The Hidden Struggles of Working as an Autistic Person
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Did you know that only 29% of Autistic people are in full-time or part-time employment?
As an Autistic person, I am often praised for holding down a full-time job, a side hustle and obtaining my undergraduate degree.
At face value, people see a “functional” adult making a name for themselves in the world.” From the age of 17, I’ve held down part-time jobs during my studies and later obtained a full-time job after my undergraduate degree. However, people don’t see the daily struggles of having to maintain this appearance, such as masking and combating Autistic burnouts.
Unfortunately, I’m not the only Autistic person to go through the struggles of maintaining a job. According to the Harvard Review, many Autistic people want to work, but hidden barriers either make it unbearable to keep a job or the company itself reinforces ableist attitudes.
In this post, I want to discuss some hidden struggles of Autistic people in the workplace.
Camouflaging
Firstly, one aspect of working as an Autistic person is camouflaging our Autistic qualities to fit in with our colleagues. For example, while working in retail, I participated in masking behaviours to appear as “socially acceptable” to the customers. This involved forcing eye contact and ensuring that I always had a smile on my face to appear approachable.
A common misconception is that Autistic people are “anti-social” or “rude.” Thus, this misconception made me want to challenge this stereotype by portraying an extroverted self-image. However, doing that only resulted in me experiencing exhaustion at the end of the day.
Working Long Hours
Another hidden struggle is having to work long hours. During my roles, they have required me to work long hours, whether that was 6 or 8 hours.
Some people may be thinking that 8 hours for instance is not long compared to the 12-hour shifts that nurses and doctors do, but it' goes beyond the working hours itself. For example, I often had to combat over-stimulation at work, whether that was the harsh lighting, loud noises or the multiple demands from customers. For many Autistic people, over-stimulation can lead to burnout. This refers to a prolonged state of physical and mental fatigue caused by experiencing intense stress. Despite knowing that over-stimulation increases my risk of experiencing a burnout, I was (and still am) determined to appear as a functional adult.
Authority Figures
Lastly, another hidden struggle is interacting with authority figures. There have been moments in the past when it’s clear that either I’m being taken advantage of or experiencing discrimination, but instead of calling out these acts of discrimination, I validated their behaviour due to believing I was in the wrong. For example, in my activity leader role, I had a manager who purposely singled me out by excluding me from specific job roles. This included anything involving interacting with the students or teachers, such as day trips and lunch duties. Although I knew their behaviour was a form of ableism, I believed I deserved to be treated that way as I was too “socially awkward” for the role.
Therefore, these are only three examples of the hidden struggles that many Autistic people experience in the workplace. I’m lucky enough to have now found an organisation that understands my needs, but there are still many organisations that need to be more Autistic and disability-inclusive.
Have you experienced any difficulties in employment as an Autistic person? Comment down below.
There’s limited research on the intersectionality between race, disability and gender, and how it amplifies stereotypical images of specific groups, especially for Black Autistic women.