An employee doodling and drawing during 1-1
UPDATE before I'm drawn in downvotes. This person isn't the first and only my subordinate with ADHD. I know that some people need to doodle or do other activities while working — and that's totally fine for me! The situation below concerns me because (sorry, I didn't write it before) this specific employee doesn't perform well in general, and we had challenges before with understanding my/upper managers' tasks and delivering them. I worry that they didn't focus on my tasks while doodling, so they may miss key points.
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I want to discuss something I didn’t pay attention to at first but now find it a little ridiculous.
This week, I had personal meetings with my employees to reflect on the past year and set goals for 2025. One of them was doodling and drawing all along while we were talking.
Now, I’m confused. I feel like senior managers find this situation laughable because this behavior is kind of disrespectful, and I should’ve said something about it right after noticing it (I’m a relatively new manager, so I can react slowly to some situations). But I know this person has severe ADHD, and I know that drawing could help some people with ADHD better focus on the conversation.
The thing is, I’m not sure it really helped them focus on our talk. Now, I feel that drawing was just a way to endure that 15-20-minute meeting and finally move on to more interesting things. I also doubt that they remembered the action items I set for them because they were kind of distracted.
All of this leaves me with the feeling like, “WTF? O_o” I know it doesn’t make much sense to think about this now because this situation has already gone. Still, I’m curious how you’d react and how managers should address this in general.