Autistic People Win Discrimination Cases Against Psychometric Tests
Plus: a neurodivergent take on stop-start-continue feedback
Dear readers,
Welcome to another edition of NeuroWork! As always, here are the three top articles for this week. Click the underlined titles to take you to those articles.
Autistic People Win Discrimination Cases Against Psychometric Tests
Untreated ADHD wreaked havoc on my life but a diagnosis changed everything
Stop-Start-Continue Feedback
I’ve recently come across this method called the “Stop, Start, Continue” method of giving feedback. Basically, it goes as follows:
Start: Focuses on actions or behaviours that an employee should commence for high levels of performance, generally around the areas of improvement
Stop: Focuses on actions or behaviours that should be eliminated or significantly reduced because of their negative impact on the performance, mostly the weaknesses
Continue: Focuses on actions or behaviours that must keep going based on their positive impact on the performance, often referring to the strengths
It can work as my manager giving the feedback, and I can self-assess myself on what I also need to start, stop and continue. As a big-picture neurodivergent thinker, I was missing that big picture feedback on how I was going work-wise, and I suggested this format to my manager on how I would like to receive weekly feedback on my general performance at work. This is on top of the detailed feedback I get on my work as a learning designer on my work. Thankfully, my manager accepted this format of feedback.
We’ve used the format for about three weeks now, and it’s interesting on how we both use this method to assess our own performance and also my performance. My manager is reluctant to use “stop”, often leaving it out altogether in favour of things she’d like for me to “start” or “continue”. It’s a reflection of my manager’s encouraging style, as she’s reluctant to necessarily tell me outright to stop things, but rather suggest gentle things for improvement.
In the meantime, I’ve used “stop” a lot to reflect on how I compare myself with others and how hard I am on myself, and how I need to stop doing those behaviours. I don’t think all neurodivergent people are necessarily perfectionistic, but we can be tough on ourselves because of society’s unrealistic expectations on us to mask and fit in.
I’ve used “start” and “continue” a lot around the theme of asking for help, which is something that I still find difficult at work. It’s a theme that has come through my manager’s feedback as well, to keep asking for help.
What has been your experience of getting or receiving feedback from your manager? I’ll like to hear your thoughts - hit reply to this email or leave a comment.