Working at the Library with Dyspraxia & Experiences of Access to Work

I’m Lucy, and this is my 6^th year working in the Sir Duncan Rice Library. I really enjoy all aspects of my job, as I’m quite a creative person, and like to find things out and help people. This has been a dream job since I was very young; coincidentally, the way my brain works has also been “interesting” (sometimes exasperating) since primary school, when I was first diagnosed with dyspraxia. This is a condition that primarily affects co-ordination (first manifesting in PE class when I couldn’t do handstands or cartwheels), and secondly play havoc with communication and concentration (meaning that I would sometimes go off on tangents in schoolwork.) While I came to UoA thinking that I didn’t need help and I could do the job, I soon found that my “interesting” mind had some surprises in store for me. 

The first was that I started to make mistakes-small ones like sending out the wrong information to colleagues or students; or missing a step in making up a parcel, which would lead to extra work for me and frustration: saying to myself “I did do everything right…Oh, there’s another part to these instructions…” *Internally swear creatively!* 

This was especially irritating as on other days I would be single-handedly managing everything without any problems, and even getting involved in additional projects across the University. So, again the internal dialogue would come in saying “don’t worry about these mistakes-you aren’t a robot, you’re human.”

Secondly, it meant that my probation period was continually extended for me to prove that I could consistently perform all aspects of the role-consistency became one of the things I needed to always work on, along with attention to detail. On some days, I would be fine with this; and on others, my mind (and internal dialogue) would be rebellious: “Why is this process so exceptionally pedantic?” “I do know how to do this-let me prove it to you!”

As you can imagine, extra help was needed for me to try and iron out the wrinkles in my performance. Access to Work paired me with Colin, who runs a consultancy for neurodivergent employees. Specializing in finding the best ways for people to stay in work, he gave me a range of tools to help me gain that consistency: these included different breathing exercises and meditation, combined with making my own instructions.

As time passed, my confidence grew and I managed to pass probation at the end of 2019 (only 2 ½ years into my time here.) As you might imagine, I came back in 2020 ready to fulfil career ambitions and get going with ideas…

Fast forward to the present day and my job has transformed around me to involve far more virtual support, and many more ways to connect with different departments of the University, and in the work I now do around helping students with additional needs. A large part of this is due to the process that I’ve been through: I can honestly say that I had the best people to turn to for help all along the way. In addition, my wonderful mind now has plenty of stimulation and passion for the work.

If you are struggling with similar issues to the ones I was having, then do these 3 things, and see where they take you:

1. Ask for help: Look at the people around you, whether colleagues, fellow students, or tutors-the worst thing you can do is pretend everything is fine and carry on.
2. Create your own checklist and practice self-awareness: You know yourself best-think about how you would break down a large task and where/when suits you best for studying & working.
3. Remember that you can always change things and make them work better for you!