Cognitive Functioning Difficulties in the Workplace
Following a stroke or brain injury, individuals may experience a range of physical, cognitive and behavioural changes. Symptoms can be subtle and may only become apparent when attempting complex tasks or returning to work.
Proper workplace support is important for people with these difficulties to succeed professionally.
What is Cognitive Functioning Difficulties?
Following a stroke or brain injury, individuals may experience several types of difficulties, spanning physical, cognitive and behavioural change.
Physical Changes
Alterations in movement and capabilities, such as driving, operating machinery, or working at a desk.
Cognitive Changes
Differences in how people process and store information. Memory may be affected, along with reading ability, time perception, and learning new tasks or remembering to perform certain activities.
Behavioural Changes
Modifications in self-control and motivation. People may struggle in group settings or with sustained focus on single tasks. Concentration and attention difficulties can lead to easy distraction.
Symptoms can be subtle and may only become apparent when attempting complex tasks or returning to work. Proper workplace support is important for people with these difficulties to succeed professionally.
“I really wanted to return to work after my stroke, but I wasn’t prepared for how tiring it would be.”— Andrew, Project Administrator
Andrew’s experience highlights how workplace accommodations like desk modifications and flexible scheduling significantly improve outcomes.
How Can Lexxic Help?
Our chartered psychologists carry out workplace needs assessments that identify practical, individually tailored adjustments — such as desk modifications, flexible scheduling, or memory and organisational aids — to support a successful return to work.
Coaching can also help individuals rebuild confidence, manage fatigue, and develop strategies for concentration and organisation that fit how they work now.
Related Resources
Cognitive difficulties can share overlapping traits with other neurodivergent profiles. Explore related resources below.
Starting With the Do-IT Profiler
For organisations looking to identify needs across a wider workforce, the Do-IT Profiler takes a person-centred approach, looking at an individual's overall strengths and challenges across a range of cognitive areas as well as their wellbeing. It produces an individualised report with personalised guidance and practical workplace tools, dependent on the person's unique spiky profile, without requiring a formal appointment or referral process.
The Profiler does not provide a diagnosis. It provides a starting point: a data-informed view of how someone works best, what they find difficult, and what kind of support is worth exploring further. Where the Profiler indicates a need for more, Lexxic's screening and assessment services provide the natural next step. On this page, we focus on the workplace versions of the Profiler, for individuals in education or other settings, visit the full Do-IT Profiler website.
Every individual’s recovery is different — the right support comes from a proper assessment, not assumptions. The right next step is usually a conversation.
Ready to Make Your Organisation Neurodiversity Smart™?
Talk to our team about how Lexxic can help you build the knowledge, culture, and structures that let every employee — neurodivergent or not — perform at their best.