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Workplace mentor experiences

NAS24859

I teach in a university and have students all year round. I started my post in April and the summer has been fine. Now its suddenly changed from having a hundred or so students on campus to thousands I can't cope. As there are so many bodies dotted around, as well as the noise, I feel panicky, I spend last night dreading work and now I'm here I just want to go home and never come back.I've experienced this feeling throughout my career and was previously led to believe I was mentally unwell, now I know its autism and sensory overload, yet I don't know what to do about it.

I have a place on the NAS women and work course but its only two days and I think I need longer-term support, especially as since getting the diagnosis I've been left to my own devices. Has anyone ever had an autism mentor funded through A2W and if you did was the support helpful? Alternatively, have you found anything else useful.

  • Hello, I’ve only just seen your message and relate to it so much. It’s almost as though I wrote it! I’ve just been diagnosed myself, also teach in a university and struggle a lot with sensory overload issues. Like you its all previously been put down to mental health issues. 

    Did you have any luck finding out about mentors, it’s something I’ve been thinking about myself? The women and work course also sounds really good, I might have a look at that. Like you I’m still only just starting to think about how knowing it’s actually autism might help. It has in one way already though - I’m not beating myself up about everything and blaming myself any more. The diagnosis was a massive relief. Was it similar for you? Knowing what to do now is way more tricky. One thing I do that does help is wear in-ear headphones around campus. I don’t have music on but it dulls the noise enough to make it more bearable. Do you do anything like that?

    I’ll try to send you a friend request (if I can work out how!). I’d like to be able to PM you as it looks like it might be a great support to try and work out how to deal with this together :o). Accept if you’d like to do that.

    goodluck, with everything.

  • I have a workplace support worker for a couple of sessions a month of 2 hours each, funded by Access to Work.

    I do find it helpful, but you have to be mindful of one or two things.

    My employer tends to think at times that the purpose of her is to somehow flck the switch in me which will make me a neurotypical.  That is obviously not going to happen.

    The support is for me, not for work.  You have to be careful as my employer tends to 'hijack' the support at times.  The sessions are meant to be private and it is up to you whether  you want a manager in with you at times, and what things you want the support worker to discuss with the worker.

    In my case I find the support worker very useful as an intermediary.  My manager had it in her head that certain behaviours I had were unacceptable in the workplace, but my support worker explained that this was part of being autistic and using my autistic behaviour as some sort of disciplinary or performance issue was unlikely to change things.  Instead it was explained how the ways of management could be changed to avoid these situations in the first place.  My manager also did not understand certain stimming behaviour was not me ignoring my manager but a way of helping concentration by dealing with anxieties.

    My support worker was also very useful in obtaining adjustments as and when needed.  I have funding for the next couple of years, as I am then due to retire it will not be needed after then anyway but if I was working it could be extended (always assuming it did not become part of government cuts).

    The other thing the support worker is useful for is as a catharsis for frustrations - I mean by this in order to explain and say what is upsetting me at the time, not a way of taking my frustrations out on the support worker!  But for all this to work, you must have ultimate faith in the support worker, it will not work if you are not confident in their abilities (but hopefully they will be fully trained and you have to explain your problems to them without embarrassment or fear that repercussions might happen.  Repercussions should not happen from what you say about work because it is in confidence, if something needs to be raised with my manager as a consequence of what I say it will be done in a far more diplomatic manner than I could manage!)

    Your employer has to also realise that your support worker time is time from your work, so work has to be adjusted to accommodate it, not be a case of catching up in the remainder of your work time.