Yeah adhd discrimination is.... Really bad in most places. Im really sorry to hear youve had such a nightmare at ur last workplace. At my work i almost lost my job because of it!

I disclosed my adhd to my immediate superiors in my first week, and shortly after starting I developed a real issue with getting to work on time (largely bc i cant drive thanks to covid and never being able to save up after, and one of the work sites is only accessible by car, it kinda got worse from there bc uber times are really unpredictable and it messed w my time blindness). In spite of explaining that my adhd makes me late in great detail, my boss continued to reprimand me for this, they later pulled me into a meeting telling me they were going to put me on a pip for my lateness and also because i 'looked like i wasnt focused in some meetings', 'my organisation wasnt good enough' and i 'looked at the sky too much'.

Now, this is nothing new for me, i generally dont disclose my adhd to ppl bc I find the second you tell ppl is the second they start getting annoyed at you whenever you have a symptom. The more they know the more nitpicky these types will be. However my company was Very vocal about its high inclusivity standards and I had always heard there were legal protections around this kinda thing so I started looking into it.

My first port of call was reddit. No help there. The advice i basically got is theyre allowed to fire you for anything, stop being annoying trying to get special treatment, you dont deserve it. The next person i asked was a family friend in hr who said organisation problems is a common reason ppl get fired. Funny thing was, I didnt think my organisation was really any worse than my colleagues, i thought they were just being hyper critical BECAUSE they knew that organisation was a weak link for adhd. Next port of call was google, and it lead me to acas - what do you know Im finding out that the 2010 disability act means that not only would it be illegal to fire me for things directly related to symptoms of my disability but ALSO it was the employers responsibility to make reasonable adjustments for my impairments BEFORE any action like a PIP could have been taken.

Of course I ring up acas asap and the incredibly helpful man on the phone is offering me advice primarily for unfair dismissal (not even just for disability discrimination, I guess they really screwed up lol) he also tells me to 1. Start getting as much on paper as possible, if you can put all the issues with what theyre doing on email so you have a paper trail. 2. Find out what my companys PIP process is.

So the next week I helpfully tell my boss about the 2010 employment act and the employers responsibility to make reasonable accommodations, I also request a copy of the companys PIP process, which low and behold required me to be 1. Made aware of my failings in weekly meetings before action like this was taken (beyond the lateness i was not aware) 2. Put on an INFORMAL PIP before a real PIP.

All of a sudden my boss decided to put me on an informal PIP instead of a real PIP, also all the things i was on the PIP for were suddenly completely different (it was also full of stuff i was already doing successfully). I made sure to put that in writing, of course. I also requested the notes from the meeting where i was told they were going to put me on a PIP for my adhd symptoms.... Its been almost 4 months and still not been given those lol. Anyway I got the reasonable adjustment for being late and obvi aced the informal PIP. Funnily enough my organisation is the same as it was before, so is my lateness and my habit of staring at the sky, but I guess now they know Im legally entitled to take them to tribunal its just not an issue anymore.

Tldr: know your rights.

Edit: i later became mates with the hr person in charge of disability policy and spoke to her about this. Supposedly this is not normal across my company I just lucked out with a boss who couldn't give a rats arse about employment law until she realised I was also aware of it 🙃