Employer tells me to keep my ASD 'quiet'

Post Reply New Topic

Good evening, I hope that you are all OK

I would be interested in any comments on the following.

I am a Registered Nurse functioning as the Clinical Lead for a Local Authority (council) partnership company that provides community support services for people with intellectual disabilities and ASD. It takes referrals from the NHS and other Local Authorities. I have over 35 years experience within this specialism and have in my view, had a successful career, having gained additional qualifications and developing a number of new services from scratch.

Recently I was diagnosed with ASD, high functioning Autism / AS. This came as a great relief to me and helped me start to understand various aspects of my life. Professionally, I viewed this is a positive thing, my own Autism having given me a unique insight into the experiences of the clients that I have supported over the years and helped develop services for. I changed my linked in profile to include the fact that I am a health professional with ASD leading services for people with ASD.

When I discussed this with the executive management board of my service their view was not so positive. The chairman stated that he would rather that this was not common knowledge especially outside of the service as he thought that should potential commissioners take the view that key staff were "less than perfect" (his words) they may be reluctant to refer people to the service. He also thought that parents and families of people with ASD would not have as much confidence in the service.

I found this rather insulting and after I had processed it I thought that I would do a but of triangulation. I asked the head of marketing for their view. She said that she thought that it could be helpful to be open about it but that it would need to be managed 'very carefully' as we would not want anyone to loose confidence in the service.

Conversely, I spoke to a project lead for specialist services in North London who fed back that she could see nothing but positives in having a key service lead with ASD functioning within a health & social care service.

Whilst being bemused by peoples thought processes is nothing new to me I have to admit I am somewhat taken back by my organisations response. Perhaps its a simple case of naivety on my part.

I don't know the laws where you live, but I'm pretty sure in the US it is illegal to tell an employee they need to hide their disability.

You never know what personal biases people have. Some people get to the top because their lack of empathy allows them to push others aside. For others, empathy is an essential asset.

Sounds to me like your chairman and head of marketing are both trying to anticipate how other people might react to the information, and getting different results... which in either case could reflect their opinion of ASDs or their opinion of what they believe the “humans in general” opinion of ASDs.

Is the project lead in your organisation, or an one that procures services from yours?

If the latter then it could well be her own positive opinion coming through.

Not 100% convinced of my own thoughts, but there they are.

Are you nuts?

Management is right.

You are wrong.

Stop advertising your autism on this worksite online profile of yours. Or whatever it is.

The public views autism negatively.

you're implying that your autism is not only good (in a general way- which I agree with), but that its a selling point for you to work with autistic clients. May well be that it IS a good thing for that. But that doesn't matter.

I was diagnosed at the same late in life age you were, and like I view it as a good thing, that explained things, etc.

But I don't go around advertising the fact that I am aspie/HFA on the job nor anywhere else except on sites like this that exist for autism support, or in the real life support group I go to sometimes. There is just no reason to do that.

So, I work with Autism, advocate it being viewed in a positive light and not stigmatises whilst not being open about my own ASD?

Perhaps the fact that you think its about 'selling something' proves the point that I should keep it hidden.

Interesting take on things. I will ponder it further.

I've observed something similar to this before (not directed at me), while working with a company that provided complete care and education needs for people with complex disorders, ID and mental health challenges.

I believe it was the "them and us" distinction that was motivating the discrimination.
A management approach that found difficult decisions more palatable if the distinction between staff and clients was clear cut.
The chap I'm thinking of had ASD and was a permanent member of staff on an old type permanent golden contract... immovable basically. He was libel to voice his thoughts on equality in meetings with stakeholders, even when it wasnt in our bosses professional interest.

It didnt make him popular with management, but he didn't care, his job and roles/responsibilities were secure.

Here is what I think you should do:

1) Whatever else you do, consult an employment discrimination lawyer first.

2) Reach out to the organized autistic self-advocate movement -- which, as far as I can tell, is much better-organized in the U.K. than it is here in the U.S.A.

3) Preferably with the help of suitable contacts in the autistic self-advocacy movement, launch a public-relations campaign about the advantages of having at least some autistic people involved in running services for autistic people. Use Google search to find tutorials on how to write good press releases and how to get the media to pay attention to same.

Unfortunately, unless you are able to act VERY fast, you will probably miss the very best possible day of the year to send out such a press release: April 1, the day before April 2, which is international Autism Awareness Day. But there will probably be other opportunities to catch the media's attention during April, which is Autism Awareness Month, or Autism Acceptance Month as it has been re-named by various self-advocate groups. In any case, you probably do need to try to get this done by no later than mid-April or so to catch any part of the seasonal wave of media interest in autism.

I agree

Though I have yet to meet any parents of families who have expressed this kind of view

Wow, it sounds like leadership in your organisation is way out of line.

First off, in my experience parents of children with autism are really appreciative of the fact that I can talk to them from a viewpoint that helps them make sense out of their children in a way that they had never gotten from talking with NT professsionals. I'm not a medical professional, so I'm just talking to them as a friend, but having an articulated autistic viewpoint is something people really appreciate, especially if they have a child who struggles to express themself.

Then there is this whole question about people 'losing faith in the service.' I'm pretty sure that they are on very thin ice in term of the Equality Act 2010 here. Think of it this way: would it be legal for them to require that someone in a wheelchair hide themselves from patients because it might make the patients uncomfortable to see them? No, it wouldn't. I don't see how their suggestions about you suppressing your identity are any different.

It really sounds like your colleagues are stuck in a decades-old view of what autism is.