Are you autistic - The Inquest

This is a problem with your 'rights' and getting them.  An employer will often just ignore any rights and responsibilities on the same basis as kids who run riot and when challenged say 'what are you going to do about it'.

An unscrupulous employer will realise that if they ignore any requests it is a long and stressful process for you to get your rights, and stress is obviously more likely in autistic employees and is something you would rather avoid.

To challenge their decision if the employer is awkward, you would have to go through grievance processes and appeals and then go to Early Concilliation Followed by Employment tribunal which both have strict time limits from when the event which prompted it took place.  There is an alternative of binding mediation from ACAS but this requires the agreement not only of you but also your employer before it will go ahead.  This would then be decided by an experienced tribunal judge who would come to a binding decision. 

In all probability, your employer will also, to avoid the bad publicity an employment tribunal would cause them take you to one side and offer you a 'Settlement Agreement' once they are aware of the application to the employment tribunal,  in which they would offer you a sum of money to withdraw your application to the Employment Tribunal, leave your employment, and agree not to say anything against the company.  You would be free not to accept this 'Settlement Agreement' and carry on to the tribunal, but as with all things legal there is no guarantee of success, however black and white it seems.  I outlined this in a post above.

A diagnosis is not strictly required in order to get adjustments under the equality act, and conversely even if you have a diagnosis you may have to show that your 'impairment' has a substantial effect on your daily life.

An employer will often try to avoid giving you adjustments on the grounds they are not reasonable.  What is reasonable and what is not can only be determined by an employment tribunal.  However, an employment tribunal is nearly certain to side with Access to Work regarding adjustments they recommend.

There is also the problem if you have been working for an employer less than two years in which case you have few rights, you would have to prove discrimination.  The company would not, however, say they are dismissing you for any impairment you may have, because they needn't give a reason.  Even with a reason it would be something like they are having a restructuring put in place and unfortunately you are no longer required.  You would be entitled to your statutory or contractural notice period in this case but nothing more.  The cards are certainly stacked in an employers favour.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission may help with this:

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/multipage-guide/employment-workplace-adjustments

Scroll through to see different scenarios and examples.

Trainspotter said:

To get help at work, apply to Access to Work, there is a form on the access to work website. They will arrange for someone to assess your needs which could include a support worker and they can also suggest addjusrments, provide training for staff and help with transport to  and from work if you have trouble with transport.. Look up access to work on google

Thank you for the post!

I am still in progress of getting the official diagnosis. I am still waiting for the assessment.

My GP believes that I am highly likely autistic and send a referral for a confirmation.

I have already applied to Access to Work. An assessor assessed my need and prepared a report.

There are several recommendations but the employer does not like the recommendations. I have to keep fighting really hard to get them one by one. It is almost like a war. It is really hard and painful.

But this is not the help from the local autism charity you mentioned about.

I do have an official diagnosis.

To get help at work, apply to Access to Work, there is a form on the access to work website. They will arrange for someone to assess your needs which could include a support worker and they can also suggest addjusrments, provide training for staff and help with transport to  and from work if you have trouble with transport.. Look up access to work on google

Trainspotter said:

I have help at work from my local autism charity.

How did you get the help from the local autism charity? What help do you get from them?

Do you have the official autism diagnosis?

I struggle a lot at work.

I have help at work from my local autism charity.  However this does not stop my employer offering 30 pieces of silver to leave or else they will take action againat me on grounds of performance (in other words they have offered an inadequate sum of money to leave or else they will dismiss me for being autistic).

I havs a case against them on multiple grounds of discrimination to be heard at a preliminary hearing by an employment tribunal judge in October. But as with so much in law, whatever the law may say there is a chance of being unsuccessful. And an employer such as mine relies on that to wear someone down by continually denying rights, knowing that the stress of it all makes it likely the bribe will be accepted in the end and the employer is left smelling of roses.

If you have disclosed at work that you have autism, your employer has a legal requirement to make reasonable adjustment so that you can work effectively:

www.autism.org.uk/.../managing.aspx

You can ask your local autism provider if they will come into work to help, or you can get NAS to help.

I wondered whether to tag this into this thread or start a new topic, but thought it was relevant to here.

Older people who have been diagnosed in their forties, fifties or sixties or later have had a long period trying to fit in to the NT society with various degrees of success. This was hinted at in the programme. As one such person, I managed to live a life until various changes over which I had no control suddenly caused me great problems. And although  my diagnosis has been helpful, and coming out has helped explain to other people why I am like I am, I do think I'm a lot of ways I am given the 'wrong' sort of help. Sometimes I am assumed at work to be mentally sub normal and given the most unsatisfying menial jobs to do and then this is used as a way of keeping  me in my place with threats of performance management and remarks that I am not doing a proper job.

A lot of this is I believe she to lack of understanding of the true nature of autism combined with the need for total control over others by certain NT managers and the conflicting need for control over one's personal destiny and way of doing things by the autistic individual. What I would like to see in a programme is a film (using actors if necessary but using real situations) of  some employer confronted by an autistic individual  in these situations and to find out how they would deal with them, with an equality act lawyer then giving to a legal opinion. I' m sure many autistic employees could give real scenarios. It is all very well coming up with fine words in mission statements and policies about being 'inclusive ' but the practice of it is that there is very little inclusivity..

