Asperger's on the Job: Must-Have Advice for People With Asperger's or High Functioning Autism, and Their Employers, Educators, and Advocates (3 page)

     a.  the diagnosis and understanding of AS to know what they needed from an employer, or

     b.  an employer who was willing to listen and to make the easy but crucial adjustments to accommodate them.

This book will help the person with AS understand and ask for what they need, and it will show the employer how easy it is to give them what they need—which often involves doing
less
rather than more.

Over a seven-month period, more than fifty adults with Asperger’s were interviewed for this book hailing from all over America, and other countries such as Japan, Ireland, England, France, and Australia. They were asked to describe their work experiences in their own words: their successes, their failures, and what they felt they needed to succeed in employment. They all had very similar experiences and wishes, regardless of whether they barely made it through high school or had postgraduate degrees, and no matter what color their collar was. In addition to this anecdotal information, many others were contacted: psychologists, autism cause-and-cure researchers, government disability benefit agencies, university disability offices, as well as founders of Asperger’s education/work-study programs. They provided information on the latest research, statistics, laws, rights, programs, and other such information pertaining to all aspects of Asperger’s Syndrome, most notably, employment. I would like to thank all of them for their participation. I would also like to give a special nod of thanks to Dr. Nichols, who graciously shared her expertise; to Roger N. Meyer, who gave me much-needed encouragement during the final stretch; and to Dr. Temple Grandin, whose heart and wit are as great as her intellect.

The Advantages of Asperger’s Syndrome in the Workplace

T
he question everyone asks is “why would an employer hire someone for whom he/she has to make special accommodation?”

First, the ASD population is growing in numbers.
So much so, that avoiding hiring someone with AS is nearly infeasible for larger businesses or certain fields. Some experts believe that, due to these rising numbers, it is now necessary to provide employers with autism awareness training, similar to how sexual harassment training is required.

Second, people with AS by and large have to work, and to find and maintain employment without significant support.
Financial benefits are very hard to obtain, at least in the U.S., because in most states one would have to be
mentally retarded
to be eligible for state or federally-funded
assistance programs designed for people with
developmental
disabilities. Also, there are still very few vocational support services for people with Asperger’s and other ASDs.

Third and most importantly, the gifts and abilities that many with AS possess far outweigh the relatively minor inconvenience of making adjustments
, which have more to do with mindset than anything else.

What are these gifts, how do we use them, and how can they sometimes work against us?

1. Focus and diligence
   . The Aspergian ability to focus on tasks for a long period of time without needing supervision or incentive is legendary. We are hard workers. The downside of this trait is that we can be focusing on the wrong things or getting so involved in what we enjoy doing that other things fall by the wayside. If our passion is not our vocation, we who have Asperger’s may neglect actually making money.
   
2. We take pride in our work
   , no matter how small the task. This ensures a job done with conscience. But again, if money is not a big motivating factor, then a person may do work because they like it, rather than for decent pay or a living wage. And at some point, if the work isn’t meaningful, enthusiasm will wane.
   
3. A desire to please
   . While it may not always seem so, we often really do desire to fit in. We will extend ourselves to do a good job, to get approval.
   
4. Independent, unique thinking
   . People with AS march to their own drum. We tend to spend a lot of time alone and develop our own unique thoughts as opposed to having a “herd” mentality. While a team-player attitude can be a plus in the workplace, a person who has the courage to walk their own line will more likely come up with novel and creative ideas.
   
5. Higher fluid intelligence
   . Scientists in Japan have recently discovered that AS children have a higher
   fluid intelligence
   than non-autistic children (Hayashi, Kato, Igarashi, Kashima 2008). Fluid intelligence is “the ability to find meaning in confusion and solve new problems; the ability to draw inferences and understand the relationships of various concepts, independent of acquired knowledge” (Wikipedia 2009). We do not however, have a higher
   crystallized
   intelligence—which is the ability to apply acquired knowledge and skills. Think of us as strongly intuitive, intelligent in a sixth-sense kind of way, in some cases genius, but perhaps lacking in certain areas of common sense.
   

   “The boss referred to me as ‘the corporation’s mad genius’ and then said he meant it ‘in a good way.’”
   

   - LEWIS, BA HISTORY, 51, UNEMPLOYED
   

6. Visual, three-dimensional thinking.
   Some people with AS are very visual in their thought processes, which lends itself to countless useful and creative applications in the work environment. Temple Grandin, author of
   Thinking in Pictures
   (1995, 2006), is perhaps the most famous visual thinker on the spectrum. She is able to visualize large-scale projects, draw up blueprints, and then accurately test-run them in her mind before they are built.
   
7. Attention to detail,
   sometimes with painstaking perfection, again ensuring a job well done. One flipside of this can be wanting to spend more time on a task than an employer or coworkers might wish.
   

   “I got far too involved with talking about and notating every detail of the conversation with my customer. I had very long calls but did the best job for that reason.”
   

   - MIA, 40, UNEMPLOYED
   

8. Honesty
   . The value of being able to say “the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes” should not be underestimated, even if it’s not what people want to hear. This can make a person unpopular. Sometimes it manifests as brutal honesty, and lacking in tact or thought of consequences.
   
9. Logic over emotion
   . Although people with AS can be very sensitive, we spend so much time “computing” in our minds that we get quite good at it. We can be very logical in our approach to problem-solving. Of course there are times, even in business, that a more empathic, emotion-driven response is called for.
   

