Creating work opportunities for people with ASDs

Do people at work tend to treat you differently than they do to others Charlie? Like... I dunno, more cautiously or something? They always seem to for me. I sometimes get the impression I'm intimidating to some of my colleagues but I have no idea why. I've had colleagues making so many assumptions about me, most of which involve them thinking I'm stupid! Since when is having an IQ of 135+ stupid? It's usually the thick colleagues that make that assumption too - I suppose all I can do is laugh at the irony of it all...

Unfortunately much of the time it is the managers doing the discriminating. I've been called all sorts by managers including 'retard' by an absolutely useless woman who only got the job because her immediate superior was Polish and so was she. At the same place one of the other 'managers' (who seemed to do literally nothing) nicknamed me 'Mr Bean', although I did call her 'Shrek' back to her face as she looked like she'd crawled out of the sewer!

Definitely agree that employers often go for personality over ability. I have known many useless workers on a higher pay scale who spend most of the time rabbiting. Hiring attractive female staff just because of their looks does really irritate me. Firstly, it doesn't take their abilities (or lack thereof) into account, secondly, it's sexist towards both women and men - the employers discriminate against men by not hiring them and objectify women. We do tend to be good at logical thinking and do tend to like to do things properly and these should be highly valued traits, but they're not.

I am tempted to start a Facebook group but there is always a high risk of trolls ruining it for everyone. I even saw a post on this forum where someone was moaning that they keep being banned from forums for trolling and how it was depressing them because trolling people made them feel powerful. It's absolutely pathetic! If someone has to make other people's lives a misery to be happy in theirselves then they must live a very sad and worthless life. The other possibility is a full-blown website as there aren't very many out there for people like us. I'm learning HTML and CSS but it has been a slow process so far so this might not happen for a long time.

Anxiety is indeed a very common problem for aspies. For me personally, it is caused by the enormous social pressures put upon us to be 'normal' and fear of having to relive all the childhood bullying. We are not to blame for being lonely though - if people were more accepting of us instead of childishly hating us for being different then more of us would be happy. I often wonder how and indeed why people feel the need to chat 24/7. I do like to chat with friends but with total strangers? No thanks

Hi Laddo,

I know exactly how you feel and I have been the same in all my jobs, can socialise for a while and then it gets too much when its all day, especially when you can sense people expect you to naturally be a good socialiser and dont know of your Aspergers'. It is definetely more about social skills than being good at the job unfortunately, I think it is extremely unfair that its like that because its discriminative against people on the Autistic spectrum. This is the problem with a mental disability is that its not noticable and you dont get sympathy compared to someone with a disfigurement or in a wheelchair etc.

Dont let the nasty collegues get you down, usually they are just trying to distract attention from themself because they have flaws and secretly low self-esteem about themselves, hopefully they will get the same treatment down the line.
If you know you are doing good work then I think the manager should take action against them because its discrimination and bullying. It would be nice if everyone could accept each other for being different because it would be so boring if everyone was the same! I dont think there is enough awareness of Aspergers' or Autism and this is what I think causes peoples judgemental behavior also because they just assume that people on the AS are behaving a certain way on purpose or that they are unsociable because they are weird, I really wish there was a way we could raise awareness, and fast!

I think employment and finding a relationship are two things that is definetely difficult for people on the AS but is not impossible if people are thoughtful and kind hearted to give chances for these things and acceptance of differences. It is for sure illegal for employers to directly discriminate yes, they cant turn you down for a job and tell you to your face it is because you have Aspergers' why im not hiring you, but yes it happens all the time, people get turned down for silly things like being too loud or over friendly or even not likeable is a common one. Often they will turn you down if you click on the box on the application that yes you in fact have a disability and it is Aspergers' Syndrome as its called on most job or apprenticeship applications; But they will never specify a reason, only 'other' reason.

Laddo, I am very tired of this whole work situation too my friend, these employers should be looking for someone who does the job well, but instead very often go for personality (over intelligence or qualifications/competence) and a lot of the time looks!!! I worked for a company before in a warehouse (no names!) and they kept on hiring female staff who were young and to be honest all attractive, it is biased!!!
Its not our fault if we are not as sociable but we are usually good at logical thinking wouldnt you say? Also we like things done the way they should be done am I right?

I think to do something big you must start small, how about a facebook or twitter page for people who are on the AS to meet and chat.

It would be amazing if people with Aspergers' and Autism could live and feel normal, its the way others treat us I think that make us feel either normal or different/weird.
Anxiety is probably the most common trait of it along with poor communication, no?
Being lonely and feeling yourself is to blame is horrible, does anyone else ever see groups of people who just chat chat chat and seem like they are just doing it without even thinking about it, I wonder "how the hell do they do it"!!!!

I think the scheme being extended to 25 would benefit more than just autistic people, too. There is no room in the current system for anyone who doesn't know exactly what they want to do for a career before they're 21. Unfortunately, there are so many under-25s in this position - individuality is discouraged in our school system and thus young people are struggling to discover what they as an individual want to do for a career, as opposed to the type of career they are expected to do by those in charge.

