Everyone communicates and understands the world differently. A workplace brings together many people, each with their own lived experience, and those differences can create friction and frustration.
This is the double empathy problem: when two people experience the world differently, understanding breaks down in both directions at once. The mismatch sits between them, not inside either one, and closing it takes effort from both sides: the effort to communicate so others can understand you, and the effort to understand how others communicate with you.
This document is one side of that effort. It sets out how you communicate and understand, so others know what to expect of you and how best to reach you with the least friction.
The at-a-glance scaffolding: the facts someone needs in the first ten seconds.
- Name and pronouns: [name, pronouns]
- Role: [your role, in one line]
- Working hours and pattern: [when you are reliably reachable, your timezone, any fixed rhythms such as a morning focus block, any lower-capacity days]
- Best ways to reach me, in order: [which channel for what, and what genuinely counts as urgent]
- Response times you can expect: [realistic norms, not aspirations]
The human context that makes the rest of the document legible. Share as much or as little as you want. If you are neurodivergent and want to name it, this is the place. Identity-first ("I am autistic"), person-first ("I have ADHD"), or functional ("I process information differently") are all fine, and naming a diagnosis is never required.
[A short paragraph. Enough that a reader understands where the rest of this document is coming from.]
How your words tend to land, so people can calibrate rather than misread you. Worth naming: how direct or literal you are, whether you use or read subtext, how brief you tend to be, and how much small talk you want. If your style is reliably misread, say what it actually means. This goes both ways, so it is also worth saying what good input looks like from others: how you want requests and information delivered to you.
[Your words here.]
What your face and body do, and what it does or does not mean. Affect that does not track mood is common and very easily misread, so spell it out plainly if it applies to you.
[Your words here.]
How you show up in group settings, and how to read it. Processing time, when you tend to speak, and what your silence means.
[Your words here.]
The environment, rhythm, and inputs that let you do your strongest work, and what costs you. For example: uninterrupted focus blocks, advance notice of change rather than surprises, a clear written goal before a task, lower-stimulation settings for hard thinking, recovery time after high-contact days. Be concrete enough that someone could act on it.
[Your words here.]
How you prefer to handle both directions. This is where working relationships are made or quietly broken, so be concrete.
Receiving: [How you want feedback delivered. For example: direct and specific, in writing or in private, the actual problem stated plainly, and early rather than saved up.]
Giving: [How you tend to give feedback, and how to read it. If you are blunt, say the bluntness is about the work and not the person.]
Your commitments to the reader. Make these promises you can actually keep.
- [A commitment, for example: I will be predictable and consistent, especially around feedback.]
- [Another, for example: I will be honest, and if I cannot answer something I will tell you why.]
Your reasonable asks of a collaborator. Keep these to things that genuinely matter for you to work well.
- [An ask, for example: be candid with me, I would much rather have the real version.]
- [Another, for example: if something I do is not working for you, tell me directly rather than working around it.]
Small, specific, sometimes funny. The things people notice and might misinterpret. Naming them defuses them.
- [A trait and what it means.]
- [Anything practical worth knowing up front: an allergy, a strong tooling preference, a hard scheduling constraint.]
The honest section. Naming your own failure modes builds trust faster than almost anything else, and invites people to help you catch them. Include the early warning sign and how you would like to be flagged.
[Your words here.]
Close the loop. Make it genuinely editable and invite correction.
[A line or two: this is a living document, you will revise it as you learn more about how you work, and you welcome people telling you where it does not match their experience of working with you. Note where it lives and how to suggest a change.]
This template is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0. Copy it, adapt it, and reuse it freely, for any purpose, without permission or attribution.
For a real worked example, see a filled-in version.