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
It would be good for your friend if it could be resolved as stateofindependence suggests, by simply placing the employer with the alternatives of bad publicity or civil action and geting an out of court settlement.
At the same time though, the activities of management in this case strike me as blatent disability hate crime and harrassment, and could be subject to criminal prosecution. If Unite have kept documentation that might facilitate, and there might be some injury compensation out of a successful prosecution.
Watching out for evidence, shouting, persuading others to isolate her, getting people to inform on her etc. is getting pretty close to criminal behaviour. It also suggests that they hadn't a case for legitimate dismissal and used harrassment to undermine her and make it easier. They have left her with serious loss of confidence unable to find work. That is surely criminal injury.
I did survive something like this about twenty years ago, on and off over about 5 years. I worked with a team who didn't want to work with me and persistently tried to get me sacked. However each time it went to management it was thrown out, as no substantive evidence was produced. However over time it did greatly undermine my confidence and it was resolved by transferring me.
It was before my diagnosis and part of the problem seems to have been my need for clarification, as I have difficulty following procedures that seem easy to others. They were also very cliquey and didn't want me in their group, and it emerged much later that there was some graft/fraud going on, which they were evidently afraid I might disclose.
Their methods were similar. My desk and shelves were searched for inciminating evidence. I was moved to different offices regularly so I never got settled. The people I shared with were asked to report any strange behaviours that they could use as evidence (though many of them told me and expressed their disgust). I had been assigned a good computer but it was taken off me on some pretext that a colleague could make better use of part of the software; I was given a much older faulty computer, then complaints made I couldn't work it properly. I was obliged to go to mentoring sessions in other departments to resolve alleged failings.
The complaints would go to management every six to eight months. A long list of "crimes" would be read out to me. One piece of evidence over and over again was something taken out of context that looked bad until explained - but all I had to do each time was point to the date and remind management it had come up before. The evidence was mostly hearsay and trivia blown out of all proportion.
On one occasion I was accused of an expensive financial botch up which they insisted I be sacked for immediately. It went high up in management and I was on the point of dismissal, but managed to produce documentation that showed they had made the mistake. But all they got was a telling off.
As I say I did survive it with my self confidence badly undermined, and years later one of my persecutors, the one who really botched the finances on the above occasion, was found to be doing a lot of dishonest things.
But what Rona describes as happening to a colleague on the spectrum sounds to me more like disability hate crime and if the evidence is sufficient, meriting criminal prosecution.