LATE BLOOMERS - AUTISM VS ADHD: Work edition

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

This week, it’s ADHD vs Autism: Work Edition… but make it a full-blown competition.Rich vs Rox go head to head through deadlines, meetings, burnout, vague instructions and more — with Max judging each round and deciding who wins.It’s chaotic. It’s competitive. It makes absolutely no sense at times.Will logic win? Will vibes win? And most importantly… will this format survive?

This week in the ring, we have ADHD versus autism, the epic battle. And in the red corner, we have ADHD, representing chaos, not knowing what day it is, and I'm feeling burnt out and overwhelmed. And in the blue corner, we have... The autistic person representing logic. You're not going to do the voice, no? This is the late bloomer's podcast. where we are getting our lives together.

Eventually. And brought to you by our amazing sponsor, Loop Earplodes. That was a very energetic start, babe. Are you ready for this battle? From me, it was. Yeah, I meant from you. So listen, we're trying ADHD versus autism work edition.

And if it works... See what you've done there. Yeah, let us know in comments. Because we might do some other additions. Or just share it and then loads of people will watch it. And then we'll keep doing it. Big battle. Right.

So how's this going to work? I've got ten things that I'm going to give an example of. All to do with work. You're going to answer how you would approach these ten things. Yeah. And then I will answer. Is there like a winner of each round? Or are we letting people do, like, how I need specifics?

Max, you will be choosing a winner. So at the end of each question, I'll look to you. By the way, Max is our wonderful videographer and podcast editor that's been with us from day one. I don't think that works because he's got ADHD. I feel like... No, he's not. Don't judge it. He's not.

You need to be impartial, right? So, ready? Round one. You have a deadline in two weeks. When do you start the work? four weeks. Right. Well, that's ridiculous.

So you wouldn't even start it. No, I don't feel like that's accurate either. I feel like you would start it five hours before the due time. So I get to answer my own questions. Okay. And you get to answer yours. Those are the rules. Right.

This is my thing. Very recently, I had a deadline to deliver something. That deadline was two weeks ago. A very important day. deadline to do with a very important piece of work. I still haven't done it. All right, fair. Okay, well, I wouldn't miss the deadline.

On the very rare occasion that I've missed deadlines, it makes me physically uncomfortable. Because if I say I'm going to do it, it like gets done. Now, what I'm not saying, I wouldn't start on day one if it's due in two weeks. That's not me. I would ascertain how much time it would take. and then give myself that appropriate amount of time in the diary to do it. Within that two-week period.

Max, you're going to have to shout, but here's the winner. What are we basing the winner off? Just vibes. Right. 1-0 autistic. Boom. What? Okay.

Number two. No. What? Round two. Okay, you can do the round intro. A meeting gets moved last minute. How do you react? I'm immediately so happy and I will go and get into bed and start doomscrowly.

There is nothing better than a cancelled. Oh, my line, it's so dreamy than a cancelled meeting. It's just instant vibes gifted back to you. Did you write these questions? Yes. That's not specific enough for me because I need to know what the meeting's about. Like if it's a non-value-adding meeting, I would be fine. I probably wouldn't even bother reschedule.

If it's something that needs to happen to progress something that matters to me, I'd be like, well, why is it cancelled? Because it's been in the diary. It needs to be a good reason. And when is the nearest possible time we can get it back in? But so that, yeah, that's difficult to answer. You sound like a barrel of laughs Max

Yeah based off that answer It's got to the Euro So it's boring Okay one all Because I'm boring One all Oh my god guys It's getting tense

Round three You're in a boring meeting What happens I really try and like Hold it in And I'm like Focus Watch

But then I'll start yawning And I can't Hold that in It's like involuntary yawning and I'm like trying to hold it in. And I'll just zone out. By the way, am I on Zoom or in real life? Because in my head, I'm on Zoom. I don't know.

