This is something I think alot of people have to question when they are in the workplace. Well here is my take on it, don't. I learned the hard way that by admiting to your boss that you are ADHD/ADD it sends a message that there is a weakness. So whenever you make a mistake, they will think about you being ADD/ADHD. I admited my ADD and what happened? I got a whipping by my boss and he went on to say I should go on medications. The nerve of that really sent me through the roof. Thats my own decision. It is not right for someone to say that to me. It was like as if he was saying "go on meds or you're fired." In addition I had been on probation at work and under review for some issues and when I was done with that I succeeded but according to management they were still not happy and I was repremanded and told "I do not know what to do with you now" and my response was, "you going to fire me?" He could not answer that, but I realized it was time for a move somewhere else and that is why I am in Florida now and why I will never tell management that I am ADD.

Heyas,

That is a tough decision, I guess i had it made for me when approached by my boss due to issues I was having, (without reposting the entire thing here is the link)
http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16596

I know its hard when someone says "you should be on medications" and in reality they aren't the one to judge or say a single thing about it. The only person that can make that decision is you.

If your ADHD is documented, and you are seeking treatment,(by the way, are you?) as I am, I feel that telling your employers will somewhat protect you.
I am currently having many issues at work because simply, I am not completely adjusted to the adderall XR, I feel spaced out, and dizzy at times, as well as irritable. Of course in a retail position this is NOT a good thing.

I decided to fully inform my boss nonetheless, and she probably looks at me now as a liability, but If I have an issue at work, as in I cannot do something , I can actually say "HEY i cant do this right now, can i do something over here?".

Also it lets her know that i am trying to fix this problem and not use it as an excuse NOT to work, but to do something I am capable of.

The thing I am currently concerned about is my feeling of disorientation at various parts of the day with the adderall XR. I dont want to freak out and feel basically drunk whille shelving or dealing with a customer, or worse, lose my balance while unloading a pallet of books with others.

There are pros and cons to telling your manager(s).
In my situation, I know that she will keep an eye on me (for better or worse), and keep me on task if needed, as well as knowing why i may ask for supervision.

I am aware that she and I dont get along (again in my linked post), and she probably is looking for an alternative reason to fire me.

Remember, if you have a documented disability, your boss cannot fire you for that, but does have their own rights as well, so if you cannot complete your job assigned to you without "Reasonable Accommadations", they do not have to keep you on.

In your specific case, I can see your view of apprehension while dealing with management, but I would fear what would happen if my boss was not informed, they would think im about to lose it, or just plain being lazy.

Sorry about the length, i have a habit of posting long replies and threads :)

take care, and i hope your career path suits you well, its not as easy as people make it out to be at times.

Why tell your boss...just let them think you're a little wacky.

In my opinion, no one needs to know. Even though there are laws against discriminating aganist you, you can only invoke them if you know that you have been passed over for something or discriminated against because of ADD. I personally play my cards close. I know that this is a chemical thing but my parents and girlfriend, even my doctor have all told me that ADD is something you can learn to control and manage. Ive been told by everyone close to me that I dont really need a drug to manage this. They seem to think that Methylp. is a crutch you use to learn how to walk when you have ADD. Concerta is working really well for me. I can handle stress way better than I ever have been able to in the past. Most people dont understand. Despite all of our technology I believe that people are still as superstitious as they ever were. Our information technology has allowed incorrect information to proliferate. Peoples opinions are being passed around as fact. 99% of the emails you get forwarded to you are not true. No dead SCUBA divers were ever scooped up by a fire helicopter to put out a forest fire. You probably will not get rich working from home and Carlton Sheets' real estate program is dangerously out of date and fails to provide critical legal information and advice to would-be investors. I work at Ford and I heard an Engineer who graduated form UofM say "well, magnets are supposed to be good for your blood". If magnets had healts benefits Doctors would be using them. With health care costs what they are, HMOs would force their use if they were effective. There is so much woo-woo out there in general that I dont evpect people to actually understand ADD.
I dont want a lable of "disabled". I prefer people to take me as a bit eccentric. Unless you have serious work performance issues and you are on the ropes with HR I wouldnt bring it up.

All the reasons cited above for not disclosing are well-taken, and deserve serious consideration. I have experienced this adverse reaction first-hand, when I told my boss I thought I had some ADD tendencies, only to have it given back to me the next month as a performance deficiency! Nevertheless, I'd like to throw out for consderation an opposing point or two.

Often I find that my ADD affects not the end product, but the process. For example, I'm presently doing a temp job that involves some highly-repetitive documentation. I don't really have a quota of documents per day, but I believe that -- provided I don't have my attention totally pulled off! -- I'm doing a good job for them. However, my process is to do a couple of docs in a flurry, surf the Web a bit (I'm trying to stick to sites like this one that I can argue are work-related), do a couple more docs, walk around, do a couple more docs, etc. I'm sure it must look to someone like I'm goofing off 70% of my day, but in fact the end result is that the documents are there. Frankly I think that's the only reason they don't get rid of me -- because they see the end result.

In a situation like this, I thnk disclosing one's ADD could be a good thing, because it keeps the focus on productivity rather than on process. In fact, now knowing more about ADD, I think I could do have done a better job communicating my needs in the aforementioned job where "lack of focus" was considered a performance drawback. (Notice that this is a process-related, not productivity-related, perfomance criterion.) Theoretically one could be unfocused but do twice as much work as one's peers. In reality I was getting my work done, but doing it in 30% of my time, and feeling very underutilized the rest of the time. The boss's response was that I should have been asking for more of the same kind of work, but I think we all know how effective a solution that would have been.

So long story short -- I think disclosure of ADD is possibly a good thing, but you have to know what to ask for and be very emphatic about being judged by objective performance metrics, not a vague, "You don't look like you're busy."