Interruptions: The Rage Inducing Distraction

By Stephanie Diana Eubank

With the influx of women being diagnosed later in life due to advancements in research on ADHD, we are now seeing new management methods. And not just for the management of symptoms but how, as managers, we can use these concepts to better help a diverse community of organizational teams.  The Neurodivergent topic I want to tackle today is called ADHD RAGE. 

ADHD rage can stem from untreated ADHD and what is called emotional dysregulation.  This symptom needs to be addressed with a medical professional.  However, ADHD rage is one aspect that every business professional has had to deal with, regardless of whether it is neurodivergent or not.  And that’s when people interrupt or break one’s focus.  We have all experienced it.  In the office, this looks like being in a zone working on a consuming project, and someone comes up to you and starts talking to you.  Or you are talking to a group or leading a meeting, and someone jumps in while you are speaking.  It feels like Luna Lovegood from “Harry Potter” describes an idea fading behind our eyes. And this can trigger anger that would inspire William Shakespeare to write, “Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorn”. 

In remote work, I have found it easier to put boundaries up and stay in my hyper focused to keep my productivity high.  However, the interruptions come in the form of phone calls.  Which can be rage-inducing, but there are ways to set boundaries to make sure that distractions are kept to a minimum and keep productivity high.  However, these methods only really work well in remote work.  For a lack of a better way to explain why these methods don’t work in person and hybrid methodologies is because well… the workplace is too peoplely. 

• Using Microsoft Teams to establish regular quiet time is helpful to create space to control the interruptions.
• Setting your phone on silent after letting teams and those who may need you know you need space to get the work done.
• Turing off notifications during quiet times.

This comes with the caveat of business communications of needing to know how your team prefers to be communicated with. An example of this can be found in the Forbes article, (Baskin, 2023); where it was studied that in remote workplaces there are clear statistical differences in preference of communication depending on generation. Which is part of why the old concepts in business to hire teams to revolve around managers instead of managers to revolve and evolve with their teams is a change in leadership we need.  Toxic leadership concepts of managers needing to be in control and making teams bend to their communication tactics is not acceptable. It makes for high turnover in person and in remote modality.  We can’t design workplace structures that mirror the 49ers and make a team revolve around the quarterback’s skills instead of a flexible quarterback that revolves around the talents of the whole team.

Using these methods can help create calm and more focus in the workplace remotely.  Remote work has shown an increase in productivity and mental health benefits for those who know how to manage it.  Once we learn better skills as leaders and followers, we can have a more inclusive work culture.

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Work Cited

Villines, Z. (2021, June 16). ADHD and anger in adults: Management, tips, and more. Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/adhd-and-anger-in-adults

Baskin, E. (2023, March 14). Council post: Generational preferences in the employee digital experience. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2023/03/13/generational-preferences-in-the-employee-digital-experience/?sh=30ed0c376778