So I'm on Zoom. And I just like try and wrap it up really quickly. And like if I could turn my camera off and like walk away, then I would. Okay. Again, I'm going to give two answers because it depends. So it depends whether it's objective. boring or I'm finding it boring. So like some things that you find boring, I'm like, I'm interested in this.

But should we say I find it boring? Yes. Okay. Well, if I find it boring, then I would say, this is boring. I don't want to talk about this anymore. Yes, I would. Actually, you have. Actually, you have.

I've been on those meetings. And if it's boring, if it's important but has to be done, I'll be like, this is boring. Can we rattle through this? I've actually got a real life example. where we've both been on a boring meeting. Mm-hmm. So when we're on our dubby calls, yeah,

if it's like really creative and we're dreaming of all the new things we're going to build, you're like, this is really boring now just in creative land, so you do say it. But when you guys are talking about

all like the businessy stats and stuff, I just walk off. You do. She's like, hey, guys, I just walk off and drink tea. I don't even be on the meeting. Yeah, so. I don't think either of you can win that.

I think there has to be a draw. It's a tie. Still won all. Round... You are giving... No, wait, what number is it? Four. Round four.

You are giving, you are giving, you are given vague instructions. What do you do? Just vibe it out. Like, sort of try my best to go in the general direction, have confidence in my own ability to just, yeah, just walk head into it. I know what they want. get it done just like use your noggin, use your brain, the effort. No, that doesn't work for me.

They need to be specific. If they're vague, I would seek specifics that I need to know to do what they want me to do. If they're unable to give me the specifics, I'm not doing it. What? Why are you laughing? Funny, so funny. You sound so serious. It's like it's making me.

and I guess actually like maybe that was quite vague. It's like someone gives you vague instructions and my question is quite vague. So I do apologise. I've got a vague question to a vague. Do you what I mean? It's just shrouded in vagueness. So you would seek crystal clear clarity.

Bullet points. I need bullet points. And if they couldn't give it, you wouldn't do the task. No. I can't do it then. What did you think about my answer? Just vibe into it and give it a go. Well, it could be a complete waste of time. If you give them something that you,

that your vibe is different to their vibe. What the hell? Vibe shouldn't even be a word, in the workplace. Unless it's vibe, that's what you do on a beat for a pool. Not at work. Max. Yeah, that's a rich win. That's two-one me.

What? Boom. The autism's strong, you know. Don't underestimate it. What number is it? It's not always sexy, but it's strong. That was four. It's number five next.

Wow. Someone starts a Zoom call with small talk. What do you do? Like, right, wait, before any of us answer, we both hate small talk, right? Yes, we're out there. Smile, engage, chat, try and ask the right questions, like try and do eye contact through a screen, which is very strange, probably then end up accidentally oversharing to like fill the space and do my own small talk. So it would be like, oh yeah, I'm glad you had a good weekend. Guess what? I'm actually wearing

pyjama bottoms and no pants because I jumped on this call late. Oh, sorry. And then I would sort of be overthinking and anxious. But I would have made everyone love. I would have disarmed whoever it was. so in a way I would have entered a small talk and actually made it fun and engaging but accidentally oversharing. Cool, you know this what I'm about to say to be true because it happens every week. Like I don't do small talk.

I would say can we just get on with the meeting please? Because there's a few reasons for it. One, I don't like it. Two, I'm not really interested. And three, if we were going to have small talk, let's ring each other outside the meeting, which by the way never happens. So you're forcing something that you don't want to do naturally

into a meeting environment because everyone is the thing to do. It's ridiculous. Max? That's it. Rocks one. Rocks. Too all. Oh my God.

It's guys. It's too all. This is like to the actual wire. Before we get into the second half, just going to take a little break. To hear from our sponsors. The Late Bloomer's podcast is sponsored by the amazing loop earplugs, something that me and Rich wear all the time, every day. Every day. And definitely whenever we leave the house. We actually have our own website with loop earplugs that have got our favorite products and you guys get 20% off all of those. And exciting news, we've just added some more products. So we have.

