Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello everyone,
I am postgraduate student and I am working on a project to understand about
difficulties faced by autistic adults in their day to day life particularly in workplace.
By research, I came to know that autistic adults are facing a lot of problems in workplace,
but I am not clear about what exact problems they face. I want to create awareness
about their problems in offices so that they get maximum support at workplace. By doing so,
the gap between autistic adults and their colleagues may disappear.
Hopefully, everyone will start understanding them better. If anyone knows about it,
could you please help me in understanding about their problems?
Last month I lost my job because I am autistic. I was told that my bosses could not trust me because I do not discuss my personal life - something I was never aware I was supposed to do. Maybe I missed some social clues? I do not go to work to chat to people. I go to work to do my job. I think a lot of people at my last job were chatterboxes and only wanted someone to talk to not work with
This looks like outright discrimination to me. Unless discussing your personal life is part of the job specification, the activity should be optional.
If anything, your bosses are untrustworthy.
After seeking legal advice I was told it was discrimination, but due to only having been there 3 months there was nothing I could do
Hmm. You can't take them to Employment Tribunal, but you still have a couple of months to put in a discrimination claim under the Equality Act. There is the Equality Advisory Service or you might find some no-win no-fee lawyers, maybe these. (I am not a lawyer, and only lawyers can give legal advice.)