“I Do That for Everybody”: Supervising Employees with Autism
Introduction:
This is another often cited paper where supervisors of 14 successfully employed individuals with autism (at various organizations) were interviewed regarding their employees with ASD. It should be noted that the 14 employees all had some connection with an employment support service. This is an early paper on this subject and the sample size was necessarily small, so the recommended strategies are admittedly suggestions. The researchers believe, however, that based on their research, it is very likely that “supervisory and management style has a great deal to do with the success or failure of an employment experience for an individual with autism” (p. 97). This idea is supported by Parr, Hunter, and Ligon’s study as well.
Top Points:
Some of the Results:
- Helpful strategies in the area of job modification were: maintaining consistent schedules and job duties, providing organizers to help structure and keep track of work, reducing unstructured time.
- Helpful strategies in the area of supervision: be direct and specific (use of phrases like “what’s up?” may throw an employee off), verify that communications are correctly understood, assisting in social issues and changes.
- Helpful strategies in the area of co-worker relationships and social interactions: encourage co-workers to initiate interactions (co-workers, apparently, found the individuals with ASD friendly and sufficiently social when they initiated interactions).
- Helpful strategies in the area of support services: transfer relationships and supports to company employees, check in occasionally and when problems arise, maintain a liaison for nonwork issues that affect the job.
- There is also a brief mention that job tryouts may be useful in lieu of formal interviews.
Additional Notes:
One employee in the study had a “paid co-worker” model where a support person was another employee of the company, rather than someone supplied by an agency. This support person’s salary, however, was subsidized by the employee’s long-term support funding and she was responsible for working along-side the employee. Since my speciality is not rehabilitation counseling, I had not heard of this type of arrangement, an arrangement that may be a very useful avenue for some on the spectrum.
Reference:
Hagner, D., and Cooney, B. F. (2005). “I do that for everybody”: Supervising employees with autism. Focus on Autism and other Developmental Disabilties: 20(2), pp. 91-97
Employing the Spectrum 