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These are for you too. Right, and we're back into it with round six. You make a mistake at work. What do you do? Fall into a hit of despair, shame, self-hatred, embarrassment, not know how I'm ever going to face the people I work with again and will probably just overthink it and like beat myself up for many, many, many days. Why?

Why do you do that? Why? Why? It is rough because I think there's part of me that has to achieve and be seen as like good or else feel like I'm not worth very much. Wow. Okay. This is meant.

Bring the tone down. This is meant to be a game. What is it going to? Right. Two things. Well, I'm going to sound like a douche. Don't often make mistakes. Oh, I feel sick.

I actually, I feel sick. You, they don't get, what do you don't make? I don't often. I do make mistakes, but not very. Very often. I'm, I'm accurate. No. What?

You're accurate when it comes to numbers. Yeah. Have you read one of your emails? Littered. Like littered with spelling error. That doesn't matter. That's irrelevant. That's a mistake. Right, no, no.

I don't, in the context of this question, it's not. Because you wouldn't go into a shame spire or if you spell a word wrong on an email. No one gives a... I wouldn't spell a word wrong on an email. Now you sounds arrogant. Anyway, for the context of this question, you're talking about I've messed up,

a presentation's wrong or whatever and it's impacted someone else, right? I would just be like, sorry, my bad. We've turned up at Meta to give a talk about ADHD, which we did recently, right? Yeah. And you haven't got the presentation with you.

Oh. Well, I'd just be like, sorry, I haven't got the presentation. Then what? It depends on whether we could do the talk or not. Could, if we got it, can we do it without? Making me panic just thinking about it. I can never see any of these people again. Definitely not if you forget the presentation.

So it doesn't matter. You're never getting booked for that job again. Well, yeah. Okay. Makes sense. Max. That's a rock, Swan. I'm on your team there.

Three, two. You, in. enjoy your pit of shame that you sit in, enjoy the win. It was worth it. Round seven. You feel yourself burning out. How do you handle it? And bearing in mind, I'm calling you out on BS if it's anything other than accurate, this answer.

So, I would say I'm feeling really tired at the moment, but don't worry. I'm definitely not burning out. I would convince myself of that fact and then I would continue doubling down and pushing through. It would start affecting my sleep. I'd start feeling anxious. I'd start losing like all joy in the world

until eventually I would actually have like a full burnout and my body would force me to then have to take some time off. Okay. I've got a funny answer for this. You don't, babe, if you've got something funny, don't say I've got something funny.

Just do the joke because, do you know what I mean? No. Go on. So the reason it's funny is because it's really real and it happened a couple of years ago when we moved into this house. But I'll start by saying, I would very rarely get to the point of feeling burning out because I've got good

boundaries with people. You don't make mistakes. You've got great boundaries. No, listen, don't attack me. I say no to people if I don't want to do it. I'm busy. So I don't often get to the stage where I'm burnt out. Fair enough.

The time that I nearly got to a burnout was when we were moving house. And the reason that was it was sort of out of my control because you'd like have to do loads of stuff when you're moving house. I love you, but that's not, do I mean, if I was going to name a strength of yours, it wouldn't be the logistics of something like moving house and sort of, and arranging all of that. I did do all the shades of white on the wall and picked all the, like, colors and the vibes. You did, yeah, but you dropped paint on the floor and then burst into tears,

so there was an emotional burden of trying to make sure you were okay. The first time we walked into the house. What did I do? You did a sample, you dropped to spot a paint on the floor, which was like no drama. It was just wiped up and you just started bursting into tears because you were like, this is my first house and I've ruined it already. Making a mistake. Yeah, anyway, so what I did was I was feeling really stressed out on the verge of like I couldn't handle it anymore. So I announced in the car with you and Sear.

