
Ask HN: How do you deal with a problematic worker? - simonebrunozzi
Quite some time ago I was in a conversation on to handle an ex-alcoholic employee, who I guess has since been terminated because of a disappointing job performance.<p>However, I would guess that even with a proper, good-enough job performance, the chances of that employee being terminated would be much higher compared to a &quot;normal&quot; person.<p>I feel it might be really, really hard for someone with past problems to have a professional life.<p>Do you have any experiences or anecdotes to share on the subject?
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moksly
My wife has ADHD and to get through her university degree she had to learn
time and attention management. The thing is though, these strategies would
actually be immensely valuable to anyone, but because most us don’t need them,
we don’t learn them. As a result of all that hard work she turned out to be a
much better student than the majority of her peers.

Those skills transferred almost seamlessly into project and task management.

There are a lot of stories like that, where that problematic past you talk
about, give people some really valuable skills. Of course a lot of people
don’t succeed in their struggle, and I think most people who do, would still
rather be “normal”, but you shouldn’t disqualify people because they’ve had to
struggle.

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observer3
I do not, actually. But I totally sympathize with your concern and also
totally agree with moksly, 8 hours ago. I personally never gone through
anything like that, one side or another, but I strongly believe in people's
capacity, no matter how hard they insist on the contrary.

