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High Performing, Highly Masked, Completely Exhausted: The Neurodivergent Employees You May Be Missing
They meet their deadlines. Their work is good. They rarely complain. They might be the person who always volunteers, stays late when something needs finishing, remembers the detail everyone else missed and somehow manages to pull things out of the bag when the pressure is on. So why would you be worried about them? Because sometimes the employee who appears to be coping exceptionally well is using an exceptional amount of energy to make it look that way. This is something I t
Emma Collens
14 hours ago7 min read


Neurodivergence Isn’t Always a Superpower: ADHD, Autism and the Reality of Struggling
Somewhere along the way, "neurodivergence is a superpower" became one of those phrases we're apparently supposed to nod enthusiastically at. And I understand where it came from. For a long time, conversations about ADHD and autism focused overwhelmingly on deficits: what someone couldn't do, what needed correcting, where they struggled or how they differed from the supposed norm. Moving towards a more strengths-based understanding was important. Neurodivergent people can be c
Emma Collens
Sep 225 min read


Why Do I Feel Like a Fraud When I’m Actually Good at What I Do? Understanding Imposter Feelings at Work
You get the job. The promotion. The qualification. Someone tells you that you did something brilliantly. For about twelve seconds, you feel pleased. Then another voice appears. They’ve overestimated me.I got lucky.Someone else would have done this better.Eventually they’re going to realise I’m not actually as good as they think I am. Meanwhile, there may be quite a lot of evidence suggesting that you do, in fact, know what you’re doing. Qualifications. Experience. Positive fe
Emma Collens
Sep 156 min read


Why Do I Know Exactly What I Need to Do — But Still Can't Make Myself Do It?
You know what needs doing. The email is still sitting there, patiently. The washing has been in the basket long enough that it may now qualify as a permanent fixture. You've been meaning to book that appointment for about three weeks, and you've thought about it — really thought about it — more times than it would have taken to just pick up the phone. None of this has slipped your mind. That's the part that makes it confusing. You haven't forgotten. You've thought about it at
Emma Collens
Aug 187 min read


Jason Arday: When Accountability Forgets Humanity
I hadn't expected Jason Arday to be the subject of my first blog post. But his death raises uncomfortable questions about racism, autism, public shaming and whether accountability can lose sight of the human being.
Emma Collens
Aug 1511 min read
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