I was like, people are asking too much of me. please do not submit any requests for anything. You're asking too much and I can't handle it at the moment. You put the shutters down. Yeah, leave me alone. I cannot function in the way that you're used to me functioning. So look after yourselves. Do you remember?

I do remember. I told you it was funny. You were laughing. Was it? Right. I still don't think like, I've got the funniest answer ever. Are you ready? Let me tell you why it's fine.

Autistic people would get it. Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't laugh then. If it's a tizzy, a tizzy-sizzy. Do you know what that means? No. Can you guess? It's made up?

A tizzy-sizzy. What? An autism symptom. But like in a sort of light. Did you just make that up? I did, yeah. That's good. I like it.

Tizzy-sizzy. Right. I forgot what. You were just about to say, I remember it happening. Me announcing. What happened? Oh, yeah, I remember you announcing, but I remember being really proud of you because even though you were struggling, you historically haven't been very good at letting people know when you're feeling emotions. And I knew it would have been really difficult to say.

So I was just like, yes, like I obviously felt bad that I'd impacted you. And both me and Sue was like, right, come on, we need to like adult now. obviously see as a teenager and I was an adult read into that what you will The partner and my kid getting together and decided they need to adult Love it But I was so proud of you

Because you Yeah the shutters came down What number? Oh no Oh my God the winner Why is my memory so bad That's a rich win Has to the

It's a hilarious story Thanks Max Appreciate it Why is your memory so terrible What? 88 just what you're You just asked, babe. ADHD, I think.

The working memory is quite bad. What number are you? Hey, Jesus Christ. Sorry, listeners. Good God. I don't know why. What? But the ADHD versus autism games seems to be peaking my ADHD.

I feel because I'm on Team ADHD. It's like I've been let loose in the ring. Eight. Eight. Christ's sake. Good. Your job involves working from home. How do you feel?

So I love it. But whenever I'm working for, like I'd be at home. I don't know if I'd be working from home. Like if I'm working from home, I'm kind of like just. Well, that's your, so you love skiving from home. It's what you're saying. So you went away recently for four days. Yeah.

And I had loads of work to do. And we'd like. like made a plan of what I was going to do. And it's, you won't be here. The kids aren't here. So I've got like four focus days to really get on with work. And I didn't do anything. I just kind of like went from bedroom to sofa to bath.

Well, that's a lie. What you actually did was productive procrastination. The house was lovely. You done loads of washing. Those are housework. Walk the dog twice a day. It's the first time in my life I've ever cooked a meal for myself every day, tidied up after myself every day,

and walked the dog eat myself two times a day. And that was all to avoid the work that you had to do. It's so amazing how motivating avoiding urgent, serious work is. It can get me cleaning. Wow. So I love working. I love being at home. So I also love being at home.

Slightly different to you because I usually, I work when I'm at home. I love a bit of admin. I don't really like people. So me and my laptop might even, I might even YouTube people playing Call of Duty in the background whilst I'm on my laptop. That's an absolute dream for me. Living with an ADHD partner, though, can sometimes be challenging. it just through the lens of wanting to get on with work

because you'll be like, Bobby on board, what should we do? Should you go to a water park? Should we go to Home Sense? Do you want to go to Marks and Spencers? Should we go and get coffee? Yeah. Oh, I would love a coffee.

Oh, you can have one after. Max? I can't pick a winner on that. Can we rock paper scissors or something? I like both of them. Well, so it's just cut all in a tie then. No, I want to rock paper scissors. That is, that's not, you can't win.

win by rock paper scissors. We might as well just add a rock paper scissors competition. Okay. Can we do a rock paper scissors, but it doesn't count? Fine. Are we calling on... On one. Three, two, one.

Is it... Ma, ma, ma, ma. Okay. Sorry. Three, two, one would have done. Sorry. Just like... So it's three to call it is what we're saying.

Yeah. Right. Are you ready? Yeah. Go. One, two, three. Oh no. No.

