New Job

Emma said:

by lunchtime on my first day, I had already broken down, gone non-verbal

It will help a lot to revisit this situation in your mind and make a list of what started the problem and what contributed to it.

From this list, sort it by the most influential factors - was it noise, light,  the social interaction, the strangeness of it all or having to learn so much stuff.

Once you can identify these triggers then you can start to formulate a plan to present to any new employer. Get someone with some management experience to look over it first as there are probably going to be some things that are not realistic to ask for but with enough adaptations you should have a plan worked out.

It may include visiting the office after work hours for a familiarisation of your work area. Take the time to familiarise yourself with it.

If you struggle with socual interaction then forget jobs that have lots of this - try to have these early in your day initially when you have the fullest "social battery" for dealing with it. As time goes on the familiarity should make it less of an issue.

If it is the noise then invest in good noise cancelling headphones and get used to wearing them.

If you are OK with making your autism public then consider wearing the sunflower lanyard. Some will recognise it and for those who don't you can always tell them. Maybe asking the HR / People dept to make a note on the staff intranet about autism before you join would help here and you can tell people to look there if you don't have the battery to explain it multiple times.

Maybe a few half days to start with would be a good approach. Followed by a full day Monday, half Tuesday, Full Weds, half Thurs Full Friday then onto full day just to ease you in.

There isn't much you can do about lighting initially, but later you can ask for softer lighting near your workstation.

I would also recommend engaging with a therapist to prepare yourself mentally before starting - just make sure they are well versed in working with autists.

Emma said:

by lunchtime on my first day, I had already broken down, gone non-verbal

It will help a lot to revisit this situation in your mind and make a list of what started the problem and what contributed to it.

From this list, sort it by the most influential factors - was it noise, light,  the social interaction, the strangeness of it all or having to learn so much stuff.

Once you can identify these triggers then you can start to formulate a plan to present to any new employer. Get someone with some management experience to look over it first as there are probably going to be some things that are not realistic to ask for but with enough adaptations you should have a plan worked out.

It may include visiting the office after work hours for a familiarisation of your work area. Take the time to familiarise yourself with it.

If you struggle with socual interaction then forget jobs that have lots of this - try to have these early in your day initially when you have the fullest "social battery" for dealing with it. As time goes on the familiarity should make it less of an issue.

If it is the noise then invest in good noise cancelling headphones and get used to wearing them.

If you are OK with making your autism public then consider wearing the sunflower lanyard. Some will recognise it and for those who don't you can always tell them. Maybe asking the HR / People dept to make a note on the staff intranet about autism before you join would help here and you can tell people to look there if you don't have the battery to explain it multiple times.

Maybe a few half days to start with would be a good approach. Followed by a full day Monday, half Tuesday, Full Weds, half Thurs Full Friday then onto full day just to ease you in.

There isn't much you can do about lighting initially, but later you can ask for softer lighting near your workstation.

I would also recommend engaging with a therapist to prepare yourself mentally before starting - just make sure they are well versed in working with autists.