Aspergians can be great employees

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Aspergians can be great employees
Jul 29, 2008 @ 12:00 AM
The Herald-Dispatch
Asperger's syndrome causes more stress to the "Aspie" than it does to his or her co-workers.

The differences between Aspergians and neurotypicals, or people with brain functions typical of the majority of the population, can sometimes make for unnecessary conflict in the workplace. But with a little education and understanding, both sides can be happy and productive

With the recent explosion of information about autism/Asperger's syndrome, many busy employers are hearing bits of research and may be forming an incomplete picture in their minds of the sort of jobs that are best suited for someone suffering from a disorder on the "autism spectrum disorder." ASD includes a wide range of diagnosese including Asperger's syndrome, autism and pervasive developmental disorder. Autism is a brain development disorder that impairs social interaction and communication, and causes restricted and repetitive behavior, all starting before a child is 3 years old. Other disorders on the spectrum, such as Asperger's, are milder.

It has been said that if Asperger's syndrome did not exist, neither would the Internet, or computers for that matter. This poses the question "What did Aspergians do before the computer was invented?" The answer is nearly everything. They designed and built telescopes, steam engines, light bulbs, telephones and automobiles. They created works of art such as Mt. Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty. They created graceful buildings that we admire to this day.

A lot of the recent reports would make many folks think that people on the spectrum are only useful in narrow areas of machinery and mathematics. This is not so. The belief that all people with ASDs are unable to communicate well is completely false. Many people on the spectrum are authors, editors and speech writers. It is true that for many, small talk can be difficult, but an employer may be pleasantly surprised to discover that their new employee has done a great deal of reading on the subject of how to get along in the workplace with all sorts of people. A great many Aspergians are careful and diplomatic, preferring to avoid giving opinions on politics, race or religion. Knowing full well how incendiary these topics can be, many are loathe to discuss them at work.

The office cookie exchange or birthday party can be a hurdle. Many people on the spectrum have sensitivities to different foods, and with the addition of singing, games and carousing, they may feel overwhelmed.

It is common for neurotypicals to form cliques in the workplace, lunching together, carpooling and even visiting each other's homes. Many people on the spectrum understand the need that "NTs" have to do this, but prefer not to get emotionally involved with their co-workers.

Many "Aspies" are married with children to support and prefer to relax after work with their families. Any experienced manager can tell you that office friendships sometimes dissolve, leading rapidly to gossip and often sabotage of the co-worker's tasks. This may be entertaining for a few neurotypicals who see their employer as a sort of high school principal, but many Aspies can see the big picture: enough monkey business and soon there's no business.

People on the spectrum who grew up wanting to fit in have often studied etiquette. They are reserved about discussing their personal lives and are surprised sometimes by probing questions their co-workers may ask about an Aspie's spouse, children, or background. Often, they hesitate to answer because they are afraid of boring the co-worker. People on the spectrum often greatly enjoy quiet hobbies that NTs would find dull.

So, if you are in a position to hire someone, please don't assume that people with ASDs are only good at one narrow field. It is true that their brains are "wired differently," but if treated fairly without condescension, an employee on the spectrum can be a valuable and innovative asset to the workplace with a desire to do expected tasks in the most efficient, effective and cost-productive way possible.

Kathy Ferrell is an illustrator born in Huntington and still residing here. Her Asperger's syndrome became evident during her preschool years when she demonstrated her drawing skill, intense focus, recall and voice mimicry, among other symptoms. Her art work has been published in a wide variety of books and magazines, in both the U.S. and abroad.

Nice article!

Wow, this article made so many good points...I like that they mentioned that some Aspies prefer not to socialize with coworkers. This has been a bit of a hurdle for me at my current job - I just don't want to participate in after work happy hours and potlucks at people's houses. All day long, I have to work hard to behave in a way that is acceptable to others...after work, I want to leave all that behind, not prolong it by tacking on company social events to my day.

Nice article but reality is AS is a f**king curse.

I find that most aspies have far more issues with "office politics" than with actually doing the job. Problem is, most jobs today ARE office politics, they're all about your clique, who's in or out, who can be ignored and who must be brown nosed, who is weird and who is not. Work is becoming more and more like one big high school.

