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Employment law protection for those with Aspergers?

DeckardB26354

Hi there,

I was diagnosed with Aspergers a couple of months back - which certainly explained a lot to me & came as a relief too. 

I have always had difficulty with working & never been in each job I've had for more than a year. 

My trouble with work has always been getting on with other employees, or in the case of when I was self employed, clients!

This has mostly been other people upsetting me, to the point I have a bit of a melt down & leave. It's also less frequently been my direct behaviour - an example being me going into a colleague's drawer to use their hand sanitiser & not realising that broke social etiquette and was upsetting to her, getting reprimanded by the boss & feeling ostracised   

I want to go back to work - and need the income of an average UK salary, but I'm very fearful of doing anything but low paid, simple jobs, like working in a cinema (I'm a big film fan :) )

My actual field of work for which I'm qualified is financial services, doing research & planning for financial advisers. Although I haven't worked at all now for 2 years after a huge melt down in my last job, which turned my life upside down.  

I therefore wondered what protection there was in employment law for those of us with Aspergers, what it provides & how to disclose having Aspergers to an employer & how that's gone for you guys. 

I feel now my social awkwardness can be explained, if I have legal protection from unfair treatment, I'd go back to a demanding job  

Thanks a lot :)

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  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Hi and Welcome

    Autism is a disability which means that you are protected (if you are in England or Wales) by the equality act 2010. This is useful protection and it has real legal bite if push comes to shove.

    There are employers that are good for people with autism but there are also many that are not good. I disclosed the condition to a previous employer but relations had deteriorated too far and I moved on. The new employer picked it up during pre-employment screening. They have made efforts to accomodate but it is early days and I am not totally confident that this job will work out. A big thing that I have learnt is that, although Aspergers and Autism are recognised terms, there is an awful lot of ignorance and very little ability in making it work from the HR professionals side. HR professionals are mainly doing what the management wants and few have the skills or leadership to change that fact. There are exceptions to this but I won't rely on them "doing the right thing" ever again.

    I tried disclosing my diagnosis at a couple of interviews but none of the employers that I disclosed to offered jobs so I would not recomend disclosing at that stage.

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  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Hi and Welcome

    Autism is a disability which means that you are protected (if you are in England or Wales) by the equality act 2010. This is useful protection and it has real legal bite if push comes to shove.

    There are employers that are good for people with autism but there are also many that are not good. I disclosed the condition to a previous employer but relations had deteriorated too far and I moved on. The new employer picked it up during pre-employment screening. They have made efforts to accomodate but it is early days and I am not totally confident that this job will work out. A big thing that I have learnt is that, although Aspergers and Autism are recognised terms, there is an awful lot of ignorance and very little ability in making it work from the HR professionals side. HR professionals are mainly doing what the management wants and few have the skills or leadership to change that fact. There are exceptions to this but I won't rely on them "doing the right thing" ever again.

    I tried disclosing my diagnosis at a couple of interviews but none of the employers that I disclosed to offered jobs so I would not recomend disclosing at that stage.

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