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Inevitable_Victory
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

Joined: 16 Nov 2021
Gender: Male
Posts: 1
Location: Florida

17 Nov 2021, 10:13 am

I (25M) work at a retail job and surprisingly I really like it. I am awaiting the results of and ASD assessment. My store's general manager and my department supervisor are good at there jobs and are generally fair in there judgement calls and leadership. But like every other relationship in my life, I haven't gotten close to anyone and so idk what I should do. On a recent performance review, I was told that I had a few customer's comments saying I made them feel uncomfortable. Over the entire time I've worked here, I have never had a time that I had I was perpetuating an uncomfortable situation throughout a interaction with a customer and not taking steps to either deescalate or turn things around and end on a positive note. I could get more detailed and nuance about this if that's needed to get better advice but based off that, when the test results come back and it turns out I'm on the spectrum, should I tell my GM and Sup that's I'm on the spectrum?

I hesitate because it's not like there's anything that they can do to accommodate me since I work retail in an at-will employment state. The only real reason I would want to tell them is if they took that information and responsibly used it as a prism to recognize my lapses in social perception and give me some slack as I work on improving myself. What should I do?

If I do have ASD and it's the reason that I can't successfully navigate these situations 100% of the time (but I at least from know that by informing them of my condition that they can correctly assess my performance through the lens of me having a medical condition versus me just being "a bad employee") then it would make sense to have them sign a HIPAA and disclose my ASD to them.

But because I don't work in an office environment, where I know for a fact that there are concrete steps that employers can take to improve the worklife of an ASD employee (like giving them the corner office, etc) versus in retail where there's a set standard salesfloor environment and ambiance and we can't control the personalities, needs, and expectations of any customers that come into the store, I can't imagine how they'd do that, then I don't know of any reason that I should.

UNLESS someone here has worked in retail before and has told their GM and Supervisor about there ASD and their supervisors arranged for immediate tangible accommodations made that improved there ability to be comfortable and perform there best in retail that I haven't heard of yet. That's the advice I need.