Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
I wear noise-cancelling headphones at work, and together with my tendency hyper-focus, sometimes I can become totally zoned out of my external environment. Sometimes, when my supervisor has something to say to me, he visits my desk without any warning and waves his hand in front of my face - otherwise there is no chance I would notice him there.
The thing is, like most autistic people, being suddenly distracted or surprised makes me stressed. Often my heart starts racing, my face goes red and I can't process what the person is saying, or figure out how to respond. My supervisor knows I am autistic but I'm not sure he understands some of the lesser-known issues (e.g. difficulties being interrupted and task-switching). I'm not sure I want to give my boss a list of instructions for how to interact with me. I was considering asking the university disability service to circulate some practical guidelines on how to be around autistic student/staff. I'm already in a noisy, open-plan environment with essentially no adjustments, so I do feel like I should do something.
Has anyone else experienced this? Cheers!
Yes, I know this experience very well. It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't take me so long to get back "into the zone" after being interrupted, and it just empties my short-term memory, so I waste time trying to pick up the thread again.
Worse still is my brain's "auto-reply" feature, developed over many years of learning how to pretend that I know what's going on when I really haven't a clue. My mouth just blurts out a sound-bite from my collection of "making people go away as soon as possible" routines, and I can end up agreeing to do something without registering that I was even asked to do anything at all. Naturally, this has some rather unfortunate consequences down the line.
I definitely agree with the suggestion to put all communication in writing. It can be difficult to get it to stick though; people are very wedded to the idea that face-to-face is more friendly or personal, so they tend to slip back into their old ways very easily in my experience - they will need reminding!
If your manager is truly sympathetic, then try to remember that, when asking for adjustments, you're trying to benefit them, too - in management speak, try to make a "business case" for the adjustments. To take the example I gave above; being in the hyper-focused zone for long stretches without interruption is when I'm most industrious and productive, and every interruption is costing the time it takes me to backtrack. Providing adjustments is a win-win situation - you are more comfortable in your job, and your boss gets productivity improvements.
"My mouth just blurts out a sound-bite from my collection of "making people go away as soon as possible" routines"
Story of my life!