How to Support Someone With OCD at Work (From Someone Who Has It)

The short answer

Believe them. Ask what helps. Keep it confidential. Then make small, practical changes and check in regularly. Most of what helps someone with OCD at work costs nothing.

OCD affects around 1 to 2% of people, according to OCD Action. So in a business of a few hundred people, it's very likely someone is quietly living with it right now.

I've had OCD for most of my life. I lost the best part of a decade to it. The moment things started to turn was at work, when a manager asked me a question and then backed up the answer. So this is the guide I wish every manager had.

What OCD is, and what it isn't

OCD is not being a bit tidy. It's not liking your pens lined up. If someone in your team says "I'm so OCD" about their desk, that's not it.

The NHS describes OCD as two parts:

• Obsessions. Unwanted, intrusive thoughts, images or urges that keep coming back and cause real distress. Fear of causing harm. Fear of contamination. Disturbing thoughts the person would never act on.
• Compulsions. Things the person feels driven to do to make the anxiety go away. Checking, washing, counting, seeking reassurance, or silently repeating words in their head. The relief is short-lived, and the cycle starts again.

The bit managers most need to understand is that much of it is invisible. A lot of OCD happens inside someone's head. You might just see someone who's slower, distracted, exhausted, or checking their work again and again.

I'm not a clinician. For the clinical picture, the NHS and OCD Action are the places to go. What I can tell you is what it looks like from the inside.

What it looked like for me at work

For years, I was in and out of work. Temporary roles, bits and pieces, anything I could hold down for a few months before my head took the legs out from under me again. I wanted to work. The will was there. The wiring wasn't yet.

Nobody around me would have known why. From the outside, I was just a lad who didn't stick at things. Inside, the thoughts were going round all day, every day.

Then, at Sky Betting and Gaming, my manager Rick walked up behind me, put a hand on my shoulder and said, "Are you OK? I'm worried about you."

I burst into tears at my desk.

Rick took me straight into a room. Everything came out. The thoughts going back and forth all day. Not being able to think. Barely sleeping. A constant headache. By the end of that conversation, he'd signed me off for three months. Paid. No conditions.

I'd spent a decade expecting stigma, silence, or being quietly managed out of the door. What I got was somebody asking the second question, and then putting the company behind the answer.

That conversation was the start of my way back. A few years later, that same company was the first place I ever told my story on stage.

What managers get wrong

None of these come from bad intentions. They still hurt.

• Joking about it. "I'm a bit OCD too" feels like empathy. To someone living with it, it shrinks something that's taken years of their life into a personality quirk.
• Giving endless reassurance. It feels kind to say "it's fine, you definitely locked it" for the tenth time. But reassurance can become part of the compulsion. Support the person, not the loop.
• Treating slowness as a performance problem. Rechecking work can be part of OCD. OCD Action is clear that employers shouldn't discipline someone for delays caused by their condition.
• Micromanaging or singling them out. Watching someone more closely after they've disclosed tells them they were wrong to speak up.
• Asking for proof. You don't need a diagnosis letter to start a supportive conversation.
• Telling the team without asking. What they told you is theirs. Keep it confidential unless they say otherwise.

What actually helps

Most adjustments for OCD are small, cheap and quick. These come from Acas and OCD Action.

One point from the Acas case study is worth remembering: what helps one day might not help the next. Keep it flexible, and keep checking in.

The legal bit

Under the Equality Act 2010, OCD can count as a disability if it has a substantial, long-term effect on someone's day-to-day life. If it does, you have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments. Acas and your HR team can advise on the specifics. Either way, the conversation should start with support, not with whether you legally have to.

When someone tells you: the first conversation

This is the moment that matters most. Rick got it right with me, so here's what that looked like, step by step.

1. Notice, and ask. "Are you OK? I'm worried about you." If they say they're fine and you're not convinced, ask again. The second question is often the one that gets the real answer.
2. Go somewhere private. Rick took me straight into a room. Don't have this conversation at a desk.
3. Listen more than you talk. You don't need to understand OCD to listen. You don't need to fix it either.
4. Believe them. Even if the thoughts they describe sound strange to you. They know that already. That's part of what makes it so hard.
5. Ask what would help. They're the expert on their own OCD. Start there.
6. Signpost. Their GP, your employee assistance programme, and OCD Action are good places to start.
7. Agree a next step and follow up. A date in the diary to check in says "I meant it".

And if you can, do what Rick did. Put the organisation behind the answer.

Helping your whole team understand OCD

Supporting one person is the start. The bigger win is a workplace where the next person doesn't wait ten years to speak up, like I did.

• Train your managers. Mental Health First Aid gives people the confidence to have that first conversation.
• Use the key dates. OCD Awareness Week each October and World Mental Health Day on 10 October are natural moments to talk about it.
• Write it into your policies. Make it clear that people can ask for adjustments for mental health, not just physical health.
• Hear it from someone who's lived it. A talk from someone with lived experience can do in an hour what a policy document never will. It gives people the words.

That last one is what I do. I talk honestly about OCD, anxiety, depression and ADHD, to organisations from Microsoft and Burberry to the NHS. I'm also a qualified Mental Health First Aid instructor. And every booking funds assemblies in a school of your choice, so the next generation hears it earlier than I did.

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