In 2022, I faced critical interpersonal challenges in a workplace that threatened my job and mental wellbeing. I excelled in complex technical problems, but I had no idea how to address the precarious social challenges with my team. After trying to talk through the situation, my director recommended that I seek therapy, so I connected with two psychologists. Both diagnosed me with Level 1 Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a neurological condition characterized by deficits in social communication and, in my case, gifts in detailed logical thinking.

Sadly, this diagnosis alone was not enough to help and I still had to leave that job to protect my mental health. Since my diagnosis I have joined autistic communities, read scientific research, engaged with professionals, and reflected on the many challenges of my career. What I have discovered is that autism is deeply misunderstood, distinguished by significant socioeconomic challenges and immense potential. It is my hope that, by sharing my experience and research, we can recognize the humanity of autistic people and tap into the value of our collective human potential for the benefit of businesses and individuals.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a hereditary neurodevelopmental condition in which, during infancy, an autistic child’s brain develops in an atypical way. This atypical brain development is highly variable, expressing symptoms that range in type and severity. As of 2022, around 2% of children in the United States were diagnosed with ASD. While each autistic person will have their own unique set of symptoms, their symptoms will ultimately fall under two categories:

• Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts (e.g., abnormalities in eye contact, lack of facial expressions, absence of interest in peers, etc.)
• Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities (e.g., fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, etc.)

The neurological research is still ongoing, but accepted studies have shown that autistic people have differences in:

• The amygdala, the area of the brain responsible for emotional processing.
• The cerebellum, the area of the brain recently identified as playing a role in social learning.
• The hippocampus, an area of the brain responsible for learning and memory.
• The visual cortex, the area of the brain responsible for receiving and processing images.

As a neurological condition, there is no cure. Nor should there be! The differences in autistic brain structures still offer valid ways to experience this world. For example, I naturally visualize complex systems in 3-dimensional, time-based structures that allow me to "see" problems and identify solutions. However, this capability comes at the cost of social and emotional communication that my neurotypical peers find natural. By respecting our differences, we can gain value from our collective human potential.

Some famous people born with autism include Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Tim Burton, Albert Einstein, and Isaac Newton. These figures are excellent examples of how autism can provide gifts in one area of the brain, such as memory or pattern recognition, at the cost of diminished capabilities in a second area of the brain, such as emotional processing or communication. However, it is crucial to understand that these examples represent a privileged socioeconomic minority. The majority of autistic people lack socioeconomic privilege and suffer disproportionately.

Comorbid neurodevelopmental conditions are also common: 56% of the autistic population also have an intellectual disability, 30-50% also have ADHD, 20% also have epilepsy, and 12% also have dyslexia. Furthermore, 79% of autistic people also have a comorbid psychiatric disorder such as depression or anxiety.

It is important to recognize that depression and anxiety are not inherent traits of autism. They are the result of a society that deeply misunderstands autistic people and reacts to our natural traits with varying degrees of negativity. 98% of the world is not autistic and naturally uses non-verbal body language to inform the emotional quality of their conversations. When a non-autistic person notices that someone is, for example, avoiding eye contact, it creates a sense of unease and stirs a negative response in the non-autistic person. Autistic people can become very anxious in conversations as they try to avoid breaking these unwritten rules and they can become very depressed if they fail to do so and suffer the consequences.

Throughout my life, I have developed ways of presenting myself that avoid these misunderstandings, which I now understand is called "masking".

Many on the autism spectrum intuitively learn to "mask". Masking is the intentional suppression of autistic traits and the emulation of neurotypical behaviors. For example, we will make effort to maintain eye contact, smile, and use social scripts that allow neurotypical people to feel like they are engaging with another neurotypical person.

It's exhausting. I have built a career based on brief interactions with thousands of people. My ability to effectively mask has resulted in high customer satisfaction scores and unprompted praise. The colleagues and clients who interact with me for less than 30 minutes would never suspect that I am autistic. But this effort is not sustainable.

When my mask drops in sustained interactions, my colleagues begin to misinterpret my natural autistic traits, such as a monotonous tone or lack of eye contact, as disinterest or rudeness. Masking is a temporary coping mechanism, not a solution. The stress of masking my authentic traits paired with the stress of being unmasked but misunderstood inevitably leads to autistic burnout.

I love Dr. Dora Raymaker's definition in Understanding autistic burnout:

Autistic burnout is a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic life stress and a mismatch of expectations and abilities without adequate supports. It is characterised by pervasive, long-term (typically 3+ months) exhaustion, loss of function, and reduced tolerance to stimulus.

To illustrate this mismatch, imagine that you are hired as a graphic designer. Your new colleague says "Tell me the square root of 52 right now or we won't work well together." Every meeting starts with "Let's go around the room and each of us will quickly multiply two prime numbers together before we start the agenda." Rumors being to spread that you don't belong there and the math equations become more difficult. Finally, you get pulled into your boss's office and they say "Your performance here is suffering due to your poor math skills. If you can't improve, we will need to let you go."

In this scenario, your work environment consistently holds expectations for you to perform math in your head beyond your ability to do so. You think to yourself "Maybe they're right. Maybe this company isn't the right fit for me." So you try your luck at a few other companies. Yet, no matter where you go, the expectations are the same. No matter how hard you try, you can't do that math in your head. Your career reaches a glass ceiling and no one likes working with you. Feeling stressed yet?

