Do you work with other aspies/auties?

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One of my committee members asked me to include a section in my thesis about autistic work communities. Meaning departments with many autistic people working together in them. I used to work in software development so I know that what he's talking about exists. I'm having trouble researching this today because the academic articles out there are a little frustrating. That's my polite way of saying it..."frustrating." If anyone wants me to explain that I can, but I won't rattle on for no reason.

But if you work at a company where there are other openly autistic people working with you, or if you've heard about this kind of environment, please let me know so I can research the company.

A long time ago, a seemingly autistic person used to work in my unit. He is able to speak--but not too well. He was never social with anybody; though he was never hostile, either.

He still works for the organization where I work--but in a different department. He's been there a little longer than I've been there (which is almost 35 years).

I work for a small company, less than a hundred employees. I.T. right now is seven people. Two of us are diagnosed aspies, a third doesn't believe in "shrinks" but all agree seems to fit the criteria. All of us are introverts and have various sensory issues. At least two have diagnosed NVLD's. There might be a third, but she 'hides' behind an accent from a language she hasn't spoken in 30 years. We work extremely well together.

The rest of the company - all of them, save the accountants - are sales and marketing folks, exceedingly competitive alphas & type-A's, outgoing and amazingly skilled socially. We were like oil and water until we explained to them that they are like race car drivers & we are the mechanics that enable them to show off their talents to their best advantage.

I am curious about the papers / articles you are finding?

Haha! Race car drivers! I'm going to share that with my husband so he can use that the next time he's dealing with a "driver"!

Is your company in the Bay area or another tech heavy area? I'm going to regroup and try again soon.

My personal experience is the real background for my research. I used to work in software development and the aspie types were very helpful to me. I got along with them because my brother is an undiagnosed aspie and I've always gotten along easier with aspie types.

Yeah, okay. The articles...This really put me in a bad mood yesterday. Please everyone forgive me for being honest here. I am well aware that aspies and auties can and do work all over the place in all kinds of positions. Medical doctors, construction workers, models, drug dealers, programmers, literally anything you can think of.


OH they haven't had any of that happen! What a surprise! *I* would have thought they would have run raging over the premises like a zombie outbreak! And what about the 12 year old with all the talent...to PICK FRUIT?? What?

This is actually typical of what I find when I try to look for academic accounts of autistic people at work. This is also what I find when I just google autistic people at work. I'll have to look harder. But it gets to me after awhile.

When you're in sociology you're required to watch racist and sexist things from before civil rights as part of your education. The way I'd feel being bombarded with that crap is the same as how I feel reading all this about autistic people.

I work in an IT environment- although not an IT person myself and there appears to be one developer who I suspect to be on the spectrum. He is very soft-spoken and keeps to himself. He is a very diligent worker, and whenever the Director needs a go-to person to get something done on time he immediately calls him.
When he wants to speak to me, he actually messages me instead of shouting across the room (we are in one big room together) and he always seems to remember things that I have told him and is genuinely concerned about what I have to say.

I would say he was the best and most trusted developer at the company.

Those articles seem to assume "autism" = low functioning autism. The question is...why ? Even the most superficial research would indicate that it's a spectrum. It's like someone wrote an article to either fulfill an agenda or an assignment based on a view from 40 years ago. Interestingly, if you specify, say;
published papers high functioning autism workplace
in a search, the returned results are more aspie oriented. It's as if "autism" alone implies low functioning autism rather than the entire spectrum.

Yes, I'm in the SF Bay Area. Parts of it can be like a separate world just for HFA's - if they are tech savvy *and* have a good liaison layer between them and the rest of the company (which tend to have a lot of exceedingly socially adept managers & sales/marketing people since there is money to be made in tech right now).

Since you seem to be feeling a little frazzled / frustrated, I tried to help ya out.....

I don't know if these links will be of much help----most, are only articles; but, I thought maybe there might be some information gleaned, from them:

http://www.bu.edu/fsao/2013/01/22/autism-spectrum-disorders-in-the-workplace/ - Because it has "edu" in the address, I thought it might actually be a research paper.

https://www.gvsu.edu/cms3/assets/2CF6CA25-D6C6-F19E-339DC5CD2EB1B543/secondarylevellinkprograms/the_employee_with_autism.docx - Same with this one.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/adult-autism-employment/ - This one is a LIST of articles.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/07/autism-employment_n_7216310.html - This one, you might have already read, but I thought I'd include it, just-in-case.

https://www.thespectrumcareers.com/ - This one is a whole website dedicated to ASD careers; I thought there might be some articles on there.

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/04/22/177452578/young-adults-with-autism-can-thrive-in-high-tech-jobs - This article talks about young adults and high-tech jobs.