No. No. No. No. You don't understand what's just happening. I have smashed your scissors. You don't understand what's just happened to you. Did you try and do paper and do scissors by accident?

Yeah. Do you know why? Because I've seen you when you went to do this, uh, uh, uh, uh, you gave away your subconscious that you were going to vote rock. So I was like, cool. Wait, why? Why did I? Because you, you went, you would go, uh, uh, uh, you made a fist.

You made a fist. Yeah, but everyone makes a fist to start with. No, no, no, it was when you were doing the countdown. But viewers... Right, anyway, it doesn't count. Viewers on YouTube and Spotify will see... Anyway, so then I was like, he's doing a rock. Cool, I need to beat rock.

I'll speak rock. What's to pay... And I went scissors. What's the scores? Oh, my God. What has happened to this podcast? Honestly. It's normally quite...

Jesus. It's normally quite pro, isn't it? What are the scores? What is? I don't know. We're tying, I think. Are we? Max doesn't remember.

I lost track of that. There's been two ties and we've had eight. Yeah, three all. Right, okay. Brown number. You receive an email asking for a quick chat. How do you respond? Instant panic, anxiety.

My first thought would be, I think I'm going to get fired. I'm going to be let go. I would then try and look back through the last couple of weeks. What have I said, done, missed. Who could have I upset without knowing, I've forgotten something, check my calendar. Like, I would just instantly go on the hunt for the reason why I was about to be fired. And I would like desperately want to just say, just tell me now.

but I wouldn't do that because I'll be trying to be professional. So I'd be like, sure, when would you like to chat? And then whenever that was today, tomorrow, Monday, I would just like be living in limbo, just caught between my own overthinking and a future that I really think is going to be quite, quite difficult to experience. Okay, I would respond by saying, no problem I'm free at 10, 12 or 2

and then pick the first thing. No, no. Do you think like that now? Because who in the world would have the power to make you feel like that anyway? You don't have a boss. I was like imagining myself working for a sort of tyrannical bus.

I was sort of in the fantasy. But who would make me feel like that? Like anyone That's great Anyone that we work with If someone on the app team Can have a call with you, Rocks or

Music Managers or It's just immediate I project onto neutral Very negative things And I should probably Talk to someone about that In fact I am So well done me

Yeah, well done Yeah rocks Team Rocks on that one Team Rocks Coming in at 4 3 Can I just call some out right now. Right?

This is this, all my fears have come true. What? Because in what world, objectively, forget you and what world objectively is it the best answer to say I'm going to worry and fall into a pit of doom rather than just book the calling? You said the answer is the winner was based on vibes and I've gone on a vibe there. She says it's the best vibe, fine. That is ridiculous. Don't.

You've got the same neuroneover. Urgence, that's why. Argue with... If Max was autistic over there, if it was Beth, someone else on our team, you'd be like Rich all the way. Don't look for excuses because you're losing the game. Right. Number...

We are coming to the end of our epic battle between ADHD and autism, ADHD, in the clear lead taking a last-minute victory as we head into... Round 10. I would like to... to all of our listeners that usually get something from these podcasts. If this is the first one you've listened to, I would like to say, hello, if you've made it this far, well done. You're a very, very patient person. We've got wonderful episodes on what it's like to be late diagnosed and how to get out of debt, how to break through and set boundaries.

So before you block us on all of the social media platforms that you are, logged into, maybe listen to another episode first. Right. How do you plan career progression? What? What, did you not hear or genuine or? Like, I don't. I sort of just, how my career progresses is I'm, I'm vibing.

I'm like, I'm like, no, It's vibes-based progression. No. Am I enjoying it? Am I loving it? I'm still getting the happiness and the enjoyment from it. Like, I don't view it as like level one, level two, level three, all the way up to level 100. I'm just like, am I having a good time or not?

And the minute that I get bored of something, I just start something else. And then when I get bored of that, I start something else. What about money? Wait, I've got the perfect explanation. Are you ready? lots of people think about careers progressing upwards, like an upwards ladder. Do you understand?

