Telling people or not...

I found it useful just to have a better understanding of what was happening in the workplace, but I agree telling others is a mixed experience.

The decision was made for me in that I told HR about my diagnosis. They asked if I wanted my line managers informed, to which I said yes. At which point, without explaining this to me or forewarning me, they scanned in a copy of my diagnosis and sent it round my colleagues as an email attachment.

It did help though, but people's understanding of AS is generally not deep enough, and to be honest most people don't want to know the details. So I experienced what others reported here - still getting comments at appraisals that the diagnosis should have resolved.

However I was doing support work to disabled individuals as part of my job, so I took an especial interest in autism, and I hope, provided some useful support from a better informed stance.

You might find this book useful - "Managing with Asperger Syndrome" Malcolm Johnson, Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2005 (ISBN 1 84310 199 8).  While I found it a hard read, as the writing is stodgy and too biographical, and not always easy to see the aspergers, it does explore a lot of work situations. It looks at aspects of office politics and managing other people when you have Asperger's.

I think the main benefit of a diagnosis is being able to better understand why people might react to you the way you do, and what things you could do to alleviate the situation. I was able to reduce the potential conflicts.

After that initial disclosure I mostly didn't tell people. I did find it useful to chat to other staff who worked with people with autism, because they got insight from me, and I got better understanding of their perspectives.

Also I like observing and studying environments (as I've babbled on about here from time to time), sitting to one side and observing how other people deal with situations. Think of yourself as David Attenborough observing the human animal in its natural environment.....

I found it useful just to have a better understanding of what was happening in the workplace, but I agree telling others is a mixed experience.

The decision was made for me in that I told HR about my diagnosis. They asked if I wanted my line managers informed, to which I said yes. At which point, without explaining this to me or forewarning me, they scanned in a copy of my diagnosis and sent it round my colleagues as an email attachment.

It did help though, but people's understanding of AS is generally not deep enough, and to be honest most people don't want to know the details. So I experienced what others reported here - still getting comments at appraisals that the diagnosis should have resolved.

However I was doing support work to disabled individuals as part of my job, so I took an especial interest in autism, and I hope, provided some useful support from a better informed stance.

You might find this book useful - "Managing with Asperger Syndrome" Malcolm Johnson, Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2005 (ISBN 1 84310 199 8).  While I found it a hard read, as the writing is stodgy and too biographical, and not always easy to see the aspergers, it does explore a lot of work situations. It looks at aspects of office politics and managing other people when you have Asperger's.

I think the main benefit of a diagnosis is being able to better understand why people might react to you the way you do, and what things you could do to alleviate the situation. I was able to reduce the potential conflicts.

After that initial disclosure I mostly didn't tell people. I did find it useful to chat to other staff who worked with people with autism, because they got insight from me, and I got better understanding of their perspectives.

Also I like observing and studying environments (as I've babbled on about here from time to time), sitting to one side and observing how other people deal with situations. Think of yourself as David Attenborough observing the human animal in its natural environment.....