This is something that came up elsewhere.

Do you tell your boss about your anxiety? Should you? I know every situation is different but I'm going to argue, with my employer's hat on, that you should.

There's little worse as an employer than having a good member of staff throwing random 'sickies' just when you need them most. If there's a genuine reason for not being able to make it to work, or being late, or having to leave half way through a shift, then you can, and as an employer I'd argue you should, make genuine exceptions to the rules.

If someone is off, and doesn't tell you the genuine reason and makes something up that's obviously false, or provides no explanation then your options are seriously limited, ultimately it's going to end up with disciplinary action and things are bound to get ugly, probably with only one possible destination. The door.

I know it's hard to tell your employer you're struggling. What if they just decide you're not good employee material, and use it as an excuse to get rid of you? It's possible I suppose but I'm afraid that wasn't a very good boss, and I'd argue that you would ultimately be better off somewhere else anyway. This'd be the sort of boss who wouldn't be understanding about you having to take genuine time off if you needed it, and you're back to heading towards the door again.

Don't forget that your boss has almost certainly been through plenty of stressful situations themselves to get where they are, so there is a good chance they'll recognise your condition from their own experience. If they don't know much about it - maybe they'll value you educating them. You don't make much of a boss if you're not prepared to learn something new!

Don't forget also that you're not going to be the first person they've employed with anxiety, stress, personality disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar , phobia - you name it. I've employed many hundreds of people in my small businesses over the past 20 years. If there's something I've not yet seen among those, I'd be very surprised. People are a diverse bunch, with very different skills, personalities, quirks and ailments. If you think you're the only one they've had, you're going to be mistaken. If they fired everyone who's a bit strange, or who is high maintenance, they'd have no staff left, and they'd be losing some of their best staff.

Finally, your OCD, your attention to detail, your obsessive perfection, your eye for matching patterns and spotting things that are just 'wrong', are possibly the exact skills your boss might want!

What do you think? Anyone had any experiences, good or bad, that might help others? I'd love to hear them.