If you are an XXY individual or perhaps a parent or sibling of one, we would be interested to hear of any issues you may have experienced in a workplace environment. Perhaps in your working life you were undiagnosed and wished work colleagues were more aware of shortcomings you might have felt that made it difficult to cope. Or maybe you are presently in the workforce and find yourself having to adapt or make changes to an established way of doing things that got the job done, just not in the way it was intended or explained to you.
For those who were diagnosed and fully aware or still coming to grips with XXY limitations, did your workplace implement changes to your environment which made it easier to do your work, or were you too embarrassed to mention XXY for fear of being ridiculed or made fun of, or worse being made redundant.
When thinking about that experience keep in mind the cognitive challenges 47XXY individuals might experience, such as anxiety, depression, impaired social skills, behavioural problems such as emotional immaturity and impulsivity, attention-deficit/hyperactivity/Inattentive disorder (ADHDi), and limited problem-solving skills (executive functioning). Also how as many as ten percent are on the high end of Autism Spectrum previously classified as Asperger’s.
While we realise all or none of this may apply to you, or that you never experienced any difficulties, the chances are as we progress through life we often find ourselves reflecting back on our lived experience and that some aspect of what we have mentioned did creep into your every day life or did play a significant role except maybe you weren’t aware there was a name for how you were feeling.
Please share with us, your experience and if you could go back in time, what changes would you have implemented so that work was more of a pleasure and not a constant strain of extra effort and wondering if you were good enough.
thexxyproject.org 
I work in IT , where every one has anxiety and impaired social skills ,
My adhd symptoms work well in a high demand IT environment and my lack of memory is helped with a lot of copy pasting . My workplace is not aware that I’m XXY but my work colleagues are .
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Hi David, since my diagnoses of XXY and subsequent ADHD, I had tried several different meds for attention difficulties but found none that worked well enough for me without unwanted side effects, most of which related to increased blood pressure behind my eyes, as well as enhanced memory loss, both of which I found concerning and not least because of pre-existing vision and memory issues. Have you tried any meds for ADHD and if so what has been your experience?
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My current employer doesn’t know how to handle me & have not changed or put in place anything that would assist me.
I have had a few metal issues & got assessed by a medical professional who had no experience with XXY, who in their medical advice could not class my condition as a disability. Which annoyed the hell out me.
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Then you wonder why XXY is sometimes known as the silent syndrome where everything about us is very real, only we don’t tick all the boxes for a binary mindset. I am sorry you had that experience Kenneth, have you, or would you think about raising it with Human Resources and perhaps asking Klinefelter’s Syndrome Association UK to write a support letter for you. I know you are more than capable of writing letter’s yourself, the point is KSAUK is recognised by the health authorities in your country. Outside of that and outside of work, I would go and have an independent test for ADHD as research points to some 80% of XXY’s having that trait.
Additional reading that might resonate with you can be found here https://thexxyproject.org/library/finding-your-way-with-adhd-struggles-supports-and-solutions/ and here https://thexxyproject.org/2019/09/01/dyspraxia-is-more-than-just-clumsy-child-syndrome-it-can-cause-emotional-distress-and-anxiety-throughout-life/
Thank you for leaving a comment.
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