In this episode senior Human Resources (HR) practitioner Nell Fitzjohn discusses her path from the early schooling challenges of dyslexia and ADHD, to her current senior HR role.

Including how she navigated the world of work without a university degree.

The episode has five distinct phases:

Firstly, we find out at what ages did Nell get diagnosed with dyslexic and ADHD.

Secondly, we then discuss her challenges at school and being asked to leave school early.

Thirdly, we discuss in detail her career path and how she navigated the world of work and tapped into her strengths.

Fourthly, Nell and host David Hammond take a deep dive into authenticity and leading neurodivergent individuals. This includes a discussion on masking and self advocacy for the neurodivergent individual (including some practical tips).

Fifthly, this episode rounds out when Nell provides an insight into what advice she would give her younger self.

We talk with young New Zealand public sector lawyer and ADHDer Tanuvi Garimella about how she has navigated the world of work and her study.

This is a wide ranging chat that has something for everyone from neurodivergent employees, HR specialists, line managers, senior leaders, teachers and parents.

Since we recorded this episode, Tanuvi was offered and has accepted a place at the London School of Economics to study for a Masters of Laws in the 2026\27 UK academic year.

In this episode we talk about:

- Her diagnosis

- Self advocacy (and advocacy more generally)

- Understanding how you work best and communicating this with your manager

- Recruitment processes and interviews for neurodivergent employees (what we talk about, could be applied to every employee)

- A discussion about the role of psychometric and standardised testing in recruitment

- Managing your neurodivergent employees well and enabling them to flourish (Tanvui has some great examples of organisations and managers doing this well)

- And a discussion on the importance of community.

In this wide ranging episode we talk with Jarad Brown about how he navigates the world of study and work with dyspraxia and dyslexia.

Jarad is the youngest of our interviewees in this series, so the episode focuses slightly more than usual on study, but there is still plenty of discussion about work.

The discussion is wide-ranging; everything from explaining what dyspraxia is, to an in-depth discussing about seeking accommodations at work and during study, and not to mention a detailed discussion about dyslexia and genetics.

We even get a little demonstration of Jarad's passion, beat boxing.

In the podcast reference is made to some research about dyslexia and the human genome, the paper in question can be found on this link https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12361447/ .

In the third episode in How We Work's series on neurodiversity in the workplace in New Zealand we chat with the amazing ADHDer Janine Boon, whose career has traversed everything from hairdressing, the fashion industry, administration and HR, to their current role as a senior remuneration analyst.

We even talked a little bit about the How We Work community at the end!

This episode along with the others to follow in this series follows a very straightforward concept.

First, Janine discusses when they found out they were neurodivergent. Janine then discusses the impact of school, before discussing how they have navigated the world of work.

In this episode, of our series about neurodiversity in New Zealand workplaces, I talk with dyslexic hairdresser and entrepreneur Tina Fox who's operated her own hair saloon for the last 17 years, about how she has navigated the world of work with dyslexia.

Like half the interviewees for our series she is a migrant. In her case, despite her very English sounding name, English was not her first language, which has added to her experience of dyslexia.

This episode along with the others to follow in this series follows a very straightforward concept.

First, Tina discusses when she found out she was neurodivergent. She then discusses the impact of school, before discussing how she has navigated the world of work.

In this episode, the first in a six-part series, David Hammond, the founder of the How We Work social enterprise talks to Nadia Mitchell, an Information Adviser, about her experiences of navigating the world of work in New Zealand as someone who is neurodivergent (specifically ADHD and Autism in her case).

This episode along with the others to follow in this series follows a very straightforward concept.

First, Nadia discusses when she found out she was neurodivergent. She then discusses the impact of school, before discussing how she has navigated the world of work.

It's raw and it's real, but it's also really positive.

This episode also has a discussion of the work of How We Work during the middle stages of this podcast.