The attitude in   my workplace is that the bullying will continue until morale improves. Or until  I am suffering so much from anxiety and depression that I am forced to leave.

We never got any real sense that those featured had ever really felt anything other than mild amusement about their lives. That was very unfair to the two (interesting) people who underwent the diagnosis. And even more unfair to people with even greater communication issues. Reality show style at its worst!

I saw an article in either the Guardian or the Independent.

The percentages are bound to be skewed as the participants were self-selecting. The avereage person on the street, with no knowledge of ASD, may not be interested in taking the test.  Someone with relatives or friends diagnosed with ASD, diagnosed themselves, or thinking they may have it, are more likely to have taken it.

In the show there was no suggestion (that I remember) that the current 1 in 100 is incorrect.  Although women being less likely to get a diagnosis (or referred for diagnosis) certainly was mentioned.

• Professor Baron-Cohen talked about the recent survey on the programme, which showed that of the 750,000 people who responded, 87,000 got results which indicated autism - which I calculated to be 11.6% I understand that previous studies indicated that only 1.1% of the UK population might be on the autism spectrum. He also said that of those showing as autistic, slightly more were women than men, however it has been thought that the ratio of autistic males to females was 4:1.. So does anyone how they found participants? If it was open to anyone to take part, did mainly people who thought they were autistic take part, and were there more women than men? I'd really like to see the full analysis of this survey, so if anyone knows where to access it on the internet, please let me know.

https://youtu.be/g4A2lsH6s8M

I did notice this on You Tube.....

One thing it touched on that went outside of the usual subjects like routine, social awkwardness e.t.c. was the whole sensory area. I'm not too bad with social situations, a little "weird", a bit too observational at times, stubborn and sarcastic, or so I've been told but my senses are the main thing I struggle with. A lot of the ASD people I speak to at my group suffer immensely.

They covered the sensory aspect but they presented it as an advantage imo. Most of my adolescence and all of my adult life I thought I was going mad. I had a second diagnosis a few months ago which was arranged by my Autism support worker and my psychiatrist which also diagnosed synaesthesia as part of my ASD. My Autism worker is pretty knowledgable and had read Olga Bogdashina's books about the sensory experiences of ASD sufferers, which I myself have since read. Synaesthesia is becoming more accepted as part of some ASD peoples experience. Since I was about 12 I started to realise that the way I saw and felt the world was far different to the people around me. Seeing sound, hearing colours, bits of information playing out in my main stream of conciousness. I get feelings from smelling certain smells, from the calming, fearful, or even erotic. How do you tell anyone the smell of coffee is f******g erotic. Ticking clocks ticking in your head for hours after you've sat under them for a while. A 5 second piece of music looping over and over in your head for hours. I feel so schmaltzy and so overdramatic saying this but my senses can be so beautiful at times but at other times they are like complete torture.

I think that the sensory aspect of ASD needs to be presented more to the general public. It's driven me to the edge of sanity. It drove me to alcohol and drug addiction. If I just had any indication it was ASD, I wouldn't have hidden it all my life. I thought I was Schizophrenic. I was waiting for the day where I went to bed as me and woke up as Captain America. I got my diagnosis. I'm learning to manage. I can laugh about a lot of it. I just think that they need to present the sensory aspect as a major part of the condition. There could be some 12 year old kid out there who thinks they are going mad, just like I was. They could be saved a pretty rocky ride. 

[Edited by Moderator]

Benidorm's been *** since Mel died. I like my prostate gland, it helps me make semen. So I wholly endorse fundraising for the any cause that is towards the preservation of my capacity to make semen.

So why bother to post on this thread?? If you did not watch the programme?

As an aside The Full Monty Live was about raising awareness about testicular and prostate cancer. I take it you don't consider those worth showing compared to the fiction of Benidorm? There is another programme tonight about similar female cancers for balance.

For the benefit of any doubt I assume you know Benidorm is made up solely for entertainment?

Good viewing, take care, Laddie.

Not seeking attention at all.  Just cut and pasted the results as someone had asked about the survey - it shows what the survey considered.  As for an expert - I'm certainly not in this subject.  There are some subjects I know a lot more about than most, but not Autism.  I am learning rapidly though.

Ah - that will be why Benidorm didn't record.  I forget when the programmes are actually broadcast.

I don't see what is so fascinatng about it. All these people here copying and pasting their facts and figures. Some of these definitely have a book in them. But I suspect they're the typical attention-seekers that frequent forums and aspire to come across as some kind of expert. I'm all for awareness but think that it's getting a bit overcooked now. 

I wish the show would've highlighted older people and it didn't mention those like Susan Boyle,Chris Packham and Gary Numan already diagnosed and famous.

Yes and me because generation is usually like Baby Boomers, Generation X, ME,Millennials etc every 19 years. Each "generation" was failed because I think there's a conspiracy between it and because Asperger and Kanner weren't English

I wasn't happy with the programmes as it classed undiagnosed people as a "Lost Generation" no just undiagnosed people.In any condition before you know you could be undiagnosed or unknown. I find Autism Spectrum strange to understand and don't like the terms used.Aspergers I don't like the surname of the person who identified it used as it was just males studied and not females. The National Autistic Society'' name should change to Autistic Spectrum Conditions Society it would sound better and I don't like the advice they give it hasn't helped me at all and I'm ashamed of it