Yeah, I do understand the concept of a ladder, yeah. No, it's like a horizontal line going upwards. Like a ladder. Sorry, a vertical line, a ladder. My career progression is sideways. Okay, so I expand out from where I am in a horizontal line. What about money, though? What do you mean what about money?

Well, like if you don't go up, but usually the money goes up, if it's vertical, horizontal, it sort of stays flat. Well, you lose money really because you're invested in the next project. That's not the vibe anyway, the career is just... So, when we met, I was in quite a lot of debt. Yeah, okay. With a terrible credit rating. So I was progressing in my multiple careers. and having fun and being creative.

But no, I probably wasn't thinking about money. I was thinking about whether I was like enjoying myself. Like for me, being creative is what drives me. I have to feel like I'm being creative, have to feel like I'm using my ideas, seeing it come to life. I love building things at podcasts or writing books or apps. And when I struggle with the routine,

then I build something new. So progression is all about adding little bubbles and just... Okay. Yeah. Mine's fairly simple and straightforward. That's really surprising. I talk about when I... Less of that.

No attacking needed. I talked about when I was at the bank. I started when I was 16. I didn't earn as much money as I wanted to, but I was 16, so I sort of accepted it. figured out how much money I actually wanted to earn and then looked at how high in the company I needed to get to to earn that amount of money and then it was just better than everyone else

at doing my job until I got promoted. But you're looking at that like it's an arrogant thing to say I was promoted to a personal banker of the people that sit on the desk and sell stuff. I was promoted to that. I was the youngest in the country. In fact, I was promoted to it and I had to wait until my 18th birthday before I could actually do the job because I was selling

insurances and stuff. So I'd passed the interview, I'd got the job, but I couldn't start for a few months. 19, I was a manager, the youngest manager in the country. And then by the time I was 22, 23, I was managing flagship branches. So you were a classic ladder. Same company, 20 years, climbing a rung. I am a classic deck chair. Hopscotch.

Yeah, okay, yeah, that's good. I like that. Both get you somewhere. They certainly get you somewhere. One is more fun. Max. You're looking for the win here. What was that?

That was so manipulative. I wanted to end it on like a really good point. Well, it's hard because... Right, before you answer, I know, I know you've been through this whole like money thing really recently. So you need to be authentic with this answer. be able to live with yourself, Max. No, being authentic when Max is highly creative, might mean he identifies more as a hopscotch person than a ladder person.

This is really difficult. I think I'm going to give it to Rich. I think if you look at the whole country, you look at everyone, the world, I think most people... It was vibes-based. You're saying one single wooden ladder is better than a pink, blue chalked, hopscotch. You haven't even lost. It's a tie.

I think we should end it on one final Rock Vos says And this is, but this count, this is for the win Okay Yeah, you won't do the same thing again, I know So this is for, we're going to go Mm-mm-mm-hmm, show your thing. Yeah, ready?

Yeah. Uh-uh-uh-uh. Uh-uh. Oh, you're like. Oh my God, sorry for the listeners on the audio. We just had So what happened was, let me break it down for you. We both went scissors first.

I changed to paper. Rocks changed to scissors. No, stayed at scissors. So she won. So ADHD sniffing their way into win. That is the definition of winning the competitions by vibes rather than accuracy. So this has been our first episode of ADHD versus autism. I imagine you guys probably hated it.

So it will also be the last. But thank you so much for showing up for the epic battle between two neurotypes when we have figured out that ADHD is the true champion. Don't worry about liking it. Don't worry about subscribing. Just don't leave a negative review. No, what we'll do? I'll put a comment in the comments. Oh, God, where else put a comment?

And then people can vote yes or no. And whoever wins is whether it lives or dies, the format of the episode. Right. I think it's probably time to say goodbye, I don't know. Let them decide. See you next week. See you later.