Tip: One More Way in Which People with OCD Can Provide Workplace Value

In a previous post, I discussed how people with OCD can, despite belief to the contrary, actually benefit their companies in unique ways due to the way their minds function. And at first glance, the idea that people with OCD–who are actively trying to reduce the impact the illness has on their life–can utilize some facet of their mental illness to improve general workplace productivity seems like a counter intuitive one. However, it is important to realize that workers with OCD are not just a waste of space and they can still add business value and provide for themselves even as they are dealing with this difficult disorder. And also, these specific qualities that they bring (that I discussed in my previous post) don’t just simply disappear as the OCD-affected individual goes through therapy. Rather, the compulsions adjacent to these qualities begin to diminish and actually these qualities become ever more pronounced and useful. For example, in my case, I was able to use my detail-oriented approach (courtesy of my OCD brain…thanks I guess OCD) to ensure that every aspect of a project had been completed successfully and in the correct manner. And then therapy helped me reduce the unnecessary, compulsive number of times I was checking certain aspects of the project, thus allowing me more time to focus on other projects. So by going from quadruple-checking to double-checking, I was able to provide the same overall value-add as before, but now was able to do it in a quicker and healthier manner.

Another example of a quality, that while certainly not unique to people with OCD, definitely seems to be present in a large chunk of OCD people is empathy. People with OCD deal with terrible mental experiences everyday and thus can often have a greater awareness of what can go wrong in someone’s mind and life. Some of us are also involved in support groups that deal with other mental illnesses and so our awareness can also be broadened in that specific context. On the whole, I feel like we (people with OCD) are less judgmental of others as well as we are so scared of others judging us! And I think that all of these aforementioned factors lead to OCD people being more willing to listen to the problems of others and more comfortable with whatever the problem is (as how can it be any worse than whatever the OCD person is thinking about on a daily basis). And this type of empathy is a really underrated trait in a work environment as traditionally personal feelings and emotions are meant to be sublimated into the greater overall purpose of company efficiency and profit. But, I think companies are becoming more and more cognizant of and interested in the welfare of their employees. So, the ability to communicate with your fellow employees will consequently become a more desired professional attribute. And I think that generally, people with OCD are strong candidates for this business evolution as they understand how important asking for help is, they are competent listeners, and they genuinely want to assist their colleagues with whatever problem (work-related or otherwise) that their coworkers face as they themselves know how hard certain problems can be to deal with.