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The Buckland Review of Autism Employment

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Re: The Buckland Review of Autism Employment

#21

Post by Frummy »

rexpop wrote: post #9
Frummy wrote: post #3

I think one of the easier changes is to have more informational sharing in an organization. Those in charge often feel psychologically safe with an informational advantage - but it's probably less useful than they feel. That mutual trust will benefit the entire organisation, and not just autistics who may need to do first-order logical inference rather than just copying what others are doing.

> Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur. Seems somewhat at odds with your call for "mutual trust."

It was the motto of Gauss, I’m focusing on math instead of politics, career and such. By relinquishing a desire for political change and communication, all energies can be dedicated towards the breaking of new ground. It’s interpreted in a lens of letting go, not grasping for more.

Re: The Buckland Review of Autism Employment

#22

Post by giantg2 »

TylerE wrote: post #19
giantg2 wrote: post #15

At least in tech the context switching is killer. It burns out normal people, but if you're autistic the switching can be especially brutal. Add in autistic burnout on top of that and it's a miracle anyone can stay employed for long. Reducing things like context switching would be good for all employees. Wow, section 7 is like I'm reading my own journal (if I kept one).

Currently dealing with this in a deep level and it’s absolutely crushing me.

My company used to have teams work on primarily 1 main application with a couple smaller supporting apps, usually in one stack. Members of the team usually had a primary role or area of responsibility. Basically things were more structured and better defined. Even things like requirements were better defined and the integrations points were well documented.

A few years ago they started pushing multiple applications onto teams, including in multiple stacks. Roles are less defined and everyone is just expected to do everything. So you're switching between apps, tiers, and stacks constantly. In some cases they have one code based that includes multiple apps which multiple teams work on. This creates constant changes and small issues in local dev setup. They're really pushing speed and agility, which ends up with poor requirements and designs compared to the past since it's less formal and less thought through.

I went from being a high performer to being a low performer. After years of being lied to, passed over, and screwed over while being a high performer and now being told I do great work in some areas but my day to day work is too slow, I'm completely demotivated and demoralized. I have good credentials and previous coworkers have thought i was already a senior dev, yet I'll never make it to that level. I've been on multiple teams and asked for accommodations such as reduced context switching, but they can't do anything about it because of the way the work is structured. One team even told me they were surprised I stuck around for 2 years because they expected to burn people out in about 1 year. This checks out since they had more than 100% turnover in those 2 years and I was the only one left from the original team. They made a big deal about their contract with Auticon. When asked in an enterprise meeting (by someone else thankfully) what they were doing for employees with similar backgrounds it was crickets - no answer.

I honestly don't know if I can keep this job, even though it's just an early career midlevel position. It sucks to think I no longer have a career with advancement options. If I lose this job I assume I'll end up working at Walmart or something. The stress of an uncertain future and having a family to support is extreme.

Re: The Buckland Review of Autism Employment

#23

Post by coldtea »

giantg2 wrote: post #15

At least in tech the context switching is killer. It burns out normal people, but if you're autistic the switching can be especially brutal. Add in autistic burnout on top of that and it's a miracle anyone can stay employed for long. Reducing things like context switching would be good for all employees. Wow, section 7 is like I'm reading my own journal (if I kept one).

Yes. A stable project, working on the same codebase (updating, refactoring, maintenance) is a great fit.

But the "let's change things for the sake of it", random management decisions based on fads, and so on, are extremely brutal.

Re: The Buckland Review of Autism Employment

#24

Post by coldtea »

droopyEyelids wrote: post #11

I'm surprised to see that the report doesn't address any of the 'disability' aspects of autism. There are people with autism who are nonverbal even as adults, who are not able to care for themselves. The challenges those people and their families face will not be addressed by any amount of awareness or affordances at work. There is some weird tension in autism advocacy where the disability gets swept under the rug an…

>There are people with autism who are nonverbal even as adults, who are not able to care for themselves. The challenges those people and their families face will not be addressed by any amount of awareness or affordances at work.

Well, this is about autistic employment though, not for high support autistic people who can't work regardless of "affordances at work".

