UK Autistic employment situation not improving

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Employers are letting down people with autism

I have seen the NAS petition about this. It's appearing frequently on FB. The idea being that we should all sign to get the government to 'do more' to fix this issue.

I'm refusing to sign.

As much as I want to know that in the future, I'll be able to find employment that suits me, I am very much against forms of positive discrimination. I feel that's what the NAS is aiming for, here.

No employer should have to spend money hiring and retaining someone that isn't the best person for the job. It doesn't make good business sense, it can negatively affect companies and everyone within them and it's micro-management at its worst, from an outside entity.

I think it's fantastic if companies want to find their own ways to help autistic individuals into work - if they can afford to, and can absorb the hit of potentially having someone being paid to do a not-good-enough job - and by all means we should be working on getting the message out about how an autistic employee shouldn't automatically be written off. However, my concern is that surveys and petitions like this will turn autistic people into burdens on employers, and I do not want to be a burden.

No employer should feel that they have to hire me to fulfil their 'autistic person quota'.

If I were employed by someone, I wouldn't want to think that it was purely to meet some kind of target. I'd rather feel needed.

I don't think there's the slightest prospect of the "autistic target" being implemented and very little chance of positive discrimination.

The best we can hope for:

1) Employment mentoring for autistic people
2) Awareness of reasonable accommodations that can be made to allow an autistic employee to work at the same level as an equally talented NT employee. Some of these may be "drop-curbs" which actually help all employees, such as advanced notice of shift changes.
3) Making the hiring process fairer to autistic people - for example, not demanding that applicants have "excellent people skills" unless the job actually requires it, as that may put off a suitable autistic applicant.

I want to 2nd that bit about people skills the walrus mentioned and add to it interviews in general. I can beat almost anyone at almost anything which doesn't involve lying or people skills or extensive training I don't have. So let me work for free for a day and show you that I will learn any task you might have for me faster than anyone else you will ever meet. I'm not fussy about workplaces or types of work as long as they follow OHS.

I have never had anyone think I was incompetent at any task (who actually watched me). I fail to deal with bad middle management and I fail to deal with workplace politics and this has ended up with me being unemployed nearly as often as I have been employed. No one has ever judged me harshly via my work (who has seen my work, management dont always go to the bother of actually checking your work, sometimes gossip gets you down). It'd be nice if my job is putting boxes in a truck for me to be judged on how I put boxes on a truck, not on how much I am able to manipulate people around me into liking me or how good I am at dealing with workplace bullies.

I'm not the only Aspie I know who has been fired for being the best at the job rather than the worst either. Having a solid work ethic and good skills often make you stand out in a bad way and if you couple that with workplace politics it gets you fired sometimes (I have actually won money in court for unfair dismissal twice).

Get rid of workplace discrimination and let me prove myself by doing instead of salesmanship and I wouldn't ever be without a job.