Ableism in the workplace

eadalton02

hey,

just wondering what people do when they encounter this…

It’s like I have to spell everything out & I’m never taken seriously even at the most basic things and always the last thought of

it’s so tiresome but I don’t know many other autistics never mind disabled people that work to relate to or give me advice,

honestly, I’ll take anything it feels like they are just trying to turn me into the angry disabled person for bringing things up

Jimm_Scope

Hey @eadalton02, I think I already gave you an example on the hello thread of one of my own examples of this. From someone who even shared my condition.

It's difficult, it really can be, does your workplace have a HR department at all? You could request an occupational health review with them possibly. They should be able to suggest reasonable adjustments for you, which should then be shared with your manager to follow them.

Do you want to give some examples of what has happened? Maybe we could help give advice on specific examples while you also try the above if it is possible?

eadalton02

yeah that sounds good I’m going to ask for one of those when I have the chance when I’m next in 😊

I guess it’s also that I have 0 accommodations & also have to spell everything out to them so I’ll give this a shot but any examples of things I could ask for would be nice 😊

Jimm_Scope

What some places do is they have something called an 'adjustments passport' or something similar. It will basically be a document about what works best for you, and also things to avoid doing. It can save the time of having to tell each new person you deal with the same thing each time, and if it's something that has been discussed with your HR department they are more likely to take it far more seriously!

I'm not going to say it'll make everything perfect, but it's about getting as much in your own corner as possible.

Amaya_Ringo

I'm autistic too, and I also work :) I'm lucky in my current team, and actually, in most of the teams I've worked in, although it has been sometimes a lot of explaining and it has taken time for them to get their head around my particular brand of weird. What helps in my current team is that there is actually one other autistic staff member, and also at least one with ADHD. So there's already some understanding of difficulties, although we're different from each other.

But when I was working in a previous job, I remember being forced to undertake a first aid course, despite having severe anxiety about it and also about being in physical contact with a stranger. My line manager didn't understand, so made me take it. That led to me being in difficult situations with colleagues who then asked questions (at that job, only my managers knew my diagnosis). The convener of the course told my line manager I should not have been doing the course - after that, there was never any more disagreement from them when I explained what I couldn't do, and my second year there was much easier than my first.

But that took an able person to explain what should have been explained by me.

It can be super frustrating, especially if you feel nobody is listening. The OH is a good idea, if you have that. I think that's better than going through anything medical at this point. The OH might be able to explain what you're trying to explain, because NT people listen to NT people when they want to know about autism. I was actually told at that previous workplace that I didn't understand autism properly because of my autism…(sigh).

In my first job, I wasn't diagnosed when I was employed, but while I was there. I didn't disclose for ages, and then we had a training course on disability which was very offensive. I got angry and told my line manager everything. She was amazing, and they actually changed their training company because of my feedback. So my advice would be try and find that one ally in whom you can confide and maybe get support. It should be your line manager - if everyone at your workplace is causing you stress, however, then maybe it's time to look for another job. I say this understanding how hard it is for autistic people to find work, but we are atmosphere sensitive creatures, and you need people supporting you through the hard parts so you can showcase your strengths.

My organisation has a disability group as well as an ND group. I haven't joined either yet, but I don't know whether there is anything like that in the wider company you work for?

I work in local govt and there are a lot of things in place there for disability, even if the budgets are constantly being cut :/