Corporate America Hates Me | Neurospicy Black Girl

In "Corporate America Hates Me", Alani dives into the harsh realities of navigating a corporate world designed by neurotypicals, sharing how biases against neurodivergent people create frustrating, everyday challenges.

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Transcript

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I'm supposed to work 10 through 5, but instead you contact me at 9am on a Saturday morning when I should be sleeping and dreaming up things that are not of work. It's ironic that a lot of jobs in the creative field, an area that is usually encouraged to be yourself are not inclusive workplaces. I would say that's because they are not run by creatives and are instead run by people who care about profit over people. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not bound by a NDA anymore. You know, everyone gets into misunderstandings. Everyone gets into conflict. However, sometimes that conflict is something that you don't do anything and yet you still get involved somehow. Sometimes, the other party just has beef with you just because you exist. Who has beef with me because I just exist? Corporate America, that's who. Stay tuned to find out why Corporate America hates that I am Neuro Spicy. Hi, I'm Alani. I'm Black, Female and Neurodivergent, aka I lost the genetic lottery. The only thing I could do is pull myself up by my bootstraps and live whatever life takes me. If anyone deserves to profit from my trauma, it's me. That's the life of Neurospicy Black Girl. Welcome to Neurospicy Black Girl. The only place where you learn that wanting to take a break can cause you to get fired on your sick day. I'm Alani and today we're going to talk about how I made an enemy just by existing. But first, how are you doing? Is your day going well? I woke up realizing that I don't think I could have a sleep schedule. Stay with me on this. Nights are both my friend and my enemy. I have the most energy at nights and all my best creative ideas happen especially at 3 a.m. for some reason. I've been called a demon before so maybe these people know something that I don't. But the problem is that I want to be active when I have to be sleeping and I want to be sleeping when I have to be active. The problem is that my mind is super active. If I was as physically active as my mind was, I would never hear concerns about my BMI ever again. I think about the common things. My next day at work, paying the bills on time, did I even eat breakfast the whole day? The answer to that is no. Waking up early causing my brain to be on zero percent and I need coffee and time to myself to recharge my brain to 100%. Unfortunately for me, having time for myself to refresh or reset is not corporate friendly. Stay tuned to find out why corporate America has one-sided beef against me. So now, here is my tale of my one-sided battle with corporate America. First of all, I'm not surprised by the rise of AI in corporate jobs. Corporate jobs' expectations for their employees essentially want them to be robots. Do three people's jobs with a salary of one. Respond to every message as soon as possible even if you are sleepy or need to take a dump. Expect to learn new software that was not in the job description in an hour. And if you show even a little concern for your well-being, you get put on probation or shoved out the door. Now as a black woman, when it comes to speaking up for yourself in corporate America, expect to be ABW'd."Angry black woman-ed"."Calm down, there's no need to be upset. You need to calm down.""No, you need to shut the hell up" is what I want to say to the asshole that let me go, despite actual medical reasons needing a break. Now, before I get into my one sided beef with corporate culture, I should explain what neurodivergent or neurodiversity is. Neurodiversity refers to the concept of how people's brain processes, learns, and behaves differently than was considered typical. This term was coined by sociologists, Judy Singer in 1997. Conditions that fall into neurodiversity include autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and more.

