Advice sought by an employer from parents of individuals with Aspergers

[Bilbobaggins18]

Hi

I work in HR in a Tech company.

We employ many highly talented people technical roles (such as coding) some of which are diagnosed with Aspergers.

We want to do the best for all of employees. I wanted to hear from parents of children who are diagnosed with Aspergers or Autism - how can we make their working environment more comfortable for them?

For instance, I worry that they can get isolated in their technical roles, perhaps with a remote manager based in the US. We would like them to connect more with social groups locally so they have a "tribe' to
share common interests in the latest innovations within the company for instance.

I would really appreciate some feedback from parents who have sons or daughters working in tech and please share with me what they find frustrating in their workplace and what we can do better.

We hugely value these talented individuals and want to ensure they have a comfortable working environment.

Thank you !

Fleet I'd like to apologise- I was being deliberately blunt in response to your bluntness, in a way I never usually am.

I still maintain I am a good resource for people who are trying to work out what makes DS and DH 'tick', though! I suppose I'd like successful people with ASD to remember that not everyone with ASD has your skills and self knowledge.

DH really enjoyed a social recently which was based around pool, beer pong and darts. He has never played any of them, but having a focus made it much easier than sitting around chatting. He'd rather do an activity he doesn't like than make small talk- i don't think he realises this though, I'll mention it to him and see what he thinks.

I can see where you are coming from OP, and also with some of the misconceptions that NT people have. The thing, never forget that adult Aspies are people and adults first.

I am also somewhat confused as to why you are asking their parents? My mum would be somewhat bemused about how she could improve my time in an academic environment as a STEM scientist considering she is an english teacher. Is it possible you are thinking of vocational students or young adults?

In terms of reasonable adjustments what I find important is that employers when working with autistic adults should realise that content and purpose is everything. In general, and this is general considering every autistic person is different that providing employers focus on performance and the end results more rather than superficialities. Focusing on aspects of work which aren't that important for executing a job - e.g parties with a compulsory element generally do not sit well with autistic people but many NTs would also feel the same.
Thing is, as other posters have said, reasonable adjustments for autistic people would generally serve NT people well too. Autistic people are rather like canaries, we will be more acutely sensitive to toxic environments before NT people, but that doesn't mean NT people won't be affected.

One of my Aspie superpowers at work here: Killing the thread.

I wonder if the OP got anywhere or is this indicative of the lack of intereste that HR and compaines have in recognising the power of the autistic workforce.