Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi, I’m a professional but have thought for a long while and had strange behaviours as a child that I got a diagnosis as 57% Aspergers. Why have I be able to maintain my professional job for 17 years???
I received my diagnosis at 33 and after working as a teacher for almost 10 years. Being autistic doesn't mean I can't learn about a topic and teach it to others. It has caused me significant staff room issues though - esp my inability to make small talk is seen as me rejecting the pack and then them isolating me.
You could have also worked in supportive teams too who made allowances for you. My partner manages a large team of engineers, one who everyone strongly suspects is autistic. His behaviour, including sitting away from the team and only interacting when necessary, plus his inability to break from routine if he's needed to support his team members on another project frustrates his colleagues - especially as they often have to carry out more work than him. However, they recognise he struggles and that he isn't breaking any code of conduct so they leave him to it rather than cause more upset at work. Despite this, its clear this guys career prospects are capped due to the issues he has, esp around communication.
NAS50301 said: esp my inability to make small talk is seen as me rejecting the pack and then them isolating me.
That's the one thing in my current job that's starting to irk. I try to include myself with other staff, and join in with conversations. But they're either talking about things I know nothing about (TV, football, Twitter, etc), or they just seem to exclude me. Even when I speak up and say something as a conversation-starter, no one really seems interested. I was sitting at a table on Tuesday where two other staff members - both of whom I'm on good terms with and who know I'm autistic - started talking about autism as if I wasn't there. One of them then looked at me finally and said 'We ought to ask ***** about this, because he should know better than any of us.' I was at least pleased for that acknowledgement. In the exchange that followed, though, two things happened: firstly, they both admitted they knew very little about autism; secondly, one of them said 'Well, we're all on the autistic spectrum somewhere.' When I challenged that myth, it came back to me as 'We're all human. We're all on the human spectrum.' I had no idea what that was, and it pretty much ended the conversation as far as my inclusion in it. Clearly, I didn't know what I was talking about after all!
I also get a lot of 'That's not autism. We all get blah-blah...' comments - and mainly from people who are self-confessed know-nothings on the subject of autism! I've never met so many 'I know nothing about autism' experts on the subject of autism!