Work complaint

Exactly! My union rep has given me some reassurance and I can go back to him if necessary. I feel better after speaking to him 

No date or times, its annoying but my union rep has been very helpful, it's not a formal complaint otherwise they would have to provide such evidence.  He says its more of a fact finding meeting, his advice has been to drive home how my autism affects me and put the onus on them to look at ways to help me.  He thinks it's more of a tick box exercise.

I have had customers saying they don't like my tone of voice when I state fact. I have recently worked out one or two phrases I use which basically show I have heard what they say before I tell them what I can do. I had realised that some people found me abrupt.

Well first things first know your rights and the law regarding disability discrimination at work. Start by reading this (https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/employercode.pdf) pay particular attention to chapters 5 and 6. Hopefully the meeting with be constructive and they'll want to talk about putting reasonable adjustments in place (depending on your job maybe you end up not working on phones). But if they don't want to 'play nice' it's important you know your rights and the law.

So, the complaint is not that you give poor information over the phone, just your perceived tone of voice? I would ask that whoever is representing your management at the meeting be told that you are autistic, be given some information about how autism affects communication and how we do not find conversations over the phone very easy. If they do not dismiss the complaint on being made aware of this, raise the spectre of 'discrimination on the grounds of disability'. As autism is officially classed as a disability, any discrimination towards an autistic employee because they are autistic could be classed as illegal.

i doubt its a sackable offence. make sure you have a union rep. 

We all use the phone as the main method of communication, so I'm stuck with it, I don't think I'd be allowed to not use it as I'm the only one that does my job in the office.  I'm OK generally, it's just when I'm maybe dealing with what I would class as silly queries I would expect experienced staff to know the answer too, or when I'm getting overwhelmed, or things are on my mind

Yes indeed you need union support. How essential is the phone to your work?

No, you can't not be autistic? So, everyone needs to think outside the box at this point. We can learn NT communication needs but it's exhausting. They could support you to do this, but it might be that phone work isn't the best use of your talents. Are there other roles that would make better use of your strengths. 

On the plus side, it's great it was your employer who spotted your autism, I hope that means they'll now want to help you into a place that suits both you and them.

Karen001 said:

I come across as abrupt and combative,

I have been told the same thing. It is frustrating for me as I am not intending to come across like this, and then when I am told how I have come across, I actually get frustrated for real because, like you say, you can't stop having these traits.

Have you discussed any reasonable adjustments (might be called something else where you work) with your Team Leader or the Union? A lot of the time we tend to try and work based on neurotypical ways of working, but it is important to make sure that your job cater to a working environment for the neurodiverse.

Hope this helps.

It will probably help if they can tell you the exact conversation so maybe you might remember what happened? Even with the complainer being anonymous a date and time may have been logged. It could be as simple as you weren’t telling the person on the other end of the phone what they wanted to hear and they would’ve complained about anyone who had told them the same