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question about disclosing at work

qwerty

I was wondering if anyone might have any experiences (either positive or negative) disclosing ASD to your boss/supervisor/line manager who is from the older generation?

Asperger Syndrome wasn't discovered until the mid-1900s, and wasn't really known of by most people until maybe the past 20 years or so. So it seems plausible that some people who are from an older generation might not have heard of ASD or know much about it. And because of this, it seems quite scary to tell a boss/supervisor/line manager who is in their 60s-70s that you have ASD, because it's something that didn't really exist in their time, so there's the worry that they might not believe it. I don't know if this kind of worry makes sense. I'm afraid they might just think you're not "trying hard enough" with the social stuff, rather than it's due to autism.

Parents

  • I declared at an interview for a new role, the day before my formal diagnosis.  I inadvertently declared to the whole team when we were on a training course and the trainer was going on about how we should all show empathy and automatically know what to do.  The team leader pointed out that her niece was autistic and would really struggle with this.  The trainer (training us on disability awareness!) didn’t accept this point of view.  I then just said “I am autistic”.

    Ive had loads of support from the team as a whole.  It helps that I work in a small team and many of them are neurodiverse and/or know someone who is.  

    It’s the first time I’ve felt able to be “me” at work.

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  • I declared at an interview for a new role, the day before my formal diagnosis.  I inadvertently declared to the whole team when we were on a training course and the trainer was going on about how we should all show empathy and automatically know what to do.  The team leader pointed out that her niece was autistic and would really struggle with this.  The trainer (training us on disability awareness!) didn’t accept this point of view.  I then just said “I am autistic”.

    Ive had loads of support from the team as a whole.  It helps that I work in a small team and many of them are neurodiverse and/or know someone who is.  

    It’s the first time I’ve felt able to be “me” at work.

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