Accommodations at Work

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Do you have, or have you had, formal or informal accommodations at work? If yes, what sort of accommodations do/did you have? Are there other accommodations from which you might benefit or might have benefited?

I am diagnosed with ASD and I have a 9-to-5 office job -- think open-concept cubicles, fluorescent lighting, computers, telephones, coworkers gossiping around the water cooler. Although I do very well at fulfilling the actual responsibilities outlined in my job description -- no one has ever criticized the quality/efficiency of my work or my work ethic -- I really struggle on a near-constant basis. I experience a great deal of difficulty interacting with colleagues, and have been criticized at work for everything from lack of eye contact to stiff posture to atypical speech to verbal volume modulation to overly formal and verbose writing style to perceived lack of appropriate emotional response/reciprocity to atypical/"inappropriate" conversation to verbal impulse control to misinterpretation of intention to perceived lack of respect for bureaucratic hierarchies.

Again, no one at work has ever said anything negative about my ability to fulfill the actual duties required of my position; in fact, quite the opposite. But spending 40 hours per week in the environment described above is really, really, really hard. My anxiety escalates as I travel into work each morning. I spend all day, every day trying to stay completely silent, even as my coworkers try to engage conversationally with me, for fear that I'll say the wrong thing. I regularly have to deescalate as I hurtle toward a panic attack. Although I'm pretty good at utilizing strategies to talk myself down from terror, I've had a couple of full-blown panic attacks at work. I almost always feel what my therapist and I call "too much" -- utterly overwhelmed by the deluge of sensory input.

My coworkers don't know that I have ASD.

I'm debating requesting a formal accommodation plan, but I'm not sure what to ask for, exactly. Mainly, I need understanding, patience, and forgiveness. But understanding, patience, and forgiveness aren't accommodations.

I'm curious to know what others have found helpful at work by way of formal or informal accommodations.

The first problem is that unless people know you have ASD, nothing will change. Can you speak in confidence to anyone at work? Like in the HR department, if there is one?

This is what I have asked for at work. So far, things seem to be going fine, but I don't work in an environment like yours.

My last job was in a corporate office environment. I understand the agony.

I had crafted a letter requesting accommodations but never formally submitted it because I spoke with a couple of supervisors (one of whom became the department manager) about my issues. They always made sure to assign me to the most private seating possible and "ran interference" for me in meetings. (It helped that I had skills that others in the department didn't have, making me "valuable.") I stayed at this job for nearly 9 years.

The thing is, once the department manager left, my work life became unbearable and a few months later I handed in my resignation letter and walked away. (I did try having conversations with leadership but they weren't really listening to what I was saying. I realized then it was pointless to try to work with them.)

It's hard to know "who to trust" in these situations. The better bosses wouldn't want you to suffer on the job -- they'll want you to produce your best work and if there's something they can do to improve your work conditions, they'll try to do something. For example, if you mentioned you had issues with noise, if the person you speak to suggests real solutions (different seating accommodations, work from home opportunities, noise canceling headphones, etc.) then maybe you can work through that situation. If they're dismissive (tell you to suck it up or tell you that you're smart so you should be able to figure it out on your own), well, I'm not sure you can come to an informal accommodation that way.

I am a sociologist who studies autistic adults at work. A lot of my work is inspired by an experience long ago with an undiagnosed aspie coworker as we transitioned at work from full cubes to open concept cubes. He was my friend so it really bothered me that they put him in this environment without thought to how he would feel. Out of a company of a few hundred, I would say he was in the top 3 most talented people there.

He dealt with it for awhile by bringing in stim toys (Warhammer figures), using headphones, and getting up to walk around (taking breaks about once an hour). But eventually he left the company for a better job and I'm pretty sure those cubes had something to do with it.

You will have to make sure you have a doctor's diagnosis of autism or Asperger's (an older diagnosis is fine) and show that to either HR or your direct boss and HR. Most people give a copy of the document to HR and just tell their boss.

You can ask to have a cube facing the wall, or in a corner. You might want to face the room so no one is behind you. Depends on what freaks you out more- people in front of you or behind you. If there is a work from home option, I would ask to do that one day a week or for emergency stress as needed. You can use headphones, of course. You can ask for work tasks to be given in writing, and/or for help in planning work tasks. If I were you, I would schedule your most stressful tasks so that they are buffered around easy things, breaks, or things you like to do.