What Masking My Disability at Work Cost Me (and the Business I Built When I Stopped)

At Microsoft, I walked into every meeting already knowing exactly what I was going to say. I had memorized it, because I couldn’t count on reading what was in front of me. My screen fonts were set larger than anyone else’s. My desk was covered in printouts, color-coded and filed, with a paper trail for everything.

Nobody asked why. That was the point.

I’m legally blind. I’m also Autistic and ADHD (AuDHD). For years, I hid both, because I didn’t want people to feel sorry for me.

From the outside, I was doing well. Over 12 years in operations at Microsoft, Zillow, and T-Mobile, I earned my PMP and built systems for teams that couldn’t afford dropped balls. Nobody knew how much energy went into making sure no one saw how I did it.

What masking a disability at work looked like

The printouts, the color coding, and the memorized talking points weren’t quirks. They were workarounds, and every one cost time nobody saw. I prepared longer than anyone knew so no one would see me struggle to read something in the moment.

My AuDHD added a second layer. I could finish in 2 days what a project plan gave a week. Then I needed days to recover. I told no one about either half.

I also stayed quiet about what I was seeing in the business. I spotted broken processes and risks early, and I kept most of it to myself. Speaking up meant being seen, and being seen felt risky.

I wasn’t hiding my work. I was hiding how it happened.

You might recognize this

Masking rarely looks dramatic. It looks like being capable and tired at the same time. You might be doing it when:

• You’d rather overprepare for hours than let anyone feel sorry for you.
• Your work comes in bursts, and you hide the recovery afterward.
• You’ve built private workarounds no one on your team knows exist.
• You notice problems early and stay quiet so you don’t seem difficult.
• You’re exhausted from looking like you have it together.

None of this means something is wrong with you. It means your business is running on a version of you that takes a lot of energy to maintain.

The hidden cost of masking at work

Six Sigma taught me that the costliest problems in a business are the ones that never show up in a report. Rework nobody logs. Delays nobody measures.

Masking was mine. It cost me recovery days I disguised as something else. It cost me a clear view of my own value, because I only let people see the smoothed-out version. And it brought me close to giving up on myself.

Looking back with an operations lens, my workarounds were good systems: documentation, visual management, preparation. The problem was that I ran them in secret, so I paid for them twice. Once to build them, and again to hide them.

Why I stopped hiding

Earning my MBA changed the question I was asking. I learned about attention residue, the mental drag that follows you each time you switch tasks. Performing steady all day, while working around what I couldn’t see, was a constant switch.

I also realized the skills I’d built in operations were exactly what founders like me needed, and that I wanted to use them outside a model that required hiding. In October 2024, I earned my Six Sigma Black Belt and founded Strategic Sound Consulting.

Building neurodivergent business systems around how I see and work

I kept the systems and dropped the secrecy. I still color code. I still keep a paper trail for everything. Now it’s out in the open, and it’s how I run my business.

Mondays are my CEO Days, with no meetings unless there’s no way around it. I keep a heads-down block at the same time every day and a weekly recovery day. Voice notes are my default way to capture ideas. When my nervous system says an event is done, I leave.

My clients now get the paper trail. Every system I build has to work for someone who can’t skim, so every engagement includes written findings within 3 business days, recorded sessions, one-page guides, and an intake that asks how each founder works best before I build anything. Every engagement also starts with a diagnostic, so the plan follows what’s breaking instead of a template.

Marcus, a tech consultant I worked with, put it this way: “Jenica helped me stop running my business like a neurotypical person.” Once his systems fit how he works, he reached consistent $12,000+ months.

Your hidden cost audit

When you’re ready to look at what you might be carrying, start with three questions:

1. Where am I performing steady when my work comes in waves?
2. What am I seeing in my business that I haven’t said out loud?
3. Which workaround am I running in secret that could become a real system?

Pick one answer this week and design one system around the real you. When you find a workaround and aren’t sure how to turn it into a real system, that’s the work I do with founders every day. A free strategy call is a good place to start.

Masking kept me safe for a while. Building around who I am is what built my business.

I’m Jenica Norris, founder of Strategic Sound Consulting. I spent 12 years leading operations at Microsoft, Zillow, and T-Mobile, and I hold an MBA, a PMP, and a Six Sigma Black Belt. I’m legally blind and AuDHD, and I help ADHD and neurodivergent founders build businesses around how they work, not how they’re expected to.

• Book a free 30-minute strategy call. You’ll leave knowing which part of your business is costing you the most, one concrete next step, and an honest read on fit.
• Start with the free FOCUS Framework.
• Learn more about my work.

Related article by Jenica Norris:

‍Why Most ADHD Founders Accidentally Build Businesses That Can’t Run Without Them