Autism in the workplace

13 min readApr 27, 2022

First of all, why to bring this up?

Firstly, because CDC recently reported that 1 in 44 children in the U.S. was diagnosed with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). Moreover, in the IT industry where I come from, the number is significantly higher (around 12%).
Secondly, everyone is talking about diversity and inclusion these days, a topic that has sadly transformed from an innovative collaboration idea into quota preferences given to politically favored minority groups. Yet, no one talks about neurodiversity. Pity!
Lastly, I have done some research, asked some questions, collected some insights, and the results are alarming — most managers have no idea what autism is, nor do they know how to work with autistic people.

To me, it’s of great importance to raise awareness of this topic, especially in the IT industry. Neurodivergent people are everywhere around us, although most of them remain misjudged and labeled with titles related to disciplinary measurements.

Many managers think that you can’t possibly be autistic if you can speak, schedule a meeting, or organize an event. Nonsense!

Categorically, the issue is not only related to autism — there are other kinds of neurodivergent variations, such as ADHD, schizophrenia, Tourette syndrome, and bipolar disorder to name a few. Unlike ethnicity, where the reason for discrimination is easily identifiable, cognitive differences are harder to pinpoint, as neurodivergent people appear normal most of the time. Moreover, hiring them requires specific adjustments and that’s something companies are loath to carry out in the false assumption that accommodating them will be either too expensive or too hard.

“I know how this may sound, but we don’t hire people with a disorder. Because if we would, and later, for any reason, we would decide to let this person go, he/she could sue us for discrimination. You have no idea how difficult it is to get rid of these people.” An HR manager from a digital agency

I know an autistic person, a very skilled UX designer, who had failed 17 interviews in a row after he admitted that he had autism, although a high-functioning one. Therefore, he stopped bringing it up, got hired, was expected to fit in, invested a great deal of energy trying to get along with the system, and burned out in a few months.

“Explain that dailies are mandatory and their breakfast can be adjusted, as it’s much easier for them to move their breakfast than moving the meeting for everyone else. If after this talk the issue persists, I would bring the topic back and ensure that they understand this is not up to discussion.” A scrum master when asked how to deal with someone who must have his breakfast ritual at the time the team has a daily meeting.

As a manager, you can’t expect that people will start opening up about their disorders if your environment doesn’t provide consistent support. If you run an engineering company, scientific research, or a digital agency, it’s almost certain that there is at least one autistic person around you. And once you start seeing the patterns, it is shocking how many people match them.

To understand autism, we need to go back to its very definition. Then, we are going to cover a few generic traits that are to be found among most autistic people, and finally, we are going to unfold a few recommendations for what managers should and shouldn’t do.

Let’s set out to discover what autism is.

What is autism?

From a medical standpoint (ICD-10 classification), it’s a legitimate disease with a diagnosis code F84.5. However, as I’m gonna unfold, it should not be treated as such.

There is still extensive research on the matter, yet the causes are still not well understood. Some studies suggest that there is a link that prenatal exposure to pesticides or allergy to cow’s milk causes autism, yet it has never been proven. What has been proven, though, is that autism is not caused by vaccination.

Genetic mutations led the brain to develop differently. Recent studies uncovered that the autistic brain has a lack of synaptic pruning that filters out sensual input. Moreover, there is short-range over-connectivity and long-range under-connectivity. The former finding means that autistic people experience the world in a very intense way, and the latter suggests difficulties to assimilate information from different parts of the brain (e.g., engaging in a small talk), yet the ability to focus on specific tasks is significantly reinforced.

No two autistic people are the same. Autism is a spectrum with three levels of severity. We are going to focus on the high-functioning one, as these people are most likely to be found in a common working environment.

As the label suggests, social abnormalities are noticeable when stressed. Therefore, the expectations for them to blend in the society are the same as for neurotypicals. Having no choice but pretending to be normal and overloading brain machinery may and will eventually result in anxiety, depression, and burnout, if left unchecked.

Side note: the former label for high-functioning autism was Asperger syndrome, which is now outdated. Yet, Aspie is still a widely accepted slang term for autistic people.

Important Lesson: Autism should not be treated as a disease

The spectrum only tells how well Aspies can cope with the standards and expectations of society. Many organizations only engage in interventions that seek to make autistic people look neurotypical, or worse — trying to find a cure for autism, much in the way people seek a cure for cancer. For many Aspies, though, it forms a part of their identity.