I will be honest, at the moment I am struggling with motivation for such a project as I am finding it exceedingly difficult to get anyone on-board. I have no idea where to start. I suppose all I can do for the time being is to do as much research as possible

The existing scheme doesn't exclude ASV people. Its doesn't seek to include them and I think any scheme that sets out to increase the numbers of ASV people in the workplace must also include measures to support them once employed. The scheme is aimed at people aged 18-21 and autsitc people are often not ready for this type of opportunity until later in life so we want the scheme limit extended to 25.

As a council we emply far less ASV people than we should: I recently set up a contact group for ASV staff and it has five members in a workforce of 5000. Rubbish. We're 1 in 100 not 1 in 1000.

The neighbouring council has a scheme already. Have a look at this:

www.westsussex.gov.uk/.../creating_jobs_for_people_with.aspx

The constant mention of 'disorder' is teeth-grindingly awful but there is some reason for optimism here.

If I can assist at all with your project in any way please let me know. I work in IT which may help or not.

Yes, discrimination and bullying in the workplace is often exacerbated by management too which is just shameful. Employees are expected to follow by example so this is usually bad for people like us. This is not just personal experience either - a few people with ASDs that I have talked to have gone through this. And then the government wonders why there are so many of us unemployed and demonises us as lazy scroungers!

Does the apprenticeship scheme at your council currently explicitly exclude people with ASDs then electra? If they do then I think they might be in breach of the Equality Act 2010.

Those links make for some very good reading! I must say I am massively impressed by SAP's positive attitude towards the potential talent of autistic people.

I don't have a concrete plan for my idea yet - I need to do some more research into government startup business loans and contact some charities. I also need to get a website up and running. I'm currently teaching myself web coding so hopefully I can get something working in the next couple of months. I do have a rough idea of what I'm going to do though so just got to stay focused

What an excellent thread! I so agree that NT people can't resist specifying social skills for jobs that don't need them. They don't even realise that this discriminates against people who could do the job well. Even when employed we're subject to bullying and discrimination, things which often mean we leave our jobs.

I've been trying to get the apprenticeship scheme at the council where I work extended to ASV people. In reading around this I've found the following which may be of interest:

uk.reuters.com/.../us-sap-autism-idUSBRE94L0ZN20130522

www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/.../local-employment.aspx

Employers are slowly waking up to the value of our talents and abilities. But a project set up by us and for us would be an ideal way to get us a bigger slice of the job market. Laddo, do you have a plan to take this forward?

That's very true Aladdin. I have the same problems although I'm not dyslexic. I've been in the job market for the past five years and so many of the job adverts I've come across say the candidate needs to be "outgoing", "bubbly" etc, even for jobs such as cleaning! In what way does being outgoing have anything to do with one's proficiency at cleaning?! It doesn't leave any room for introverted people and to be honest can make me feel as if I cannot properly contribute towards society. That is why I think it is important for a company to purely value all its employees' best traits - everyone has talents and good traits, even if we are sometimes not allowed to express them. We're made to feel limited just because we don't possess a particular skill. I want to change that

There is so much competition for too few too jobs, despite what the Government says, the jobs are increasingly against neuro-diverse people. I have dyspraxia, aspergers traits.

People can have dyspraxia, dyslexia. I am slow, "pick things up slowly", I have trouble multi-tasking, remembering instructions.

No need to apologise, it's good that you want to share your ideas. I do agree with you to some extent - I think a society made for autistic people run by autistic people could potentially work very well. As people with ASDs are generally open and honest, there would likely be less corruption than in our current society

I appologise...for willfully overextending your position...I knew to what you were refering...but wanted to share my self-determanism idea somewhere...

Well I wasn't really thinking of a separate state for us per se, more an organisation where our strengths are recognised over our weaknesses. There is a cafe I know of on the island of Anglesey which primarily employs people with disabilities I think. I'm thinking of something like that, but on a much larger scale. It is interesting to note that companies like Tesco - which have a very strong focus on "customer service" and being "social" - proclaim themselves to be "disability friendly" while in fact they are not. People with disabilities rarely last very long in these sorts of companies as they are generally ousted by intolerant staff and management. However, they are seen by the general public and the government in a good light for claiming they are "disablity friendly" despite this being far from the truth.

I propose that if an organisation is set up which primarily employs disabled people including those with ASDs and treats them with respect and focuses on their strengths, other companies may follow suit and begin to treat people with disabilities in the same way. If other companies see the value in hiring disabled people, as opposed to instantly rejecting them as unfit for work, things may just begin to change for the better.

In the case of start-up capital, that is why I think the backing of several charities would be essential to create such an organisation. The government may follow suit after that and be willing to grant a business loan. I intend to contact various charities including NAS directly about this. If I can gain enough support, I will go from there

What you seem to be feeling towards is the creation of a city state adiministered by/for AS indiviuals...where our social behaviours are the norm...the physical enviroment controlled for our comfort...employment paradigms constructed to maximise AS effectiveness rather than to diminish it etc...Ive been kicking this idea around for approx 15 years...but I reluctantly draw the conclusion that the realpolitic of a size limited world puts our "utopian dream" into the realms of fantasy until orbital living is a realitly...and then the problem of start-up capital becomes a barrier.