Techies with Asperger's? Yes, we are a little different...

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Solving fiendishly intricate tech problems? Love it. Office politics and subtext? No thanks

By Stuart Burns, 8th October 2013

Shortly after being told I have Asperger's syndrome, I stood in front of 30-odd people, my work colleagues, telling them I have Asperger’s and what it means to them and to me. Some were like: "Meh, whatever!", some were busy looking their watches: "Is it lunchtime yet?" I could feel my job slowly ebbing away.

It was like crashing your car, in slow motion. You can see it coming but it takes its own sweet time. It wasn't my idea to make the disclosure, I hated doing it, and I really don't know what HR were thinking. (Does anyone, ever?)

My diagnosis had come about via a very non-standard route. During a course I attended I scored off the chart on a personality test in certain traits. At the end of the class and the teacher and I got talking. There were lots of questions along the lines of "Do I do this? Do I do that?"

Then she dropped the bomb. "I only do this as a stand-in for when the lecturer is not available. My day job is working with people who have ASD and I think you may have it."

On further questioning, as to her validity to make that call, it turned out she is one of the UK’s few specialists in the field of diagnosis. Fast-forward two months and I had more offers of help than I knew what to do with.

The outcome of all this was that within six months I was gone. My boss and I had never seen eye to eye, and this was the perfect way to get me out. Now he knew all my weaknesses, my Kryptonite, if you will, and could get me in an obsessive/defensive mood and then give me a hard time while I was still trying to fight my corner.

The rest of the article is here>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/08 ... s_techies/

Although I've never told a coworker how my brain worked, they've generally trusted that I was 'millenial enough' to understand all the software development jargon they threw my way. On day one, when it never even touched the pages of my resume. The unspoken presumption about me was that my sole focus was learning as much as I could; compensation, sociability, computing resources and of course office politics, such as they were (read: smear campaigns) all took a backseat to how much net worth my bosses estimated they could squeeze from my innate abilities. This set me on a studying spree that continues to this day. When I find the time to rewrite my resume, it will be transitioning from administration, software QA & mobile development to to AI, security consulting and cross-platform configuration management. Luckily enough I have some interviews lined up, but I have to move 1500 miles temporarily if they work out. I've never been payed overtime and my first contract draftee neglected to pay me at all - didn't even install what he had commissioned with the directions I provided.

I think the level of autonomy expected of us is inhuman, people like to pretend we're already searching for something as soon as they mention it. Some even go so far as to call us machines...

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos

Sorry you got dumped. I prefer non disclosure, except to close family and close friends. Don't have any friends, so those in the know are a very small group. It is important to be very careful about who you tell anything personal about yourself. Strangers, casual friends, employers, and co-workers may not be very sympathetic, understanding, or supportive. They have no deep investment of friendship or family ties to obligate them to be so. On the contrary, people often feel threatened by those who are not part of the main "herd," and will instinctively act against the "outsider." Also, as you found out, an employer can use the info against you, and so can a co-worker, neighbor, teacher or classmate. So I prefer to keep private info on a need-to-know basis. That's a good rule of thumb to use. If it's private info, and they don't need to know, then don't tell them.

in my experience acquaintances at work or out do not particularly care to know the reasons behind my behavior. they either dig me or they don't. and i've revealed things seeking understanding and received the opposite. so i've learned the hard way to just accept myself and try to be my best around others and let the chips fall where they may.

i've debated even telling potential employers that i'm disabled - legally they can't discriminate, but practically speaking, i've in fact seen it happen (for instance, writing notes on a resume in CAPS rather than lowercase letters to denote race).

the only people who get the full truth are those who may be closest to me at any given time, and even then i haven't been particularly well received.

in the end it doesn't matter what i call it - it's how i deal with it that matters.