Aspies, without exception, did poorly in high school, sucked at the clique thing, and were "dorks" or other outcasts. Aspies have zero desire to work in that sort of environment. This inevitably leads to complaints that the aspie is "not a team player" or "does not fit the corporate culture" as if being popular equated being productive. Usually the aspie will simply be fired for this. Since the corporate culture of a city is much like the cliques among the employees, with bosses and owners partying together on weekends, the recalcitrant aspie soon finds himself blacklisted. No work is possible, and the aspie usually ends up on welfare.

The downside to an organization culture full of organization men and women is that the organization becomes more important than humanity. Either you are popular, or you are an outcast. Only the owners have power that your high school valedictorian could only dream of: the power to cut off your means of sustenance and thus snuff out your very existence. That's a steep price to pay for not being well liked.

In some ways, modern society is a degraded form of earlier societies. In an agricultural society, your value was determined by your physical ability. If you could plow, you plowed. Aspies usually could pass unnoticed because land doesn't care what you think about it. In the industrial age, you worked if you could. The top earners depended on their superior ability to organize raw materials, land, labor, and capital, to create new things. If you could successfully get access to material, you too could be well off.

Today, we are in a new age. Management professionals call it the "collegial environment". In Latin America, the word "colegio" refers to what Americans would call high school. Therefore, what we have is a working world that is one big high school, where the popular people and the best sycophants get the rewards, and those who can't be popular or kiss butt well are condemned to poverty. Aspies usually find themselves on the outside, their very worth as human beings called into question, because they are not good at sycophancy.

This may eventually lead to attempts to get rid of autistics altogether because of this flaw. They are not productive, after all, they don't produce enough value added to be worth supporting. In the collegial world, your worth is solely based on how rich you make others. If you are a "useless eater" (a word coined during the industrial age, when this view developed), you should be eliminated-the productive need those resources more than you do. The production targets are ever increasing, because the boss needs a new Bentley and to pay the mortgage on his megamansion in Palm Beach. If you can't keep up, you are discarded. This reminds me of the Khmer Rouge, under which life had no value other than what it could offer Brother Number One (aka Pol Pot) in productive value.

As increasing numbers of people are discarded, the system will find it increasingly difficult to sustain itself with the remnant. This happened to Rome-the taxpaying class was wiped out because slaves and welfare leeches were easier to control, except that without taxes there was no government and no way to pay the ground level soldiers who kept everything in line. When the barbarians struck, the cops headed for the hills, and the patricians found themselves in deep doodoo.

It's a curse for me too.

I wonder if the bosses of these organisations are often Aspies. I read a few years ago that the most common qualification of CEO's in America was electrical engineer.

wow, what did you guys do to be cursed?

Merle

First, Glenda Ruth and Paul Robert meet... and the rest is history!

Okay, not quite. I'm glad to be alive, but if I could have the same or greater IQ and be NT, I would.

I would give you all my NTness if I could, iamnotaparakeet, I have pretty much had all I can take of wanting to be NT any more.

Merle

Not me. I feel bad for NTs. Though I have had some difficult experiences due to the majority of others I've interacted with being NTs, I wouldn't give any of those experiences up for the added beauty I get from every brighter color and richer sound.

I'm sure this is jarringly irritating to some who don't see these things as positively human, but alien qualities. And not fundamentally understandable. But why do my experiences need to be validated or understood by some random NT to be worthwhile? Because they're the majority, and I'm the minority? What if the tables were turned, and the NT brain was the alien mind? It's relative, I suppose.

when I was a girl the original Twilight Zone had an episode that made quite an impression on me. "The Eye of the Beholder" where a normal looking woman was desparate to have plastic surgery so she could fit in and the characteristic ending twist everybody else looked hideously repulsive. I have thought about that episode since I have been DXed.


Merle

I guess it's a matter of balance, having a decent knack for the technical functions of the job, yet being able to groove reasonably well with those around you.

The person writing the article probably has milder cases in mind, whereas those too far off the deep end are SOL.

Do honest and sincere dedication, loyalty and good will break through over the back stabbing slime dripping sycophants over time?

"Problem is, most jobs today ARE office politics,"

Exactly. There's no use in stating once and again all the good working skills that Aspies have. We lack the one skill that is sought in today's work market, everywhere: the skill of manipulating social contact in one's (and one's boss's) favor. Not even all NTs have this ability or can learn it enough to survive in the job market.