You fall into a depression and have panic attacks thinking that this is an impossible situation. You keep hearing that this is something that you need to be able to do. You truly try your best and invest in classes and books to improve, but it doesn't seem possible to do this type of mental math so quickly. You push yourself so hard that life itself becomes difficult—more difficult than any challenge you or anyone around you seems to have experienced—and that makes you feel worse.

One day you realize that something must be wrong with you: not with your attitude, but with your brain. At first it feels like a cop-out, like you are giving up, but you get assessed by professionals and they determine that there really is a difference in your brain structure. There is no cure. There is no amount of effort that you can do to change this situation. With that knowledge you have a sense of relief. You don't need to push yourself this hard anymore, right?

So you go back to work and explain your diagnosis. Your colleagues and manager have a difficult time understanding the diagnosis and they don't quite believe you. They think that you just weren't trying the right things or that you really weren't trying your best. They still demand that you meet their expectations. "This is how things are done around here," they say. And the cycle starts again.

Autistic burnout has a very serious impact. Mitigating autistic burnout means being authentic in the workplace amongst my peers. And being authentic in the workplace requires the accommodation of awareness and acceptance of autism from my peers, recognizing the value I provide and respecting my limitations. The absence of these accommodations directly leads to discrimination.

The Office for National Statistics in the United Kingdom published data in 2022 showing that 78% of autistic adults were unemployed in the UK. In the United States, up to 85% of autistic adults are unemployed. In fact, autistic adults had the highest rate of unemployment compared to any other physical or mental disability.

Discrimination permeates the autistic experience. I strive to deliver high value, excellent performance, and good intent, yet I have experienced frequent and critical discrimination in the workplace. While I will not go into detail of my experiences, I think it is important to face the reality of the situation and highlight some examples, including when I was:

• Told by a department lead that I need to "bend the knee" and "conform" if I want to work there, suggesting that I read How to Win Friends and Influence People if I want success in my career.
• Provided a performance improvement plan stating that I need to "make friends with everyone in the company (sic)" with failure resulting in termination.
• Prohibited from returning to the office for 3 months after I had a panic attack. Upon return, my responsibilities were downgraded and my workload was increased.
• Provided formal feedback by a contentious colleague saying that I should "be careful, because an emotionally unstable person might hurt you some day (sic)."

The common argument is that I am "not trying hard enough" to overcome my autistic traits in order to "fit in". This demand for more frequent and effective masking only leads to severe burnout, ultimately resulting in the systemic unemployment of autistic people. This is not only an injustice to autistic people, it is a disservice to the businesses that miss out on our unique value. Imagine turning away a young Isaac Newton because we focused on his awkwardness and not on the genius tied to it. To truly solve this problem we need to recognize that the real problem is not with autistic people's individual efforts, it is with our misinformed cultural expectations.

I have committed my life to personal growth to help facilitate cultural growth in the workplace. I have spent over 14 years practicing mindfulness meditation, learning under Buddhist monks and Andy Puddicombe, founder of Headspace (I used to work there, by the way). My bookshelf includes worn-through copies of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Dare to Lead, and more. These resources outline practices of compassion and performance that are proven to generate more value and result in more satisfaction than our current workplace cultures offer.

Together we can tap into the value of our collective potential by recognizing the diversity of human experience and respecting the unique value each of us can provide. This is not a problem that I can solve by myself. My efforts must be supported by reasonable accommodations.

The ADA National Network has an excellent article for Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Employment. The gist is that the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) ensures that qualified autistic employees have the same employment opportunities as their non-autistic peers. Title 1 of the ADA, as defined in 42 U.S.C. §12111(5A), states that no employer:

shall discriminate against a qualified individual on the basis of disability in regard to job application procedures, the hiring, advancement, or discharge of employees, employee compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment..

A qualified individual is determined on the basis that an autistic person can perform their essential job functions with or without reasonable accommodations. Essential job functions are tasks, defined by the employer, that are central to the job and removing them would fundamentally change the job. Reasonable accommodations are changes to "the way things are" that allow an autistic person to perform their essential job functions so long as they do not cause undue hardship to the employer.

Empirically, my symptoms significantly impact communication and socialization in the workplace. It is a common experience for individuals with Level 1 ASD to be misunderstood due to their formal use of language, monotonous tone of voice, and limited emotional expression. You can gain insight into this through this hilarious and sadly accurate skit that illustrates what it's like for an autistic person to interact with colleagues.

The most powerful accommodation I can request is awareness of Autism Spectrum Disorder and maintaining an assumption of positive intent.

Additionally, providing articulate feedback in a written form truly helps me understand what I can improve. Spoken language is often steeped with contextual meaning, idioms, and nonverbal cues that I cannot navigate in real-time. When someone takes the time to write something out, they can more accurately articulate what they mean and I can more accurately understand.

There is so much more to autism than I have described here. It is an incredibly interesting topic. I have removed a lot of content on this page for the sake of readability and focused only on the key points. If you are curious to learn more about autism or my experience, please feel free to reach out.