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/companies-seek-autistic-workers-fuel-innovation-article-1.1362853 - This article talks about companies that seek-out ASDers, to fuel innovation.

Like I said, I don't know if there'll be anything good, here----I just thought it'd give you a breather, from searching for articles / papers, yourself.

That's weird...sorry Cat! I did actually type something, but maybe my toddler "improved" the post before I posted it...

I had TRIED to say "CAT...You're fantastic! It really helps to have another eye on something. This gives me the energy I needed to get back on the horse!"

Or something just like that.

Just giving some electrons a purpose in life to tell you: That was wonderful and awesome and really nice of you!

I'm a big fan of Campin_Cat! She's smart, kind, and very interesting! I love that she's a teacher so that other people can learn from her!

SocOfAutism - I live in the silicon valley area. I have worked at both high tech and biotech companies for many, many years. While I have never said to myself, "this person I work with is an Aspie", I assume that I have worked with many Aspies. Honestly, I am not certain I would recognize someone who is an Aspie -- unless they told me. That is, many of the people I work with don't seem all that different from me (well, other than those in sales, marketing, accounting etc.). When I am with my co-workers, we only talk about the technical aspects of work. Otherwise, we just bury our heads in our computers. There is very little idle chit chat about anything but work.

By the way, my wife recently attended a talk hosted by a local Psychologist who has authored several books on Autism in children. According to this Psychologist, approximately 1 in 6 in the Bay Area is on the spectrum. I have no idea where that statistic came from. But, if it's true, pretty much every company is silicon valley is loaded with Aspies. It's not that much a surprise. This place is a magnet for detailed oriented, overly analytical, super obsessive types with no social skills.

Thank you for that, Rocket! I am still looking for leads in the Bay area. I'm hoping I will find something.

The best thing I have found to cite is from Campin_Cat. In Germany there's a company run entirely by openly autistic people, another one that looks primarily for autistic consultants because they see them as superior specialists and a third who has an equal opportunity-type goal of hiring over 600 autistic employees internationally by 2020.

I should be finding much, much more.

I believe the reason why I'm not is because it's like what you're saying, Rocket. Autistic people and red-haired people are a similar statistic: 1.5% of the population. If I tried to find out how many red-haired people worked with other red-haired people, I'm not sure I would find many, if any, academic articles about it. If I asked people about it, I think most of us would be at a loss to remember. Most red-haired people are like me, KINDA red-haired, not really standing out. I have no idea how many kinda red-haired people I've worked with. I can only remember the one girl I worked with who had flaming red hair. I'm sure there were others, like Rocket said, who didn't really stand out because we were focused on work, not hair.

I may have to write just that in my thesis. I think my committee member gave me an impossible task when he asked me to research this.

Thank you for that, Rocket! I am still looking for leads in the Bay area. I'm hoping I will find something.

The best thing I have found to cite is from Campin_Cat. In Germany there's a company run entirely by openly autistic people, another one that looks primarily for autistic consultants because they see them as superior specialists and a third who has an equal opportunity-type goal of hiring over 600 autistic employees internationally by 2020.

I should be finding much, much more.

I believe the reason why I'm not is because it's like what you're saying, Rocket. Autistic people and red-haired people are a similar statistic: 1.5% of the population. If I tried to find out how many red-haired people worked with other red-haired people, I'm not sure I would find many, if any, academic articles about it. If I asked people about it, I think most of us would be at a loss to remember. Most red-haired people are like me, KINDA red-haired, not really standing out. I have no idea how many kinda red-haired people I've worked with. I can only remember the one girl I worked with who had flaming red hair. I'm sure there were others, like Rocket said, who didn't really stand out because we were focused on work, not hair.

I may have to write just that in my thesis. I think my committee member gave me an impossible task when he asked me to research this.

Might part of the problem be that many Aspies prefer or realize the (unfortunate) practical aspects of flying under the radar? Academics running studies can probably find subjects far easier by going through work programs for LFA's and so tend to focus on that end?

http://www.aane.org/asperger_resources/ ... loyer.html

http://www.pe.com/articles/sharon-75808 ... ffice.html

http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/ ... disability
(consider with this one that some employers avoid disabled employees *because* of the ADA)

At a work experience I once did I might haven noticed some people, but they either had none at all or had a host of many other health issues like cerebral palsy, paralysis etc, so although they might just have one thing that I have, doesn't make it that we're the same, I might have worked with others like me in the past, therefore hypothetically, if I could clone myself, I just wouldn't work with myself that well because I don't even know myself, I don't know what I want, sure I have someone else to play with on games and stuff but thats it. Working with NT's would be better than working with aspies, I'd just be having too many arguments, or working with no one would be my dream job, though in reality its impossible to find any job that involves working 100% independently.