I'm self-employed and since getting my diagnosis last year I've been wondering if I should tell my clients that I'm autistic.
As far as I can tell, being autistic only has a couple of significant 'negative' effects on my work:
- Dealing with clients causes me massive amounts of anxiety (so far I've managed to hide this).
- I need time and space between projects to recover, so I'm not as productive as some people.
There's 'positives' too, for example:
- I have great attention to detail.
- I'm dedicated to my work and not letting people down.
- I'm great at picking up new skills/etc.
But even though I think my clients are getting a good deal because I put in so much effort with no extra cost, I sometimes feel like it would be better and more honest to be open about being autistic. Maybe some people don't want to hire an autistic person? Maybe I can be myself more when I work and communicate with people? But I also think that it might cause complications, and even though I'm 'high-functioning', being self-employed is a constant source of stress and anxiety already.
What do you think - do I tell my clients that I'm autistic?