So, it's not so much that the disability is "swept under the rug" in this case, but that this stronger disabilities are not applicable to the case.

Re: The Buckland Review of Autism Employment

#25

Post by coldtea »

TylerE wrote: post #20
crtified wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that the term autism is applied across such a massive range of outcomes is at the heart of the problem there, I believe. Any list of "summary advice" can never ably cover that range. Effective advice for a formerly-and-sometimes-still known-as Asperger Syndrome person is indeed going to be hugely different than effective advice for a non-verbal non-independent person. As the above paragraph implies, the worl…

I found the former situation much worse. I was accused (subtly) of basically taking it at least once. High levels of raw intelligence can mask emotional stuff that I suspect makes a lot of the high functioning people not really that high functioning, they are just able to compensate a bit more and be less outwardly effected to their peer group. Consider, as a parallel, the dirty looks and snide remarks someone with c…

>I was accused (subtly) of basically taking it at least once.

You meant to write "faking it" here, right?

But how was the "former situation much worse"?

Surely lumping aspergers into the same general name of "autism" (like is the case now), makes it even more likely to be accused of being a fake when saying you have autism, as you wouldn't fit the stereotype of the high support needs person they have in mind (whereas people already understood that someone with asperger will not look "outwardly effected" like that).

Re: The Buckland Review of Autism Employment

#26

Post by TylerE »

coldtea wrote: post #25
TylerE wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found the former situation much worse. I was accused (subtly) of basically taking it at least once. High levels of raw intelligence can mask emotional stuff that I suspect makes a lot of the high functioning people not really that high functioning, they are just able to compensate a bit more and be less outwardly effected to their peer group. Consider, as a parallel, the dirty looks and snide remarks someone with c…

> I was accused (subtly) of basically taking it at least once. You meant to write "faking it" here, right? But how was the "former situation much worse"? Surely lumping aspergers into the same general name of "autism" (like is the case now), makes it even more likely to be accused of being a fake when saying you have autism, as you wouldn't fit the stereotype of the high support needs person they have in mind (wherea…

It’s much better because I can say to some random, say, nurse that I have autism and they a general idea. Of things that are likely to be challenging for me.

Re: The Buckland Review of Autism Employment

#27

Post by TylerE »

giantg2 wrote: post #22
TylerE wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currently dealing with this in a deep level and it’s absolutely crushing me.

My company used to have teams work on primarily 1 main application with a couple smaller supporting apps, usually in one stack. Members of the team usually had a primary role or area of responsibility. Basically things were more structured and better defined. Even things like requirements were better defined and the integrations points were well documented. A few years ago they started pushing multiple applications o…

I’m in a team. It’s just that what was a team of 4 including our senior tech lead.

Over the past 4 years the other 3 on my team all left.

The only position backfilled was the most junior one, doing 99% html/css/photoshop work.

We have no senior tech lead.

Re: The Buckland Review of Autism Employment

#28

Post by coldtea »

TylerE wrote: post #26
coldtea wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was accused (subtly) of basically taking it at least once. You meant to write "faking it" here, right? But how was the "former situation much worse"? Surely lumping aspergers into the same general name of "autism" (like is the case now), makes it even more likely to be accused of being a fake when saying you have autism, as you wouldn't fit the stereotype of the high support needs person they have in mind (wherea…

It’s much better because I can say to some random, say, nurse that I have autism and they a general idea. Of things that are likely to be challenging for me.

Sure, but you could say aspergers before, and they'd have an ever better idea (as autism is too wide a spectrum). And doctors and nurses at least can grasp ASD 1, 2, 3 and so on, laymen, not so much.

Re: The Buckland Review of Autism Employment

#29

Post by TylerE »

coldtea wrote: post #28
TylerE wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s much better because I can say to some random, say, nurse that I have autism and they a general idea. Of things that are likely to be challenging for me.

Sure, but you could say aspergers before, and they'd have an ever better idea (as autism is too wide a spectrum). And doctors and nurses at least can grasp ASD 1, 2, 3 and so on, laymen, not so much.

That was never my experience. It was, for most of it's existence as a diagnosis, not well known at all outside of psychs and developmental people.
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