should I get officially diagnosed AND tell my boss?

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I am wondering if I should get officially diagnosed and/or tell my boss or HR department of the whole ASPIE thing if I am indeed diagnosed as this. (I'm pretty sure it's somewhere around that...)

Has anyone here been diagnosed, told their boss or HR department and instead of understanding found hostility? Or possibly even being discriminated or fired for it?

Well, ask yourself.... what do you have to gain? Is your affliction affecting your performance? Are you hoping for some sort of accomodation?

If not, I don't see that it's any of their business.

If you are in the US, it is against the law to fire you or discriminate against you just because you have a disability. It's a violation of the ADA.

You do not have to tell your supervisor, but you do have to tell the HR person. If you disclose, you need to do it in the spirit of not wanting special treatment per se. If you don't disclose but have the disability and bring it up as a reason you may have been fired, as in: I have difficulty with social situations and thus was fired. However, if you have disclosed and they attempt to fire you for that reason, then you have something to negotiate with.

I wouldn't tell your boss. Getting a diagnosis won't change how you do your job, but telling your boss will affect how your boss give you responsibility and how they will treat you. Even though they aren't supposed to treat you different in ways it doesn't apply to your AS, they still will treat you different. It is human nature and protocol won't change human nature. I didn't tell my boss about my AS, but I did try to explain to him how some things were difficult to me. And I realized by telling him that I had problems won't help me get more responsibility it would actually probably limit me since the boss now has to think, "oh well I can't give this project to him since they have problems and I don't want to make the risk of them screwing it up." So as a result they would just give you sh***y impossible to screw up tasks.

I am not sure about telling HR, so I have no advice about that.

Well if you are not officially diagnosed you do not know that you have AS. And even if you do have AS does not mean a psychologist will give you the diagnosis. Its actually really hard to get a dx as an adult for AS.

However telling your employer you have AS is about the worst thing you could do. They will find reasons to fire you if they find out. ADA does not cover Aspergers and even if it did employers can still find loopholes in laws so they can find a way to get rid of you if you have a disability.

Telling people at work you have AS is like Barney Fife shooting himself in the foot. Don't do it!

What does ADA stand for?

Americans with Disabilities Act

I'm guessing because I'm not American - but "Anti Discrimination Act".

In Australia it's called the "Disability Discrimination Act". And I agree with Ticker - and I have actually experienced that reaction. Once I was DXed was Aspergers and I told them (I had to - I was having issues) they made sure I was sacked and engineered a situation whereby I was ruled "unfit for employment" by a government medical officer. Thus that gave them an excuse to sack me.

Of course I'm not saying that's fair (it's not) but that's the state of play at the moment. The lack of recognition by the legal system of Aspergers is also the case in Australia - and this is something that I am fighting to change. If anything because society treats Aspergers as a disability even though I think of it as an ability.

Not to mention getting that medical report 86ed!!

Well, I was saying what LIVERBIRD meant, and gave a descriptive name, because that was what was asked for. As you indicated, EVERY place has a different name, and some places don't even have such a law.

EVERYONE is disabled in a way!

In basic ability, I may be about the LEAST disabled at work, with regard to work! But NTs see disabled as having a noticable impediment to what THEY consider basic abilities. By THAT measure, many of them are NOT disabled, and I AM!

you'll remember that I recently set out for an official dx and well, while he was prepared to say that x, y and z were characteristic of the disorder, he also did not feel the need to give me an official dx.

I am "functioning" on some level. I get up and go to work each day, I have children and a spouse...all the rest seemed irrelevant.

Truthfully speaking though, I didn't need it. I just wanted to have it, as I feared that one day I would be in a position where my employer would try to rid of me because of my AS characteristics while working. Sadly, I work with people and well, often times my most AS features don't "fly" around here...

If you have a team of people that "get it" and/or "get you", you are in a much better position...I have absolutely no difficulties in my more immediate work space now, as others have been eliminated from those I have to interact with daily, but if I had more than the few I deal with now, I know I would be in serious trouble. There have been MANY MANY times where others were gunning for me and I spent nearly an entire year in my supervisor's office daily....thank God she liked me!! !!

Rather than ridding of me, she opted to manipulate the position so that I did not have to work with them...

All depends on your specific circumstances...imo.

Good luck with your decisions...

You're not an Aspie if you're not diagnosed. Legally, you're just a really shy person. Get the DX.

I have not been formally diagnosed, but I will say that I am in the process of attempting to find my school records. In 4th grade I was taken out of regular classes and put in some type of special ed class. I was there with only boys...there were about 5 boys and then me. Now that I know all the signs/symptoms of AS/HFA, autism, there is no doubt in my mind that ALL of those other boys had some form of autism. There was one that was very high functioning like myself, but there was another that did not speak at all or spoke very little and constantly rocked when we sat at lunch. For some reason, I was taken out of that class after a while, but I can't remember if it was weeks or months...I've asked my mother, but she "claims" she was NOT aware of this at all...which of course I think is a lie, she's just trying to cover herself for the cruelty from both her side and my dad that I endured...If she admits that indeed I was diagnosed with something such as this, she would have alot of explaining to do for the cruel treatment I received.

Anyway, thanks for the info...I think you are right that they just won't understand and will just make my life more miserable...they've done a good job already. I do know I could function much better before (been working for 18 years at the same company), even worked in marketing/sales, etc...but as I get older and have more stress in my life, it is getting harder for me to deal with it all. So I do plan to be able to quit my job at some point soon, because it is getting out of control with the harrassment constantly from co-workers.

True, although NT's won't admit it!

The last college I attended I did not list AS as a "special needs"

During my enrollement I spoke to a teacher confidentally because I was having some trouble with some of the qi=uestions an answers in class.

He told me after class " he was just yanking my chain"

I told him I sometimes have trouble telling when someone is joking because os my autistic Aspergers.

He laughed at me everytime I said Aspergers.

So you see why I did'nt list it originally?

Actually, Dave, I think that's a good reason to tell people. Certainly in the education environment - which is different to work because the protection measures (in theory at least) are better.

I mean heck, I got a shocker of a teacher once at primary school (elementary school to the Americans on this board - I think!). I wasn't DXed with AS at the time, but nevertheless he treated me as a bit thick. I reacted badly, and the principal accused my parents of being poor (that got him a fire and brimstone response from my father!) and I ended up changing schools. The principal got into trouble for not doing his job properly and penalising the teacher concerned.

So in that instance, you should have told the college from the get go. Then that person who gave you static would have got into trouble for his behaviour towards you.

Such a shame that schools don't work the same way as work places!

I'm going to be employed in the near future (go me), and it's known before I start training by the [government] employers that I'm autistic, so I'll be accommodated to some extent due to my "issues".

I'll like direct orders, no ambiguity, routine/plans, and people will know that there's a reason for why I won't interact with them socially (they'll leave me alone); if you're experiencing problems in areas directly related to your affliction in employment, I don't see why you cannot ask for fair accommodations if you're able to do the work they ask of you (the door swings both ways after all).

Diagnosis is kinda essential to have if you wish to receive said accommodations however.