I came across this while reading Rudy Simone’s book, Asperger’s on the Job. The book has been sitting on my shelf for year or two and I just found it while looking for another book. I just started it (I will comment on it later), but I just finished the forward written by Dr. Temple Grandin, which had many interesting insights, but included two that jumped out at me. She mentioned that in her experience with individuals on the spectrum, there were two issues related to management that she noticed kept coming up.
Issue #1: Promotion
So, the issue here is not that the individuals with autism do not get promoted. It is that they DO. The problem is that promotions often go hand in hand with more management duties and responsibilities and individuals with ASD are usually not well equipped for these new responsibilities. This reminds me that organizations really should have more roads to advancement available to their employees. People have different strengths and there really should be opportunities for advancement that take advantage of differing strengths.
Issue #2: Change in Management
This issue is harder to deal with, I think, but when there is a change in management where the new management is less supportive than the previous one, the work environment will often become unpleasant for the individuals with ASD. This is, unfortunately, a fact of life these days, but there is evidence that as employers have more interactions with individuals with ASD in the workplace, they are more likely to consider their strengths, rather than their weaknesses (I will add the reference!).
Related to the second issue, I think that these interactions should/could start at a young age. For example, my son, who is autistic, now spends most of his school day in a general education classroom (as opposed to a separate classroom for students with disabilities). This benefits him a great deal because he can model his behavior after neurotypical children. It benefits the other children, I think, because they are exposed to peers with different ways of thinking. And, I think, it benefits my son and his autistic peers in the future because these children will likely grow up to be adults who are more open to working with people with different ways of thinking. At least, I hope that is the case.
Employing the Spectrum 