Diagnosis later in life and work

Hi! Sorry for the a later response.

I'm a fairly new teacher as well in Primary schools so I feel the worry especially when you get diagnosed as an adult. I will say though the perk of it is that even though there's now an official piece of paper saying you are autistic, you yourself have not changed. Schools are getting harder to work in with the change in both the system and the students and unfortunately at the moment it doesn't seem to be improving. 

I will say though even though it is daunting talking to the board and others in the school about it it can be beneficial, even if it is just to create mutual understanding of what you are experiencing through the day and in work. You can always put feelers out as well before explaining fully what is going on.

I worked in a school for a week or so before saying anything out of fear of being judged or suddenly being viewed as incapable when I know I can teach well and love doing it. When I personally did it I spoke to the SLT and worked out a plan of what was needed for me to do my job the best. Obviously this was my experience and some schools may differ but from a teacher standpoint if we are able to adapt when students need it, we should also be able to when teachers need it as well.

I also work for a big international company- ultimately all I really needed to do was tell my manager and HR, but I do have my diagnostic report on file in case it's needed to show why I need accommodations.

I will say though, I already had accommodations for a physical health condition, and the company I work for is healthcare-adjacent. It's possible that disclosure was a lot easier for me because of that.

My husband (who is probably autistic himself but has no diagnosis) has had some people who autistic in his workplace and his employer (local council) and workplace  have been great at supporting these members of staff. It’s been very positive from what he’s told me. I presume a school would be similarly aware in that way? Is there anyway you can access your employers policies on this? Ultimately any employer wants to get the best from their employees - so the adjustments you need will probably be to everyone’s advantage in one way or another, as you’ll be happier and more productive presumably. 

I disclosed to my employer. 

On a whole the were very supportive. I mainly asked for transparency in communication and for meetings regarding my professional development (I.E supervisions) to be done in a one to one basis in a room with reduced stimuli and for me to be given time before signing documents. 

one thing I’ve found is that I’ve had to ‘remind’ people on my communication style particularly in group meetings. I make quick exits to avoid small talk and my manager is good at giving me a ‘task’ like setting up equipment for me to avoid small talk before.
one thing I find frustrating is when I say or do something and I’m met with the response ‘haha you are so funny’ with no further explanation or response. These don’t tend to be things HR can help me with. Also, people keeping me informed of their disabled relative well-being’s is well intended but hugely irrelevant. 

Deleted User said:

I work for a huge international company but when I spoke to HR about this they said there is no official way for me to notify them and no way for them to record the information in the HR system.

You need to have a formal diagnosis for this to work but you should supply HR with a copy of the diagnosis and a link to the governments version of their responsibilities:

https://www.gov.uk/reasonable-adjustments-for-disabled-workers

From your side I would read the ACAS take on this:

https://www.acas.org.uk/reasonable-adjustments

You need to have a solid idea of what the reasonable adjustments are that you want - asking to always work from home in probably not considered reasonable for example.

Work out what the biggest issues are for you in the workplace and let us know and we can help you articulate these into your request if you like.

Can I ask what the process was for disclosing it to your employer?

I work for a huge international company but when I spoke to HR about this they said there is no official way for me to notify them and no way for them to record the information in the HR system. All they could suggest was a “yes/no” to disability.

I mostly work remotely so don't need many accommodations, but I've just been on a work trip and have recently disclosed my diagnosis to my employer as these trips DO need accommodations. So far I only needed to ask that I could skip social outings or leave them early if I was finding things difficult (I only had to skip one this time), but people have been pretty understanding.

Something that I've already found quite handy on-site on the rare occasions I'm there is that I ask to sit by the window so I get more natural light and reduce the impact of fluorescent lighting. You might find that a change of room layout (for example) might be able to help with your light sensitivity too.

If you've already disclosed your autism diagnosis at work then yes, occupational health is a good idea- they might have an idea of what's possible in your workplace.

Thank you for the reply. I am in a union and have made my rep aware. The problem is it's hard to ask for anything after managing for so long. I don't think of myself as 'disabled' but trying to think of what adjustments could help.

I was diagnosed a year after taking early retirement, I worked at a university in a scientific, not teaching, role. Personally, I would have informed my employer and sought accommodations had I still been working. I would advise you to look up your employers written policies on supporting disabled staff. This will give you some idea of what you can reasonably expect and enable you to point out if they do not live up to their policies in practice. I hope that you are a trade union member, as they can be very useful in providing support and advocacy. Any information you give your managers, occupational health, HR etc. should be treated confidentially and you should be the only person who decides who is informed of your diagnosis.

All employers are legally obliged to provide 'reasonable accommodations' for disabled staff. The accommodations are designed to ensure that disabled staff are on an even playing field with their non-disabled colleagues in their working lives. For example, for an autistic teacher, if the scraping of metal chairs when children are moving about was a profound sensory problem, then providing the chairs in the classroom with rubber or felt pads, would count as a reasonable accommodation.

I'm not particularly looking to change my job, Just wondering if others have adapted how they work doing the same job.

i dunno, being a teacher theres not much things they can do really unless they can transfer you to another role thats quieter but then you wont be teaching kids, that would likely be receptionist job.