d always known there were some differences in the way my brain worked comparedto ‘normal brains’! Areas that should be straight-forward to understand always felt confusing to me.

• Following long-winded admin processes
• Following instructions to work out how to use new gadgets
• Understanding new tech platforms
• Understanding and remembering file paths to things like: how do I save photos from my work phone on to the correct files on the work laptop?!

I CAN do all of these things but they take double the time and concentration for me. Yet, I can master complex and abstract ideas with ease. Obviously some of the above issues affected me in my personal life too (kids' school apps anyone?!) but I could always ask for support from my husband on areas Icouldn’t work out.

However at work, these ‘flaws’ in my executive function, can become problematic and even more so in a remote working capacity as the typical ‘support’ you get from colleagues in an office, just isn’t there.

Whilst I had managed to cover-up struggles in my employment before I had my children, I think the mix of:a) Mental load of being a mum to two young peopleb) Being remote and not having the support of other employees or a line managerc) Being new to freelance, having never done it before (but needing it as a source of flexible work around my kids)d) Being mid-forties and experiencing hormone fluctuations associated with the perimenopause such as symptoms like brain fog all meant I’ve had days where I’ve wondered if I should give up work completely.

Before my diagnosis I lost a few jobs due to these symptoms and this impacted my confidence massively. The official diagnosis allowed me to draw a line under some career blips. I could understand how it went wrong in ways I couldn’t previously.

Understanding my brain

At first, [the diagnosis] was amazing. I finally understood my brain more!

I could see how I had certain challenges with aspects of my executive function and that this was not ‘my fault’.

After years of berating myself for being so contradictory in my abilities, I could finally see why. The contradictions with ADHD are unbelievable at times – funny but so frustrating to live with!