“Autism is not a disability. It’s a different ability.” Stuart Duncan
“Autism can’t define me, only I can define autism.” Kerry Magro

Speaking about autism awareness, there are two symbols — an infinity symbol and a puzzle piece symbol. There is still an ongoing debate on the matter, yet the infinity symbol is more preferred, as the puzzle piece is thought to suggest that autistic people are handicapped by a puzzling condition, or that they are too puzzling to fit in. Keep this in mind.

“I do not suffer from autism. I suffer from the way people treat me.” Tyler Durdin
“When I started opening up about my diagnosis, the most common response I received was ‘I hope you won’t start using this as an excuse.’ Sarah Kurchak

We can find many famous people around the world who are autistic. Anthony Hopkins received his diagnosis in his 70s. Satoshi Tajiri, the maker of the world of Pokémon, who was obsessed with collecting bugs in his childhood, has autism. Andy Warhol and Tim Burton are believed to have autism. Greta Thunberg is a textbook-perfect example of what high-functioning autism looks like. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, although none has received any official diagnosis, were highly suspected to be on the spectrum too.

How to identify autistic people?

I think we’ve ruined the human system by tabulating everything. People are so quick to add labels to humans and their behaviors these days. Anthony Hopkins

Labeling people is a very bad practice that mostly serves their managers to punish them and make them work harder. Autistic people who aren’t provided with the support they need will accumulate labels and misjudgments — weird, rude, stupid, stubborn, not able to fit. None of their behaviors are done to be rude or unwelcoming and they can’t force themselves to stop it. It requires prior training and great managerial skills to deal with it. Put simply, it’s a clash of a neurotypical and an autistic brain where behavioral and social patterns of the former don’t translate to the latter.

As said, autism is a spectrum, no two autistic people are the same. Yet, there are some near-universal traits that, at least in a minor extent, occur in most Aspies. Let’s cover some of them:

Tunneling

If an autistic person loves a subject, they may think you would love it as well. You have to understand that this behavior is not them being rude, it’s just them misinterpreting your neurotypical mind.

Meltdowns

This trait is very serious. Autistic people experience things called meltdowns — sensory overload can bring them to the point where they are not able to function. There are many causes:

socially challenging situations
loud noises in the office (linked to the fact that the brain has difficulties filtering out sensual input)
not enough recovery time between meetings
unpredictable environment (meetings without prior notice)

“We wrapped and I was asked to say a few words in front of the crew and I just could not do it. It was just one of those days. So, I didn’t say anything.” David Sandberg, a movie director with ASD. Watch the full video here.

The situation David Sandberg experienced is very common. In one of my former jobs, we had a newcomer who did admit that he had autism. His manager, however, didn’t take it into consideration. Instead, during his day 1, when the whole office gathered in one room and the manager would announce major updates like every other Monday, he asked the newcomer to introduce himself and say a few words. Out of the blue.

Just imagine — in an instant, over 30 people turning their heads towards this one person. This would be a very challenging situation even for introverts.

Highly-developed areas of interest

Ritualistic patterns or special interests in particular activities are very common. This may cause issues in project planning, especially when the person doesn’t have enough freedom to decide on what tasks to pick up.

Aspies can get a strong urge to hyper-focus on things that interest them and their productivity can sky-rocket. However, they also have a really hard time abandoning these tasks.

Repetitive patterns of behavior

Aspies use calming actions called stimming such as hand-flapping, spinning, or switching lights on and off. They do it instinctively for stress reduction and sensory stimulation.

Black and white thinking

Black and white thinking, along with a highly-defined sense of justice, may become very dangerous in a corporate environment, especially when it forces the employees to adjust to processes that don’t make any logical sense.

Imagine someone from the board making contradicting statements during all-hands ceremonies. What happens? Most employees will get over it or make some complaints in a few anonymous surveys. Aspies, however, will suffer. Their sense of logic is very strong and if something breaks their internal equations, it will trigger a great amount of stress.

Acting childish

However funny it may sound… well, it is funny 😂😆🤣, to imagine someone over 30 who still play with Lego or sleep with stuffed animals. Yet, in a corporate environment, it looks unprofessional and may affect promotion prospects. There are still engineering companies that practice strict dress codes and etiquette rules Aspies are incognizant to. And these companies constantly complain about why it is so hard to find good engineers to work there. Go figure.

Lack of natural social instincts

A lot of autistic behavioral patterns is the result of intense study, not natural social instincts. They might find it very difficult to interpret body language — facial expressions, body posture, or gestures. This affliction results in receiving labels such as rude or selfish. They might also have difficulties understanding sarcasm, idioms, or hint-dropping.

