4D Workplace: Creating a new business reality

Notice – Recognising Dyslexia

Dyslexia wasn’t officially recognised by the New Zealand Government until 2007, so unfortunately the school experience for many dyslexic New Zealanders was (and often continues to be) one of frustration, helplessness and failure. By the time they reach the workforce, many dyslexics have developed highly evolved methods for ignoring, hiding or ‘working around’ their dyslexia, meaning that their workmates and employers may not know they have the condition.

In some cases, the dyslexic employee may not even know themselves – a history of academic failure and frustration may have led them to mistakenly believe that they are ‘stupid’ or ‘beyond help’.

Dyslexia often impacts much more than literacy and numeracy. The most immediate attribute is a problem decoding words and their meanings, but this is just one aspect of a broader spectrum of issues which may include auditory and information processing, planning and organising, motor skills, short-term memory and information processing. However, dyslexia’s greatest difficulty is self-esteem – it only becomes a disability if not appropriately addressed.

Signs that one of your employees may have dyslexia, and therefore benefit from an adjusted management style include:

Reluctance, embarrassment or avoidance around reading out loud
A preference for face-to-face meetings/phone calls rather than email correspondence, and for charts/graphs over text
Frequent misspelling of words and mixing up words which sound similar (recession/reception), in speech or written work
Poor handwriting, punctuation and grammar
Misunderstanding or misinterpretation of managers’ instructions
Problems meeting deadlines, despite working hard

A more detailed checklist, courtesy of the British Dyslexia Association, can be downloaded here.

A common strategy for working around dyslexic-like learning differences is repetition and memorisation/rote learning of key words and sentences. At work, this might manifest in unusually long working hours, extreme fatigue brought on by reading or intense private work sessions ahead of key presentations and meetings.

Mistakes, work avoidance and a perceived lack of attention to detail can be frustrating for both employer and employee – and can mistakenly create an impression that a dyslexic worker is unmotivated or even lazy. In fact, the opposite is often the case – with some simple adjustments in the workplace, employers can help dyslexic employees to fully contribute to overall business success.