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NAS Workplace assessments

nickelbutt

Hi,

Having recently been diagnosed with AS after many years of productive work my employer requested a workplace assessment. I received a copy of the report which has raised my concerns. Principally, my manager and I do not see eye to eye and I'm concerned that the report may not be as helpful as I thought it might be. 

IMHO it has overplayed certain aspects of my presentation of AS eg light and sound sensitivity, which though the report admits I do not have any problem with in the office yet suggests I be moved to a quieter area of the office.

However, my greater concern is that the assessment was supposed to talk to people with whom I directly work with. This does not appear to have been done and the only person in my work area consulted was my manager. Comments in the assessment refer to statements such as "Staff have commented ... " which are heresay and IMHO overly reflect my manager's stance.

I have had occasional fatigue and tireness problems at work, which may be AS linked but the repsonse in the report is that I shoould consult with my GP, and makes no allowance for the possibility that it may be due poor sleep patterns due to AS.

The word "struggles" also seems to appear a large number of times implying I have cognitive difficulty, in for example talking about technical matters with my manager when I don't discuss such since she has no technical background and wouldn't understand what I was talking about in any case.

Has anyone had any similar expereince they could share? Or am I worrying overly? I requested the report before it was sent management so I could ask for any corrections to be made. Should I make a thing about possible bias? 

Any advice welcome.

  • Hi nickelbutt,

     

    Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience.  I understand that your concerns have now been addressed with your specific consultant.

     

    As you know, you are welcome to get into contact with us again if there is anything else you would like to discuss.

     

    Regards,

     

    Zara

  • I agree with Longman that they have looked up the traits and tried to match it to that.

    I would query anything that is untrue or misleading and ask that the wording is removed or changed, and do so in writing.  Ask for hearsay to be removed (if it's inadmissible in a court of law it's inadmissible here!) and write your issues as you see them (as well as asking for more consultation with relevant colleagues than just your line manager).

    You have to be so careful, they could use this against you so easily if they chose to.

  • Have since re-read your posting and realised it is not your diagnosis that's concerned here but an assessment of your workplace by an external organisation, and apparently by NAS.

    I've so far failed to find much evidence of research on workplaces, apart from placements for more marked AS via Prospects researched more than a decade ago. I really wish there was more manifest evidence of how any organisation, let alone NAS was in a position to advise on all likely workplaces and all AS "types".

    The danger, in my perception, would be whether the assessment used your personal needs or a stereotyped person with AS. Because it is not just about environments suited to people on the spectrum, its about your individual needs. I have experience of how universities assess needs of students on the spectrum in terms of the teaching and learning environment, and that isn't usually detailed enough to get things right, and in any case more often based on a social model (making supposedly applicable changes in the environment that are supposed to make a unilateral difference, like giving parchment coloured handouts to people with dyslexia on account of a notion it just mustn't be white paper).

    I'm entirely nonplussed at the notion that anyone knows enough about AS in the workplace to carry out a meaningful workplace assessment.

    So if NAS is doing this I implore NAS to give some thought about whether this does more harm than good.

  • Few people understand what AS means; most on line explanations focus too much on the Triad of Impairments, which only seems to substantiate the myths and preconceptions.

    Also people will read up and look for all the traits. It may not be a good idea to give a copy of your full diagnosis to your line manager, although it appears that you weren't in a position to prevent it. The wording of a diagnosis tends to use your own stated evidence, which makes it look a bit like self diagnosis.

    I was not so lucky. I consulted human resources about the work implications of my diagnosis, and had an interview with the health adviser. She asked for a copy of my diagnoses for the file, and asked if I wanted management and colleagues to be informed. I assumed she meant the gist of my diagnosis would be explained verbally and consented to this, as my hope would be for people to better understand my difficulties.

    She instead scanned my full diagnosis and circulated it to many people as an electronic attachment to an email. This caused all kinds of misunderstandings as to what it all meant, my head of division drawing the conclusion I had self diagnosed because at the time a story was doing the rounds about academics claiming to have AS to enhance their careers (never have worked out how that daft rumour was supposed to operate).

    Things improved in time because I got the diagnosis primarily in order to clear my own mind about issues, and my coping strategies rapidly improved, my self confidence and self esteem were boosted and I was able to perform better.

    The sad fact is probably no-one in your workplace will properly understand it, and the information they will get off websites will likely not help.

    Understanding of the workplace is still gravely lacking. I have found Malcolm Johnson's "Managing with Asperger Syndrome" (Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2005 ISBN 1-84310-199-8) a useful insight, but it is a slow read as it is overly biographical and I think his AS must have been mild as he doesn't report most difficulties I'd expect.

    The way the workplace affected me was that NTs worry if you are not fitting in, and not saying the right things on cue, not being "collegiate" etc. On a number of occasions complaints had been made but when investigated amounted to nothing more than hearsay and grudges, but it was wearying.

    If I'm tired or stressed I tend to defocus, and dissociate, and it is seen as if I've been drinking or on drugs. Work social environments and noisy meetings were difficult because I lose coherence when there is background noise - I preferred to stay near the edge of a room rather than mingle. I don't look people in the eye enough, get my person to person distance and voice pitch wrong in conversation, don't adopt the right tone for the situation etc. I tend to speak rapidly, conveying a lot of information off the wall, as I can synthesise information very fast, too fast for the average NT.

    But these things don't describe well and critics just made fools of themselves trying to make out something was wrong with me. If you do a good job and you aren't failing on any key issues, the trivia, even if there's a lot of it, doesn't really matter.