I want to emphasize this aspect of neurodiversity: 3:58

we are not abnormal, our brains are just wired differently. However, many systems and institutions are not accepting of those differences and instead of being accommodating, despite neurodivergent conditions being covered in the American Disabilities Act. They rather neurodivergent people suppress themselves or get rid of them if they're too much. I have ADHD, so I always say my condition is only liked by corporate culture when it's useful to them. What do I mean by that? Let me explain. Alright, so for example, hyper focus mode. So that essentially, it is like you are locked in, you cannot think about anything else besides the task at hand. For example, writing this script for this episode, which may surprise you if this sounds like a huge ramble sauce but I actually did write this script for this podcast. When I am in hyper focus mode, my main priority is finishing the task, which is writing. Nothing else matters to me, not my hunger, not my thirst, not my bills, not my job, not even going to the bathroom. Okay, an aestrick on the bathroom part because your body will remind you when you need to go take a break or something. That's why corporate likes it if you are in hyper focus mode, if you are doing something work related. You dedicate your life to your job as if you do not matter. They do not want you to be a human. They want you to be a robot slave. So corporate, they really like that, especially they always want to come to you with ideas for content during the weekend, not during office hours, even though when you do your start forms, you explicitly state, I'm supposed to work 10 to five, but instead you contact me at 9am on a Saturday morning when I should be sleeping and dreaming of things that are not of work. Another example is that your job wants to keep you in hyper focus mode even if you haven't took your lunch break at all. Bonus points if eating lunch is the only time you got to eat something because you forgot to eat breakfast because you were rushing out the door, having to get ready and also you didn't want to miss your train as well or the bus because the bus where you live is in a literal Bermuda triangle. If you live in certain neighborhoods in Brooklyn, if you know, you know. Extra bonus points if your manager gets an attitude because you want to take a break from the computer because you forgot that staring at a computer screen can do numbers of straining on your eyes. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not bound by an NDA anymore. At the same time, I don't got lawyer money, so I'm just gonna keep it brief. You know what I mean? Or another thing is like when they expect you to be ready to answer emails at God knows what time, what hours. Like they expect you to give a five minute or not even a 5 minute, like a one second answer even if you're in the bathroom doing your business. Like, bruh, I am more focused on getting the waste out of my system than answering a question of how to convert a Word doc to a PDF, for the fifth time. Sometimes I wonder, like, how do you even get a job as a vice president of a department in the first place? Alright so, but besides that, I do have some coping mechanisms and advice for any neurodivergent person that has to go through this. Tip number one is to embrace your quirks. Our brains are wired differently and it is actually beneficial, especially in creative instances. For example, in my case, I'm so passionate about anything creative, especially when it comes to writing, editing, you name it. Being in a hyper focus mode allows you to focus, as the phrase goes, into a zone where you could put your best creative outputs. Your best ideas come forth. Your mind gets into a zone where the only thing you're focused on is getting that work done. And this allows me to let my imagination run wild, essentially. My next tip is to find a work environment that values diversity and inclusion. So, one of the few good things about the rise of social media is that there is more awareness of neurodiversity and more employers are willing to provide more inclusive spaces. I recommend sites like Chronically Capable and Mentra as job boards to use. However, I will say if you are not in the STEM field, good luck with finding an inclusive environment. Because in my experience going on job boards, the more inclusive places for neurodivergent people are in tech. Correct me if I'm wrong tech people, but essentially the work is not very people focused and it's routine based. You do not feel the pressure to have to mask yourself in order to conform to neurotypical standards. It's ironic that a lot of jobs in the creative field, an area that is usually encouraged to be yourself are not inclusive workplaces. I would say that's because they are not run by creatives and are instead run by people who care about profit over people. But that's another episode for another day. If you're currently looking for work, try your best to find an environment that works well with neurodiverse people. Find a workplace that allows you to be yourself essentially. I feel like that's how you find out in the vetting process when you do interviews, which that's a whole topic I'll get to in a whole other episode. But in brief, I would say vet the job postings carefully. For the postings that explicitly say stuff like "BIPOC applicants or individuals with disabilities apply", like things like that. At least they're more upfront about wanting diverse candidates. But let's say if you are currently in a toxic work environment that hates neurodivergent people. So every toxic work environment in that case, if you have to leave your job, apply and try to land another job before you quit your job. Although to be fair, life can be unpredictable and sometimes your toxic work environment can boot you before you get the chance. That's what happened to me and here's my story. I used to be a creative for a digital team of a production office. A majority of the staff enjoyed me around. Well, everyone except the team that I worked with, especially my supervisor. My supervisor hated any time that I expressed needing a break from my work, which was sitting on a desk in a dim ass room with no windows for eight hours staring at a computer screen. My eyes and back were strained. Plus, I got frequent headaches. I first talked to my supervisor nicely and he ignored me the first time. I then went to HR and sent documents proving that I need accommodations. Nothing came out of it because I had no accommodations granted, which was the ability to take breaks because, you know, ADHD. My supervisor gaslights me again, saying that HR did not tell him anything and in an email chain, lists all of the grievances he had with me, even though he never had the balls to talk to me about it ever. I was set up. Let's call the supervisor Turtleman because not only he resembles the Turtleman disguise from the movie "Masters of Disguise", but he also acts like a turtle. He threatens behind a computer screen yet hides like a bitch when it comes to in person conflict. Additionally, it has taught me the fateful lesson of HR isn't your friend. Anyway, knowing that I was being constantly invalidated, I started quiet quitting, aka not going extra hard for a job that was both ruining my health and underpaying. The final nail to the coffin was that I got a sick note for my job, which by the way, that's a huge red flag if your job requires sick notes. We are not in frickin elementary school. But anyway, I got a legitimate doctor's note to take two sick days. Guess what? The next morning I get waken up to a phone call that I was fired. That's right. They let me go on a sick day. And to top it all off, they wiped my access to my work email before I had a chance to download all my work, which brings me to my last tip is advocate for yourself. Especially if you're part of a marginalized identity or have multiple marginalized identities, it feels very scary to have to advocate for yourself, especially worrying about whether it's going to hurt your career in the long run. The most important thing you got to worry about is you, especially your safety and your health. Don't be afraid to ask for accommodations, especially as I said earlier, neurodivergent conditions are covered in the American Disabilities Act. The ADA describes a person with a disability as someone who "has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a history or record of such an impairment, such as cancer being in remission and or is perceived by others as having such an impairment, such as a person who has scars from a severe burn." Make sure you document everything and leave a paper trail, essentially email, text, whatever, but especially email. Make sure everything is on paper because with verbal confirmations, it could be easily disproven or it's hard to prove it. Matter of fact, if you have a work email, forward that to your personal email, so in case they try to snatch it away from you before you have the chance. And essentially and especially if they deny your reasonable accommodation, at least you have proof for a discrimination case. Thank you for listening. And before we end this episode, I want to tell y'all it's okay to be human. Do what feels right to you. Now tune in next time where something new happens and it definitely won't be boring.