Work is where OCD costs are most measurable and least visible. Nobody sees the twenty minutes rereading a sent email, the report rewritten four times, the hour lost to rumination at a desk. What they see is someone slow, or late, or strangely reluctant to take on something ordinary.
Where it usually shows up
Checking. Emails reread before sending and after. Numbers verified repeatedly. Work reviewed for an error that will cost someone.
Perfectionism and “just right.” Rewriting until the sentence sits correctly. Formatting that has to be exact. Tasks that can’t be started because they can’t be started properly.
Avoidance and procrastination. Delaying tasks that trigger checking. Not applying for the role. Not making the call. Frequently read by everyone, including the person, as laziness.
Reassurance seeking. Confirming with a manager that it was fine. Asking a colleague to look over something already checked.
Contamination. Shared kitchens, bathrooms, keyboards, handshakes.
What to disclose, and to whom
You aren’t obliged to disclose a diagnosis. In the US, the ADA requires you to disclose a disability only if you want a formal accommodation, and the request goes to HR rather than to your manager — HR need not pass the diagnosis on, only the accommodation.
A middle path many people prefer: describe the functional need without the label. “I work best with written briefs rather than verbal ones” or “I would rather have one review point than open-ended feedback” asks for what helps without opening a conversation you may not want.
Accommodations that help
Written instructions rather than verbal. Clear definitions of done, which is the single most useful accommodation for “just right” presentations, because the standard is set externally rather than by a feeling. Defined deadlines rather than open ones. Flexibility for therapy appointments — and ERP is time-limited, which makes this an easier ask than it sounds.
Accommodations that make it worse
This is the part nobody warns employers about. Being excused from a triggering task is avoidance, institutionalised. A colleague agreeing to double-check your work is accommodation, on a payroll. A manager who provides repeated reassurance about your performance is performing the compulsion.
These feel supportive and they entrench the disorder. Where a temporary accommodation is genuinely needed during a bad period, it’s worth setting it with an end date and telling your clinician about it.
The practical rule that helps most
A hard limit, decided in advance and not renegotiated in the moment: one read-through before sending, one check of the figures, one review. Rules beat judgment precisely when judgment is least reliable, and a rule set on a calm Monday holds better than a decision made at the point of doubt.