Hello,
I am looking for a bit of advice if anyone has had the same sort of experiences at work. I've never been great at picking up practical jokes or sarcasm. When I was growing up alot of people realised quite early on it was very easy to mess with me and unfortunately that hasn't changed. Most people take great care not to because they know sometimes I can get upset if things get out of hand. It's a bit of a confidence knocker and I have a hard time seeing the funny side. I work with a neuro-typical team, its quite small so we all try to get on and have a laugh. They all know I have AS, although it is not as severe as some cases but still enough that it does affect my social interaction and understanding a great deal.
To cut a long story short, I dropped into work on my way home one day to find out what had been happening while I was on holiday. My two colleagues, one being the manager, decided to have a bit of fun and told somewhat elaborate lies but ones that could have been true. This involved a low mystery customer score and a employee swap where I was being sent away to a new shop in a new area. I did ask if they were joking but they said they weren't and because of that I took the information at face value. I got quite upset about the "move" because of the extra stress it would cause. Eventually left and went home where my boyfriend had to calm me down. I was about ten minutes away from having a panic attack because of these changes. Eventually got a text from my manager saying they were just having a laugh. I told him it wasn't overly funny and another colleague stood up for me saying that that kind of joke was very inappropriate because they knew how I react to things like that. I told them to stop joking around with me like that, and that there were other ways of having a laugh without getting me worked up. The excuse most of them use is that its funny and we're just having a laugh, but in addition to my AS I have anxiety and deppression and I hate being led into a situation where one or more could be activated. I get its hard to put yourself in someone else's shoes but is it too much to ask for a little consideration? I wanted to explain it to them but I was upset for almost an hour before they eventually cracked and said it was a joke. They could see I was visibly upset in the shop. I'm trying to put a brave face on it and not sound like I'm whining, but I am really upset and I wish I was better at picking up on this stuff.
Has anyone else had experiences like this? Or knows how to get better at picking up on this stuff? I don't want them to treat me differently but I don't want to be constantly rethinking everything they say and looking at things the other way. I find it hard enough to trust people as it is.
Thank you
