The Productive Pessimist

  ADHD. Autism. AuDHD. Autistic Spectrum Condition. Neurodivergence. The words have become a jumble. Social media influencers insist that so many  behaviours are "obvious neurodiversity traits!", that if you "did XYZ (relatively common) thing as a kid, you're definitely  neurodivergent as an adult!" that it's become a meaningless fog, with some people questioning whether autism and ADHD are actually "real" conditions at all. Whether it was their intention or not, the "Neurodiversity Influencers" have brought us right back to the "naughty kids who just need to be spanked more often" attitudes, only now they're expressed as "Self-absorbed Millennials and Gen Z who lack resilience and don't want to work".   (And sometimes still as "naughty kids who just need to be spanked more often.") There seem to be so many "behaviours" that are "clearly undiagnosed neurodivergence!" that, if we w...

  Calm down. We haven't decided for a total 360 on our brand - we're still The Productive Pessimist, still a bit more "storms, spite, sarcasm" than "live, laugh, love"  - it's just that it seems like a good time to remind people that pessimism doesn't mean doom and gloom and moaning about everything - it's simply assuming that things may not go the way you'd like them to, and planning on that assumption, so that, if they don't, you can dust yourself off and carry on anyway.  After all, if they do  go they way you want...there's nothing stopping your onward progress, is there?! You hit a milestone - press on towards the goal! 2025 In a recent meeting, a retiring colleague from the property sector was asked what he imagined he'd see if he had a crystal ball for 2025; his response was "a steady recovery for the commercial sector."   The commercial sector doesn't just mean commercial property rentals, although that is my...

Less than six months after taking office, Keir Starmer's Labour Party are proving every bit as "nasty" as the "Nasty Party" the Conservatives of the past 14yrs managed to become infamously dubbed; most visibly in their narratives around people who are currently unemployed owing to disability. Now, it is not unreasonable, to most people, to feel that "almost everyone can do something!" - but gainful employment isn't about whether people can  do something; it's about whether employers are happy to let people  "do something", and, more importantly, amenable to paying them a living wage   for  "doing something."   With Rachel Reeves' recent increase in Employer National Insurance contributions , and the persistent shambles that is the process of being able to secure funding for necessary workplace accommodations for disability via Access to Work , which is seeing people waiting up to nine months or more without the means to ...

  It can be easy to dismiss the memes that centre "we could be hibernating right now, but nooooo, we had to invent CAPITALISM and CUPS!" as "just more Gen Z whining", and further evidence that "people are lazy and just don't want to work", and sure, some people actually don't  want to have any  kind of job. That's a thing - people are allowed to feel resentful about the idea that they are obliged  to do something they find to be either very intrusive, or actually harmful to their wellbeing. A lot of people will just be posting those memes as 'engagement-scrapes'; complaining about work we don't really  have too much issue with is part of human nature, and probably has been since we first started engaging in planned, focused, longer-term-thinking activity, rather than merely surviving day by day.  People like to bond through sharing low-key frustrations, so these memes will generate a lot of comments, shares, and likes - all of which...

Today, 12th November 2024, marks one year since our first "problem solving post" on this blog; you can read that post  here . Our very first post as The Productive Pessimist on this blog was a general intro post, published on 5th November 2024, and The Productive Pessimist Ltd was formally registered as a company in February 2025; however, writing, and helping teams, people, and organisations achieve their potential are central to how I undertake my responsibilities with The Productive Pessimist Ltd, and so I choose to mark the one year anniversary of the first "how to solve a common problem" post on this blog. I've also put out a YouTube video - which you can  watch here  - I hate  doing videos, I have no  skills or competence in doing videos, my sight loss causes significant practical challenges with doing videos - but, every so often, I'll do a video, because we never get better at things by avoiding them, and because the videos provide a nice contrast to...

  "Well, obviously  no one here is 'financially excluded' - they're all employed, and everyone in the same salary band is paid the same! This isn't relevant to us! " If you're an employer, that's likely your first reaction to the idea that working people can be financially excluded - yes, even when they work for your  company, which pays above  the minimum wage, and has salary review points every three years, and  six months fully paid  maternity leave (which is quite burdensome for you to offer, actually, and you really wish people would be a bit more appreciative...) While the ways in which demographics which are excluded from employment - the aged, those with significant-impact disabilities, those with full-time kinship care responsibilities, asylum seekers, those who seem to have no barriers, but "just can't get a job for some reason" - are also excluded from the very real and obvious benefits of financial security - better mental and...