Do stress assessments in the work setting work for autistic employees if they are designed for neurotypicals?

No problem - hope things get better for you.

I will, thank you for helping.

That other line manager sounds like she just enjoys power - she's clearly getting at people for some very petty things. I also can't see the problem with wearing the sunflower lanyard.

Your own line manager sounds more reasonable, so I'd probably try talking to her about missing the next meeting. 

Thank you for that feedback DuckBread!  That's what I was thinking.  This weeks meeting contained a uniform audit which we all 'passed' and later in the meeting the same line manager (not mine) sent the paper work back round the room saying she could clearly see many of us didn't comply and to fail ourselves - which we did.  At my Supervision I told my line manager that at best that was unhelpful and at worst it was bullying!  Often I'm not sure how others see things so I don't respond immediately .  My line manager said she did challenge her at the meeting by saying "are you really going to do this now?"  as she understood morale was already low.  Other staff argued that we were not in a clinical setting therefore shouldn't be failed on hair being on collar etc... My ID badge dropped off twice last week, so to avoid losing it I swapped the lanyard for my 'Hidden Disabilities' sunflower one. -  Another failure!  I've since been told the Uniform Policy states the lanyard must be clean, not that it needs to have the NHS logo on it.  These have to be purchased, they are not given to us.  I'm sticking to my guns on this one: I work for the only trust with NAS accreditation status, so I think I should be allowed to wear it, not to help me necessarily but to let patients and carers know that I have greater understanding of these things.  This week I had to assess a new patient who had Asperger's and I think I did a very good job!

I did the HADS test for Work & a separate one for home and surprise, surprise, I'm not depressed but am significantly stressed at work but not at home.  

Do you think I should excuse myself from the next meeting?   I have a tendency to do what's expected and not notice how badly it's affecting me until afterwards.  

It sounds like team meetings could be much better managed - naming and shaming is just a form of bullying! I feel like our workplace often runs meetings for the sake of it, and I could have got the same messages from an email. Reading the minutes sounds like a good idea.

Thank you for your advice.  I had my Supervision with my line manager but she was unable to access the Human Resources website with the Stress Test on it, so she said she would email it to me.  I am familiar with the HADS as I've used it on patients.  I know I'm not depressed as I'm quite happy away from work.  I took a short article from Spectrum about the autonomic nervous system in autism which mentioned anxiety, sleep, heart and digestive problems.  My line manager is very willing to make reasonable adjustments but I do have to clearly explain what helps and why as she doesn't have any real understanding of autism.  One problem is the Team Meetings are much larger, noisier and draining.  At the first one we were told we would be "named and shamed" if we didn't see enough patients, then there was to be an "ice breaker" after the coffee break - during which I was overwhelmed, in tears and informed my line manager I needed to leave.  I explained later in an email that sensory overload, fear and unpredictability were all factors and prior knowledge of the meeting contents would help.  I have asked for additional help with using the iPad we've been given and asked for 1:1 tuition instead of a group IT Lesson that they tend to organise.  As we are all remote working now, there aren't colleagues around to ask about the new IT system, so I think I'm justified in asking for this help.  Another big stressor, is being with stressed colleagues (we are all stressed) and trying to be supportive to them.  As this situation is new to me, I can only work out a strategy to manage it, after something has already happened eg a colleague ringing in the evening telling me about their stress. I've decided not to answer such a call again as that's my relaxing time.

I'm not so worried about the stress test now but I do want to excuse myself from the next Team Meeting purely because it's on my birthday and I don't want to feel drained & shutting down at the end of the day.  The daft thing is, the anxiety prevents me from remembering what was said in the meeting anyway, I may as well just read the Minutes!

I think most autistic folk experience much higher stress levels than neutotypicals because of having to process the information and the problems surrounding social interaction, any good text on autism would provide the scientific evidence behind this, I guess a stress test is like the 'Hospital Anxiety and depressions test' (HADS) https://www.gl-assessment.co.uk/products/hospital-anxiety-and-depression-scale-hads/  which indeed does cope for all folk, and which autistic people generally score highly on, even as a matter of course without additional external changes an dpressures such as you are currently dealing with. Personally I would extract the criteria for diagnosis and show how the current climate is an adverse challenge for you and see if measures can be brought about to ease it and which might benefit your enitre team ?

Hi. I've never heard of a stress test before - am I right in saying they're stress testing everyone? 

I'd recommend getting in touch with Occupational Health - they can probably advise your manager of whether the test would be suitable, whether there are any adjustments they can make to the test (or the working environment!), and whether a different test/approach could be taken with you.