What are your or your employee’s positive qualities?

Are you currently using them to your advantage?

T
he general public has little idea what autism really is, and even less about Asperger’s. They don’t know how it presents, or what it looks like. People are shocked when they see an attractive or intelligent person who announces they are on the spectrum—as if we are always talking to ourselves or twirling in circles. While some with AS are more obviously affected, it is harder to spot in others. For brief periods of time, many with Asperger’s Syndrome can appear completely non-autistic and “normal.” But many (myself included) say that it exhausts them to do so and they can’t keep it up for long. If a person is “on” at a particular day or time, no one might ever guess that they were autistic. And even when we do act “different,” autism is not the label that springs to mind. Awkward, rude, nervous, shy, strange, slow, arrogant: these are the types of labels that often get pinned on us.

While at times there may be some apparent anomalies in our manner, expression, or gait, the general rule is that you can’t tell by just looking whether or not someone has Asperger’s. Hence, it is often called the “invisible syndrome.” Idiosyncratic behavior is occasional, and it is usually triggered by social or environmental things.

If you are an employer, you may have hired someone who impressed you with their skills, their resume, and their qualities, and then, as time passes, they cause you to wonder. They may seem to lack common sense or people skills. They might be the most efficient or hardworking person on your staff but also, perhaps, the most abrasive at times. They may withdraw from coworkers and acquire a “reputation” as a result. The more you try to talk to them about or question their behavior, the more withdrawn, even sullen, they might get. You then become suspicious or confused, and wonder if you were fooled or lied to at their interview. You may think that they don’t like the job. Often that is not the case; social and environmental factors will be the cause of this behavior and, as you read on, you will come to know exactly what those factors are.

People with Asperger’s seem to fall into one of two camps regarding interviews and first impressions. They either interview very poorly, and have difficulty getting jobs they qualify for because of it, or else they interview really well and have little difficulty obtaining jobs. That is because the interview is a short performance; it is keeping the job that will be difficult. You may be dazzled at the interview by this employee, and then wonder at the difference in them as the days and weeks go by. Most people with AS will agree with the statement “familiarity breeds contempt,” for as time passes, their AS behaviors will have begun to be witnessed, provoking a reaction from coworkers that can range from bemused, to condescending, to hostile. A person with AS who carries him- or herself professionally, gracefully and who has achieved things academically and in their career, has had to struggle to do so. The very fact that they appear “normal” is a good thing, an achievement, but should not be an indication that they do not have Asperger’s or that they do not struggle. Some of the leaders in the field of AS research and education are highly intelligent, eloquent people who have AS, or were even
diagnosed with classic autism as children. Through a myriad of methods such as observation; support from family, friends, therapists, organizations; reading; research; etc., they have come to the place of “normalcy” that they now occupy. But it has not been easy for them and most likely remains a situation of constant focus, effort, and vigilance.

“In most people’s minds, a disability is something you can see plainly, something tangible. Asperger’s, sadly, doesn’t fall into that category, and beyond knowing of it, most employers have very little understanding of what it entails, with a degree of ignorance similar to that shown to dyslexics years ago.”

- SEAN, 29, UK, FILM STUDENT

One situation many with AS encounter is that they are often told they don’t seem autistic, or that their struggles are no different than anyone else’s. AJ Mahari, an Asperger’s Syndrome educator who lives in Canada, says this on the subject:

One thing I hear sometimes from people is, “You don’t seem like you have Asperger’s” or “it doesn’t seem like you have it that bad.” Maybe that’s good; but sometimes it feels invalidating, a little less than respectful of my life experience and what I struggle with. ...Really what’s behind that is a tremendous legacy of work. If you only knew what I have had to map out, read about, learn, study, analyze, process, slice and dice, and put back together in my own way; I mean, virtually everything. I’ve had to do a lot of work to be able to do what I do. (2009)

Asperger’s was not recognized by the American Psychiatric Association (entered into the DSM-IV) until 1994. Prior to that, people with AS were either undiagnosed, or worse, misdiagnosed and put on medications such as Ritalin for conditions they did not have. They will not have had the understanding, support, and training that youngsters with AS are now beginning to receive. AS adults have had to come up through life and learn
by their own tenacity, ingenuity, and mettle. This in itself will show you what strength, intelligence, adaptability, and problem-solving skills most of us possess. Currently, all over the world, adults of all ages are receiving their first correct diagnosis, and breathing a sigh of relief as they realize they are
not
difficult, crazy, or alone ... that there
is
a name for what they have.

A word on diagnosis:
If a person has not been diagnosed by a doctor (i.e., they are self-diagnosed), don’t assume it is for lack of trying:

• In the U.S., diagnoses can be
  very
  expensive ($800-$2000) and are often not covered by insurance.
  
• Nearly half the Americans interviewed for this book had no health insurance anyway.
  
• It is important that a diagnosis be given by someone who has, as Dr. Barbara Nichols put it, “comprehensive knowledge of the syndrome, and an appreciation for the syndrome as a whole picture, versus a collection of symptoms.” These professionals are still relatively few in number.
  
• Diagnosis is particularly problematic for adults. By the time a person has reached maturity the outward signs of AS have usually become less visible. And since part of diagnosis involves the doctor interviewing relatives of the AS person, if family members don’t recall or are in denial about what went on several decades ago, that could be counterproductive.