I risk losing my job

I've been having problems at work since a change of management. To start with, the team I worked with has been cut down one by one to just me, while retaining the vast majority of the workload. Deadlines have been tightened and expectations have never been higher.

I also have to appease managers who are based in a head office in another city, while also meeting the needs of my colleagues in the site where I work on a day-to-day basis.

After an incident where management claim I had conducted myself inappropriately but my colleagues insist I had done nothing wrong, I have started to feel intimidated by the management, regardless of their intentions on any given day. While my colleagues could easily see I was on the spectrum, management refused to believe this was so without a formal diagnosis, which I have obtained towards the end of last year. 

After being given increasingly daunting tasks, failing to complete them in a "reasonable" time frame and being diagnosed with depression, my communication skills have been cited as where I fall short; skills a person on the autistic spectrum disorder such as myself typically has difficulty with, especially when they feel uncomfortable.

On top of this, my coping mechanisms have been deemed "inappropriate" by the branch manager, who has banned me from meeting with the people I trust, who for just 15 minutes a day, could encourage me to give my all to my work. Without them, I'm a crying, screaming mess in a store cupboard who has to come out only when required and put on a brave face so as not to upset people.

Due to my increasing failure to meet standards, I have been put on a capability review and I face losing my job.

I am currently looking for a new job, which I hope to get before I am inevitably fired, but I would be grateful for any advice.

Parents
  • I have just been laid off sick with stress after working for years as a teaching assistant but when my diagnosis came out that I was on the 'Autistic Spectrum', they would not give me a contract as I could not cope with the 'varibiliities' in the school.  I was made to cope in the last few weeks with very difficult children.  Previously I had left unable to cope with the stress but they wanted me back, saying they would support me.  I have notified my psychiatrist who gave my employers a letter and my Union.  I have recovered enough to put a case against them and will apply for 'Industrial Injury'.  Now I am back on anti-depressants I feel I can cope with them.  Do we have a discrimination act or not, citing 2010 and 2009 for Autism.  I have also contacted Autistic Rights Movement.  So stay strong, contact your Union and a support group locally.  Employers are not following the law, if they are laying off autistic people.

Reply
  • I have just been laid off sick with stress after working for years as a teaching assistant but when my diagnosis came out that I was on the 'Autistic Spectrum', they would not give me a contract as I could not cope with the 'varibiliities' in the school.  I was made to cope in the last few weeks with very difficult children.  Previously I had left unable to cope with the stress but they wanted me back, saying they would support me.  I have notified my psychiatrist who gave my employers a letter and my Union.  I have recovered enough to put a case against them and will apply for 'Industrial Injury'.  Now I am back on anti-depressants I feel I can cope with them.  Do we have a discrimination act or not, citing 2010 and 2009 for Autism.  I have also contacted Autistic Rights Movement.  So stay strong, contact your Union and a support group locally.  Employers are not following the law, if they are laying off autistic people.

Children