The cost of transparency: Living with schizoaffective disorder in tech

Sigh. I too would like to know an employer that can accomodate unpredictable performance or a partner willing to do emotional labor.

"Schizoaffective disorder is a mental health condition that is marked by a mix of schizophrenia symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions, and mood disorder symptoms, such as depression, mania and a milder form of mania called hypomania. Hallucinations involve seeing things or hearing voices that others don't observe. Delusions involve believing things that are not real or not true."

I'm not sure this is an employable condition unfortunately. As progressive as anyone wants to be, I can see the disruption an illness like this causes not being tenable. Businesses are competitive entities, not machines for inclusion. My heart goes out to OP but I don't think I'd want him on my team either.

Also, there’s usually more than one side of the story.

I work for an organization that is supportive of employees. I managed someone with this diagnosis, who was a fabulous colleague for several years. Then stuff happened. We ended up in a situation where there were significant personal safety concerns. That’s not the situation here, but without the framework of support for both the employee and the people around them, these situations become untenable.

As for unpredictable performance, employers never want to have that. But it is possible if you have your own business or consultancy. Or if you work with art and creativity, where it is the norm to have ups and downs.

The Python community didn’t exclude Kenneth because of his condition, at least directly. They excluded him because of his actions and history of shady, manipulative behaviors.

And while workplaces should be accommodating, there’s a point where it gets to be too much.

I worked at a place with a person with similar behaviors and it destroyed that company because they refused to acknowledge reality: this was a business, not a care facility.

One thing is clear: Kenneth is suffering. I hope that he is able to see his behavior from the outside and heal. He’s a great programmer who ships products.

For those who don’t know, Kenneth created the Requests library which is nearly ubiquitous in the Python world.