ADHD on your CV…

[redhed]

Due to stinky family circumstances, I’m looking at retraining to be a teacher. It’s a fairly radical change, so I need some classroom experience just to get on a teacher training course. I’m in the UK, and here that means I need to do a stint as what we call a Classroom Assistant; someone who supports the teacher but often works mostly with the kids in the class with Learning Difficulties.

So, after some deliberation, I put on my applications that I had ADHD; now it’s diagnosed and medicated of course, but it gives me direct insight into what some of these kids are struggling with.

Not a single application got a response, not even a no thankyou. Not even when I volunteered to work for free.

I can’t say I’m astonished, but I am disappointed. I once employed someone who divulged on their CV that they suffered from fairly bad depression. No-one else would look at her; I took the gamble and she repaid my confidence. But I’m clearly in the minority.

So – has anyone divulged their ADHD before employment and got a job? What happens if they ask and you don’t divulge? Would I have been better with no diagnosis – at least in employment terms?

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[Anonymous]

I did that once but the guy had already decided to hire me and filling out forms was, well, a formality. : )

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[Ivriniel]

I don’t know how it is in the UK, but I don’t think they’re allowed to ask that kind of question here.

I would not divulge my diagnosis on my resume. There is are too many misunderstandings around ADHD, and you have no idea who is reading the resume.

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[Patte Rosebank]

Never, ever put any sort of information like that on a CV or job application. In Canada, employers aren’t even allowed to HINT at asking you whether you have a disability, your marital status, your age, or any other very personal info that isn’t directly relevant to the job. Even after you’ve been hired, it’s up to you whether or not to divulge your condition. The best approach is on a need-to-know basis.

“But what if I have a medical emergency?”, you ask. “Shouldn’t my employer know what I have, so they can help me?”

It’s up to you to decide whether or not your employee file should contain anything more than the standard “Whom to call in an emergency” information. Most H.R. departments have a policy that whatever you put on your “Emergency Contacts” sheet will be kept strictly confidential and not disclosed to anyone outside the H.R. department, but clarify that before you divulge anything.

There is a way to make sure that you’ll get the proper treatment in an emergency wherever you are, and that is to register with Medic Alert, and wear a MedicAlert bracelet. That way, if you do have a medical emergency, the emergency responders (who are trained to recognize the MedicAlert symbol) can call the number on your bracelet to get all your relevant medical information—including your name & address, your doctors’ names & numbers, your medical conditions, your medicines, and any allergies you may have. You just need to make sure that you update your information with MedicAlert, every time that information changes.

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[redhed]

Interesting.

UK disability discrimination law means that employers have started to specifically ask these questions – nominally because if they don’t make “reasonable adaptation” during the selection process (particularly at interviews) they can be taken to court. So application forms now often have a box to fill in for disability/medical/whatever, their excuse being that they can’t ensure candidates with disabilities are treated fairly if they don’t know about it in advance.

In practice, I think it’s used to do exactly the opposite – weed out disabilities the employer finds inconvenient. And of course, because the box is there, you either have to declare or you have to lie. And then if you have problems with your employer at a later date, which they can link back to your condition, their legal position against you will be considerably stronger.

This is the official UK government advice … http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/Employmentsupport/LookingForWork/DG_4000219

:sigh:

Medicalert, btw, isn’t as good here as it is in the US. You can’t put meds doses on it. My eldest is on an ever-changing cocktail of Epilepsy meds at about double the recommended doses. The emergency services would have no idea how much to give her if they had to rely on her Medicalert details.

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[Patte Rosebank]

It’s just that sort of “weeding out” that Canada’s laws prohibiting asking certain questions on job applications, were designed to cover. If employers are specifically forbidden from asking certain questions, then they can’t use the information to week out future “problem” employees.

As for the issue of meds doses on MedicAlert, that’s where the contact info for your doctors comes in. If the MedicAlert file says, “CALL DR. _____________,” then any emergency personnel can get the current information on medicines and dosages from him/her.

I think the issue is that people don’t keep their MedicAlert info on meds totally up to date, especially since meds can change frequently. This is especially true of long-time MedicAlert members who paid a one-time-only, lifetime membership fee. A few years ago, MedicAlert changed to an annual-fee system, but those with lifetime memberships were allowed to keep them…but have to pay a $15 fee every time they update their information. New members on the annual-membership system pay $45 a year, but get free updates.

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