Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello everyone,
I have a friend with ASD and I decided to join the community to learn more. I'm hoping to find some answers here. My friend is 31 and faces a lot of problems. Although she was diagnosed when she was at school, very little seems to have been done for her over the years- no support from the medical side of things as she was growing up and this continues today. She has always tried to cover it up but her constant anxiety over little things and reasking of questions at work, led to her dismissal from a job she had held for 12 years when new management came in and didn't have the patience or understanding to adjust to her needs. They deliberately gave her jobs that would be impossible for her to achieve and when she messed up, they took photos of evidence to enable her dismissal. They didn't take into account her ASD but she is so stressed out about it, I don't think she wants to take any action. Now she is on benefits and struggling financially which is making her even more stressed and anxious. I'm hoping to find out more about how to help her here.
Rona
That is appalling. Do you still work there? If you don't, then the company can hardly sack you for breach of contract if you speak to newspapers (though I appreciate you may still want a reference from them!). In case there is some other legal aspect to this clause in the contract, it would be worth taking it to a law centre to get them to check the specifics.
I used to work as a legal secretary and typed up of hundreds of cases where people had been unfairly dismissed. I only saw one or two where it was actually going to a tribunal, companies would generally settle out of court with a "Compromise Agreement"; paying the employee off with a lump sum and a reference, in exchange for them never speaking about the matter. Typing up these contracts was about 95% of my job.
If a matter goes to court then the company runs the risk of the local press hearing about the matter (especially if someone happens to tip them off anonymously). They are obviously very keen to avoid bad publicity, which in this age of social media, would travel very fast indeed. So my guess is that this company would probably cough up if they thought this could happen.
I don't know what this visitor attraction is, but I am guessing that it might not be one of the larger ones? The larger companies I have dealt with tend to find other ways to get rid of people, like making redundancies or restructuring, or offering a payout up front. The smaller companies and charities seemed to be the worst offenders when it came to breaching employment law - and a social media campaign against a smaller company could finish them off.
Good luck