Imposed order

A pitfall for the newly diagnosed autistic can be the manager who knows a bit about autism. Possibly they’ve managed one autistic person before, or have a child or other autistic person in their circle of contacts. When the staff member makes the brave move of revealing that they’re autistic the manager – if they’re not particularly self-aware – may imagine they know what this “new” autistic needs. In some ways, the manager who knows a bit about autism can be more tricky to deal with than the manager who knows nothing, because someone who knows nothing will probably set out to learn. Someone who doesn’t realise that things are more complicated than they imagine, however, can be a bit of a challenge all round. A compounding problem is the tendency in society to infantilise disabled people which means we may not get listened to.

A result of a manager who knows a bit about autism that I’ve encountered more than once is them attempting to impose rigid control. They know autistic people tend to like order and structure, and probably also imagine that autistics are rather childlike, and so effectively attempt to introduce a “school timetable” approach. Unfortunately this can be really corrosive because it’s infantilising and extremely disempowering. I certainly like order and structure (its one of the key ways I can manage my hyper-aware senses and tendency to being overwhelmed if I know what to expect is coming next) but it needs to be on my own terms. Very few peoples’ work is improved by rigid management control and treating them like an infant.

The following example is based on experiences of friends of mine:

A manager seeks to give an autistic staff member order and structure by insisting that between 9am and 11am they will work on policy, they will take a break for 15mins and then work between 11.15am and 12.30pm on correspondence [or some such].

On a particular morning, the sunlight is extremely bright which means the autistic staff member is feeling overwhelmed by visual glare. They arrive in the office and need to spend some time in the dark to be ready to work, and when they do feel able to work they’d like to start on correspondence because there’s a task they have half finished from yesterday and completing a task will calm them. Achieving closure can be a big driver in my life and in many autistic peoples’.

The manager sees the staff member starting work late and doing the “wrong” task and – thinking that autistic people need rigid order and structure – becomes angry and insists that things are done to the agreed schedule. They feel that sticking to the rules they’ve laid down is the most important thing – like a parent needing to stick to a discipline they’ve imposed.

The manager chooses not to listen to the autistic staff member (feeling they can overrule them as a parent would a child), and they don’t think it worth investigating why the staff member has done something different. Attempting to explain (or just cope with the social and emotional stress and change of tasks and sensory overload) the autistic staff member becomes overwhelmed and can’t cope.

In all likelihood the autistic staff member has a meltdown in the office and the manager becomes even more angry. An adult professional relationship has been reduced to the level of an argument between parent and teenager about homework. And it all comes from the manager thinking that because they know a little about autism they must know best.

How this example could play out better would be if the manager and staff member agree between them how much work needs to be done on what by when, and also that if the autistic member of staff needs to manage their sensory overload, they can have control of their situation to do that. You actually need to be pretty flexible to achieve a sensible level of order and control. I cannot emphasise too much how important it is to listen to autistic colleagues (or indeed any colleagues!) and not assume you know what’s best for them better than they do.