When exposed to an unpredictable situation, such as small talk or chit-chat, their brain will run 100 miles per hour, trying to search their database for rehearsed responses while controlling dozens of other systems including their posture, eye contact, and tone of voice. Also, every once in a while, they may say something that will upset or even alienate everyone around them, although they meant no offense.

Therefore, they are fully dependent on what their listeners interpret, not what they meant.

“We are breaking social rules, without recognizing the negative reaction of neurotypicals who don’t know that we are merely trying to fit into their world, and mean no offense.” Roland Stone
“Autism is like getting sprayed with people repellent.” Emma Harris

Special skills

Sauce aside, every cloud has a silver lining, and Aspies possess quite a few unique skills in which they thrive more than neurotypicals. They are skilled in analytics, pattern recognition, information processing, or unique design thinking. Additional strengths include extreme loyalty, increased concentration levels, and great time management. Give an Aspie a problem and he/she will improvise a solution others might have missed.

Hiring autistic people is not a charity. It can be a true business opportunity. Employers like Freddie Mac, SAP, Apple, and Microsoft already recognize some of the strengths of autistic people and started hiring them for well-suited roles.

What can I do as a manager?

The overall problem is a lack of preparedness and shallow understanding. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, yet we can outline a few recommendations to consider. Once an Aspie is on the job, they will need some adjustments made to their working environment, and their manager must be prepared for it.

1) You need to understand the characteristics of ASD.
Don’t expect them to admit that they have autism.
2) You need to understand the benefits of hiring individuals with ASD.
When provided with the right working conditions, they can become the best contributors you ever wished for.
3) You need to understand what you should and shouldn’t do as a manager, interviewer, and co-worker.
Autistic people are vulnerable targets to manipulation and bullying. There will always be assholes who take advantage of someone’s sensory weakness and exploit it whenever they want to control them.

Autistic people need a safe, predictable environment

Predictable means that they will know what will happen, when, and in what order. Just try to recall — when was the last time you were invited to a meeting on short notice with no outlined agenda? Happens all the time.

Safe means that there are no distractions in the office and no loud noises. If it’s an open space, there must be some spots/rooms where everyone can have some privacy, especially when they need to recover from a meeting.

The job should be performance-based

Don’t leave them to their own devices. The job must be well-measured to reinforce motivation.

Never say “Don’t stress out”

Just imagine how ridiculous this sentence sounds. Saying “Don’t stress out” is like saying “Stop being allergic to walnuts.” If the brain just decides to flood the bloodstream with stress hormones, there is nothing much we can do about it, is there?

Never say “You aren’t that autistic”

Autism is nearly impossible to identify visually, and you simply don’t know what happens in their heads when they need to spend half of their energy pretending to be normal and another half carefully evaluating all sensory inputs.

Use direct language

Communicate clearly, concisely, and candidly. Don’t use common managerial tactics like compliment sandwich, sugar-coating, or destructive criticism, as it will only cause confusion.

Make clear expectations

Again, don’t leave them to their own devices. Don’t make assumptions and double-check that everything was understood. Communicate often and make sure they have everything they need. Be patient if they don’t pick things up straight away.

Be mindful of their recovery cycles

Some Aspies will need help with energy accounting — enough time between two consecutive meetings, careful preparation for socially challenging events, and the like. You should also ensure that there is enough balance between the activities that drain them and the ones that energize them.

Conclusion

I have found managers to be very cruel or indifferent in their comments and actions towards autism. When you tell Aspies to change or fix their autistic behavior, it really hurts because they simply can’t.

“A disability is usually defined in terms of what is missing. But autism is as much about what is abundant as what is missing, an over-expression of the very traits that make our species unique.” Paul Collins

Autistic people have been constantly underestimated throughout their lives. That’s why changing our approach to be more inclusive for hiring and day-to-day work is important for getting the best contributors on the job. When Aspies feel safe and accepted everyone benefits.

Make autism company-wide conversation. See them, hear them, support them. Don’t use them as tokens that your company is inclusive.

“Try and show us the same grace we show to you as we attempt to fit in and live around a rigid system and the inflexibly neurotypical world”. Greg Burns

There are so many amazing things about the intense way they perceive the world they can share with us. Accept them for what they are, provide them with the accommodations they need, and your effort will be rewarded by getting the best people you ever dreamed of.

“Get to know someone on the spectrum and your life will truly be blessed.” Stephanie L. Parker