By far the most common complaint from support groups for people with sleep disorders is the sheer lack of respect people have for different sleep schedules. We get called lazy even when we work past midnight. By coworkers, and even family.

The usual advice is to find a different job with actually flexible scheduling or night shifts, for good reason.

You have no idea how many neurodiverse and chronically ill people in your company are trying to pass for normal.

Our fixation on “normal” makes people resist getting help that would make their lives easier and possibly make it easier for them to be “out”.

You have no idea what your coworkers are struggling with. I found out one had stage 4 cancer by asking why it was taking him so long to fix a problem. I’ve had exactly one coworker in >20 years who was open about being on the autism spectrum, and people were weird about it.

Nobody wants to be defined by these things so they don’t bring them up.