Disclosing AS to your employer

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I'm considering disclosing my recent diagnosis to my employer (HR rep) and/or supervisor and was wondering if anyone would care to weigh in on the pro's and con's. I'm not looking for accommodations or excuses. I just think it might help in broadening my supervisor's understanding of why I do the things I do and think the way I think.

If you've had the experience of disclosing AS to an employer/supervisor, did you find that it more often helped or hindered your working relationship?

I'm not employed but I intend to disclose and ask for accommodations.

How about yes and it made little difference?

or they have no idea what it is: "yeah but i read on wikipedia that ALL AUTISTICS do this and you dont therefore you dont have it"


"autistics dont like change but you changed the light bulb so u cant be autistic..."


plus the obvious, lack of a formal diagnosis, and as i'e said many a time before, i meet a lot of the criteria, and multiple learning psychologists cant be wrong, but for some reason i never did get the call back from the local clinic.... so instead of saying

"im a weirdo that stands too close to people wants hugs doesnt do eye contact or stupid pointless conversation prefers to work alone takes ages to think things over because apparently im deaf but i just need extra time to process information,has learning problems but above average IQ and is scared sh1tless of traveling alone especially for the first time and has repetitive interests and doesnt know how to keep a conversation going without scripting it beforehand" and about a couple dozen other things,

i say "i have aspergers"- simpler, isn't it? much less explanatory yes, but simpler.

if they want more info, then i say its "am autism related learning problem" - which i DO have a diagnosis for... sorry what was the question?

This is a big question for me - if I were to be diagnosed at least.

The bigger question is probably whether I would have a professional obligation to disclose to clients.

I picked the second option, since that was the closest. For me, I have not disclosed it and I am not sure if I will or not. If it becomes necessary to disclose, then I will. If I have no reason to, then I probably won't.

If it's not immediately obvious and if you don't need accommodations, I would definitely not disclose. I disclose because of things like having meltdowns in the bathroom (if I'm lucky enough to make it that far), speech issues, and needing a job coach at all times. It's not a matter if "is she different?" but rather "what's wrong?"

I've disclosed to my two supervisors of where I volunteer, and they've been terrific about it! When I am eventually employed, I've decided to disclose at time of employment offer.

I haven't been diagnosed, and I haven't mentioned my suspicions to anyone at work.

But in conversations with one another and with me, some of my co-workers have directly referred to me being autistic, and many people on the staff, including my supervisor, seem to be aware of that.

My work is not affected so I don't think my co-workers need to know anything more about me than they do.(The fact I'm on WP at work aside )

Yes and no. I haven't disclosed it to anybody. However, one of my coworkers is familiar with AS and guessed. She is very discrete about it and leaves it as my decision.

I tested the waters a bit at my old job, telling some of my coworkers/bosses and not others. The results were not uplifting. Only one person, a fellow manager, was sympathetic. Most everyone else was disbelieving or just ignorant. At my new job, I plan to keep the information in secret, but I may have to tell my boss about it if things keep getting worse, as they are apt to do. I come across as nearly normal but a bit of a space-cadet, so when I do have issues, people just think I'm being a jerk. But anyway, my advice is to only tell people on a need-to-know basis. And even then, only tell ones who can be trusted to use the information intelligently.

My opinion would be no. While I've told some people I work with that I do, I have not told HR and I don't plan to. I've found out that the people I've told at work attribute any little thing I do to AS and I feel HR would do the same. Remember that HR is going to look out for HR and are going to take actions that make them look good. If they find out an employee has AS, they might feel that person would be better off cleaning toilets. They know that the person with AS isn't going to be happy with that and will probably quit which is what they wanted all along. Beware of HR; you may think they will act in your best interest but they will not,

I think some employers do tend to treat an employee telling them they are 'disabled' as a bit of an alarm bell. They may see an employee who's suddenly come out as 'disabled' as a potential liability, thinking of future disability claims and paid leave that this employee might take to deal with their problems. It could potentially mean being passed over for promotion (though they are not supposed to discriminate, this is hard to enforce), and they may even try to come up with reasons to terminate employment where they might otherwise try to keep an employee on. I'm not saying all employers will do this, naturally, but its a definite concern.

I can't really speak to US law - but I believe the ADA is more or less the same as the anti-discrimination laws I'm used to here. That means they only have to accommodate to the point of reasonableness - if they take some steps to try to accommodate the employee but problems persist they can terminate for cause. It's also worth noting that a disability will normally not exempt you from basic job requirements, if they can show that you can't reliably perform your job and no amount of accommodation will make it possible, you could be terminated.

(caveat - this is just generally commentary, not meant to be relied upon as legal advice)

I'm on the fence. I'd feel better about myself being "out of the closet" but I've been burnt in the past. In some ways disclosing means that your managers automatically have lowered expectations of you and you'll have to work 6x harder than your peers in order to keep your job.

Yes, I told my current employer, after I had been employed for several months.
I decided to do this after I had shown myself to be a useful and hard-working employee.
The accommodations I require are to do with time and sufficient explanation of tasks.
I have chosen an occupation in which social skills and PR are a small part, which makes my life easier.

I also thought it would be ok to tell my employer because he has Aspergers as well, and had me figured out already.
So far so good, though I would not take the same approach with a NT employer.

I encourage people with ASD to find a niche in which their characteristics are valuable.
This means that there is less difficulty "fitting in", and less expectation that other people must make accommodations.

Of course, ASD is officially a "disability"; legally and morally deserving of accommodations in the workplace.
However, in real life it can be difficult to negotiate this, and finding a suitable niche is easier than having other people change.