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Dyslexia and Workplace Stress
For employees with dyslexia, even though everybody experiences dyslexia differently, work can often mean engaging with things on a stressful level. For somebody who has learned to work in a certain way in education and sought support and workarounds to bolster that particular way of working, changing processes and entering the world of work can be daunting – and sadly, many employers forget to think about the impact that their processes can have on employees who are neurodivergent.
People who have dyslexia often feel more stressed than the majority of employees in their workplace too. Whether it’s as a result of needs unmet, unoptimized processes or simply the effort of masking on a daily basis, it can make the work day feel absolutely anxiety-inducing, and even lead to burnout. It can feel even more intense as the stakes are high: demonstrating reading difficulties might mean your career potential feels limited to you, or even that your job could be on the line. Many people still worry about a social stigma too, and are anxious about their peers mocking or thinking differently of them if they reveal their dyslexia, and work hard to keep it on the downlow.
Stress Awareness Month
Since 1992, April has been National Stress Awareness Month in the UK. It’s held to raise awareness of the causes and cures for the stress that many of us simply accept as a part of modern life, and to help break the stigma when it comes to talking about stress and mental health both in the workplace and in the broader social world.
With the increased focus on stress in the corporate world post-pandemic, we’re likely to be experiencing higher levels of workplace stress than ever before, and neurodivergent colleagues may be feeling this especially. It’s a great time to start a conversation with your own teams about stress, especially if you or other neurodivergent colleagues might be feeling the strain.
What Can Stress Look Like?
Stress looks different in everybody- it’s an aggressively personal response, and not everyone who’s suffering from stress will even look like it. It might be as simple as…
- Low energy
- Headaches
- GI symptoms
- Chest pain or palpitations
- Inability to sleep
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- Tooth grinding
- Feeling agitated
- Feeling overwhelmed
- Having a hard time relaxing
- Appetite changes
- Inability to focus
- Avoidant behaviours
- Feeling alone, isolated or unheard
However, it's also not a good idea to fully equate these sensations to 'just stress' — it's a condition that can mask other, more pressing illness, and when it comes to physical changes it's important to seek advice from healthcare professionals as well as dealing with sites of stress in your day-to-day.
How do we combat workplace stress when you’ve got dyslexia?
Signal for help: if you’re feeling the effects of workplace stress, it’s a good idea to talk to your team leaders or managers as soon as possible. It might also be something that you’d approach your HR representatives too, as well as your doctors or other types of healthcare professional. This starts the ball rolling, and it’s the first step on the journey towards getting things feeling better again.
Analyse the factors… What is it that’s making you stressed? Is it to do with your working environment, or some projects that are on your radar, or is it more down to the amount of reading you’re expected to do versus the time you’ve got to do it? Having a good run-down of these factors might be difficult to write, but it’s a great tool to bring with you to any discussions about stress and can help decision-makers work out where they can step in, apply some support solutions and help you feel on top of things again.
What other help is out there? Sadly, it has to be acknowledged that many employees, especially neurodivergent ones, feel uncomfortable asking for help and flagging stress because it feels like it can be used against you. Whether you’re worried it’ll count when redundancies come up or even if it’ll just make your managers less likely to trust you with important projects, it’s a common concern. It’s important to remember that in most places this is illegal, but there is non-workplace help out there if you want to talk to somebody and work how best to communicate your needs and problems before speaking to your managers: try workplace dyslexia specialists, independent agencies like ACAS or your local dyslexia association.
Take care of yourself. Stress is a medical condition, and as well as action on your workplace stressors, it needs care and recovery time in just the same way as a broken leg or a tooth removal. Prioritise eating as healthily as you can reasonably manage, and getting outside and doing a little exercise where you can— as well as taking time off to decompress if you’re able to.
Connect with your community: There are many groups on social media out there online that focus on working, learning and living with neurodiverse differences. They might be a good forum to connect with other people who are working with dyslexia, and see how they’re tackling the same things that may be creating stress for you, as well as finding a group of individuals who experience the working world in a similar way. Community groups are great resources as there’s usually at least one person in there who’s an expert on any one thing, and they can be a refreshing break from the neurotypical work narratives that we see everyday..
We’re all guilty of saying “I’m stressed!” when things aren’t going as we’d like them to, but it’s important to remember that stress is a medical condition that’s very prevalent in the modern workplace. It takes support and guidance in order to combat it effectively, as well as no small amount of accommodations and care.
