Schizoid Personality Disorder is a typically less-known mental health condition within the group of personality disorders. It is defined as “a chronic and pervasive condition characterized by social isolation and feelings of indifference toward other people”.

The main symptoms of the mental health disorder include: 

  • Preoccupation with introspection and fantasy
  • Indifference to positive or negative feedback
  • Emotional detachment 
  • Social withdrawal 
  • Difficulty or disinterest in making connections with others
  • Inappropriate reactions to social situations

Due to the nature of the disorder, many people with SPD are misunderstood by those around them. Many people may misunderstand those around with the personality disorder and draw away from them further. 

It is common for people with schizoid personality disorder to struggle to find and/or maintain a job. Particularly so if this job has a lot of social interaction and people skills required. Many people with the disorder may prefer to spend a lot of time alone, which isn’t conducive to success in many careers. 

However, with the right support and assistance, it is very possible for people with schizoid personality disorder to find a job where they are happy and fulfilled. It is also possible for employers to support people with this condition to ensure their well-being at work. On this page, we are going to provide support for both sides of this equation. 

Support for Employees with Schizoid Personality Disorder

Here are our tips for employees living with schizoid personality disorder:

  • Disclose your disability. It might be easy but once you disclose your personality disorder to your employer, you can make the most of the support available to you. 
  • Seek flexible, hybrid and remote roles. If you prefer to work alone, all or some of the time, there are work models that can support this. Look for the range of roles available before you settle for an environment where you won’t be happy. 
  • Seek external help for your condition. If you have a personality disorder, make sure you are consistently seeking external help for this. Whether this is in the form of a community mental health team, counsellor, or holistic practitioner, make sure you are getting the support you need on a long-term basis. 

How Employers Can Help Employees with Personality Disorders

For our next section, let’s explore how employers might do their part to help those with this specific personality disorder:

  • Be open to listening to and taking the time to understand your employees and their specific symptoms. Never assume you know better than someone who is dealing with the condition themselves. 
  • Make your employees aware of reasonable adjustments and deal with all requests efficiently. If you need financial help with this, consult the Access to Work scheme. 
  • Appoint HR members of staff to appropriately deal with absences and return to work procedures. Make sure all of these issues are handled with great care and respect. 
  • Undertake training and learning, and allow the same resources to be available for the rest of your team. Promote awareness of certain mental health conditions, including schizoid personality disorder. 
  • Signpost your employees to external help and make helpful resources easily visible and available to them. Make sure there are options for crisis and emergency help available too, as people with personality disorders can frequently experience suicidal ideation and self-harm-related behaviour. 

What We Can Do 

At Careers with Disabilities, we believe in disabled jobseekers. We want to help every disabled person find a job that they want, in an environment where they are supported, with an employer who respects their needs. 

As such, we have plenty of resources available for disabled job seekers to find the support they need throughout their job search and their career life going forward. We also have a live disability-friendly job board on which you can find the best job opportunity for you if you are disabled. 

To double down on this support, we also have a range of services for employers available. These services can help employers become as inclusive as possible and then connect with disabled job seekers. You can check out the services we offer employers right here and work your way up to posting on our disability-friendly job board yourself. 

Whatever disabled people need to find the job of their dreams, we have it at Careers with Disabilities.

See you over on the main site!

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