Literal Change

Many people believe that autistic people can’t cope with change or uncertainty, but I think in fact the issue is that we struggle with how neurotypical people communicate change. We don’t understand hedging around the issue or hints, and so are in a constant state of stress about what it is we’re missing. It’s also common that what a neurotypical colleague will think important isn’t what we think important, so we may not get any communication on what matters most to us. If change is communicated clearly and literally, then I think we’d all do much better.

My tendency to take things literally means I’m particularly vulnerable to misinterpreting things; figurative language or broad commitments can mean something much less precise than how my brain interprets them. If, for example, it has been said that “we will do everything to make this process transparent”, I, with my autistic brain, might spot some tiny thing that hasn’t been done and imagine that a commitment has been broken. I might also imagine I could then make a fuss, raise a grievance and go to tribunal over this broken “commitment” when anyone with a neurotypical brain would know that no commitment had been intended or given. That could have all been avoided if the originally communication had been “we will do everything reasonable and proportionate to make this process transparent” or some such.

The autistic sense of justice can also kick in if communications aren’t clear – I will notice if what you’re doing doesn’t marry up to what you’ve said. Being a very literal person I will then potentially interpret the difference between what you said and what you did as an injustice or intent to deceive, rather than as me having taken the original communication too literally. And of course the more stressed I am (over change or anything else), the less likely I am to remember to try to interpret what you meant rather than what you said.

You can see how change being communicated non-literally can be a recipe for autistic stress, and potentially humiliation and even HR consequences as a result of misunderstandings.

There are four broad areas where reasonable adjustments can be made that help autistics in the workplace:

• Interpersonal (coping with people and social situations)
• Communications (understanding what others are saying and getting them to understand you)
• Management (making performance management as clear and stress-free as possible)
• Sensory (preventing sensory overload at work)

It ought to be possible to build those into change management.