Should I Tell My Employers about my Aspergers?

[SuperheroBarbie]

I have recently been diagnosed so i am not sure how people will react to being told such news, so far i have been surprised at how ignorant some people are about autism in general. I have just started an internship that is unpaid, and im not sure if i should mention my aspergers to them. My family and a lecturer i told at uni make me feel like i should not tell anyone. I feel like what was the point iin being diagnosed after all this time if no one is going to take notice of it anyway. Im still very confused about what it all means and what i can do or others can do for me.

[ISABELLA27]

Hi

 

I've been having this experience myself and my advice would be if you are hoping that the internship will lead to paid employment, don't tell them yet, but get in touch with your local mental heath team, who should have somebody who supports people on the spectrum in their workplace. The consultant who assessed you should have put you in touch with them, but if they haven't, either get in touch with the consultant or the mental health team directly. The mental Health Services work with both employers and the individual, educating the employer and ensuring that your anxieties about work are discussed, crises avoided etc. They can't discriminate because of our ASD but if they don't know, they may find us tactless or unprofessional at times, so in the long run, I would avoid certain jobs which require you to engage too much with people (I was a teacher - bad idea), but I would tell them. Also, this is quite direct, but my family would rather nobody have known that I'm different, I've never followed their advice, otherwise I couldn't have accepted myself, and been proud of who I am.

 

Good luck

 

isabella

[leeds_demon]

To get around the problem of having to tell prospective employers, you could always become self-employed and work as a consultant offering advice to businesses on how best to provide support to employees with ASDs, or how to tailor their employment policies so that they can employ people with ASDs.