Today I wanted to give my views on an issue that is very rarely discussed, with efforts to address it few and far between; the rate of unemployment among autistic adults is staggering.
According to an article by organisation AsIAm (which you can read here), the rate of unemployment in autistic adults in Ireland is around 80%. Of these 65,000 autistic adults in Ireland, around 15,000 of us are unemployed with third-level qualifications. So it's not like we're not trying. The National Autistic Society in the UK also conducted a survey in 2016 with autistic adults in the UK, and among those who were unemployed, 77% of them want to work. (Source)
So the drive is there, we're qualified, yet we still aren't getting work. What's missing? Well, there are a number of reasons why some autistic people can't secure (or hold down) a job. Firstly, there's the process of actually applying for a job. Since, y'know, we can't get work, it can be difficult to build up experience at all, let alone that relevant to the area of work we want to get into. The only reason I got my first part time job is because I contacted the shop owner looking for work so often he hired me so I'd stop. And even at that, he only gave me three hours a week. Better than nothing, I guess, and the experience I earned there helped me secure the job I have now.
Anyway, I digress. As previously mentioned, many autistic people do go to college and earn third-level qualifications. We're a skilled bunch, anyone ever mention that? However, getting to the interview stage of a job application presents a new set of unique challenges. For those of you not familiar with autism, we have to learn basic social skills that come to everyone else naturally, such as eye contact, appropriate body language, etc. Add this to a situation neurotypicals (aka non-autistic people) already find stressful and you got yourself a seriously anxiety-inducing problem. My French teacher had to tell my examiner coming up to my Leaving Cert oral exam that I was autistic so I wouldn't be docked marks for lack of eye contact. However, very few autistic people would tell their potential employers this during the interview for fear of hindering their chances of getting the position.
Then, somehow, there are the few lucky ones that get through all these stages of building a CV, sending countless emails and letters, and surviving an interview to get a job. Yay! Now the real work begins. Yeah, you're earning money, but if you've decided against disclosing to your employer that you're autistic (like myself), a set of problems are likely to arise. Completing tasks at the same pace and to the same standard as your neurotypical colleagues sounds easy, but when you have as much difficulty processing information as an autistic person, it affects our standard of work and possible our ability to hold down a job.
With that in mind, here are my thoughts on being employed as an (undisclosed) autistic person, after being employed for nearly a month now (after spending 16 months looking for a job).
Basically, it's a well-known fact that autistic people love repetition. In fact, we thrive on it. So you know those jobs in your business that everyone hates doing because they're boring as all hell, but they have to get done anyway? Hire someone with autism to do that. Because I guarantee they will love it.
Businesses always boast about how their workplace is 'dynamic' and 'always changing' like it's the best way to be, when in fact, it's an autistic's nightmare. We prefer a set routine when we know exactly what we're doing and when. This is why a lot of autistic people get jobs in warehouses, stocking shelves or wrapping up stock. I wash dishes in a kitchen. And I love it. I make sandwiches or prepare starters the odd time, or plate up dinners and desserts if we have a party in, but overall my work consists of pretty much the same stuff day in, day out. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Obviously solving the issue of unemployment within the autism community is much larger and more complex than this, and a lot more needs to be done than giving us otherwise 'boring' jobs. As previously mentioned, a lot of us are very smart and qualified to take on all types of jobs. I'm currently studying History with the hopes of becoming a genealogist. What this is really about is building correct support systems in workplaces for autistic people, the same way there are support systems for us in education. A lot of employers wouldn't know where to start with setting up something like that, but that's why organisations like AsIAm and Specialisterne Ireland exist, to advise employers on how best to support their autistic employees. Because we are so, so intelligent. We just need a little bit of help sometimes.
I hope this blog post helped bring more awareness to the issue of unemployment within the autism community. Hopefully, more people will be made aware of it, because it is a real issue. We need to work too.
Don't forget, you can always message me on Facebook, ask me a question on Tumblr, or Tweet me!
Until next time, see ya around, it's been a real slice!
According to an article by organisation AsIAm (which you can read here), the rate of unemployment in autistic adults in Ireland is around 80%. Of these 65,000 autistic adults in Ireland, around 15,000 of us are unemployed with third-level qualifications. So it's not like we're not trying. The National Autistic Society in the UK also conducted a survey in 2016 with autistic adults in the UK, and among those who were unemployed, 77% of them want to work. (Source)
So the drive is there, we're qualified, yet we still aren't getting work. What's missing? Well, there are a number of reasons why some autistic people can't secure (or hold down) a job. Firstly, there's the process of actually applying for a job. Since, y'know, we can't get work, it can be difficult to build up experience at all, let alone that relevant to the area of work we want to get into. The only reason I got my first part time job is because I contacted the shop owner looking for work so often he hired me so I'd stop. And even at that, he only gave me three hours a week. Better than nothing, I guess, and the experience I earned there helped me secure the job I have now.
Anyway, I digress. As previously mentioned, many autistic people do go to college and earn third-level qualifications. We're a skilled bunch, anyone ever mention that? However, getting to the interview stage of a job application presents a new set of unique challenges. For those of you not familiar with autism, we have to learn basic social skills that come to everyone else naturally, such as eye contact, appropriate body language, etc. Add this to a situation neurotypicals (aka non-autistic people) already find stressful and you got yourself a seriously anxiety-inducing problem. My French teacher had to tell my examiner coming up to my Leaving Cert oral exam that I was autistic so I wouldn't be docked marks for lack of eye contact. However, very few autistic people would tell their potential employers this during the interview for fear of hindering their chances of getting the position.
Then, somehow, there are the few lucky ones that get through all these stages of building a CV, sending countless emails and letters, and surviving an interview to get a job. Yay! Now the real work begins. Yeah, you're earning money, but if you've decided against disclosing to your employer that you're autistic (like myself), a set of problems are likely to arise. Completing tasks at the same pace and to the same standard as your neurotypical colleagues sounds easy, but when you have as much difficulty processing information as an autistic person, it affects our standard of work and possible our ability to hold down a job.
With that in mind, here are my thoughts on being employed as an (undisclosed) autistic person, after being employed for nearly a month now (after spending 16 months looking for a job).
Basically, it's a well-known fact that autistic people love repetition. In fact, we thrive on it. So you know those jobs in your business that everyone hates doing because they're boring as all hell, but they have to get done anyway? Hire someone with autism to do that. Because I guarantee they will love it.
Businesses always boast about how their workplace is 'dynamic' and 'always changing' like it's the best way to be, when in fact, it's an autistic's nightmare. We prefer a set routine when we know exactly what we're doing and when. This is why a lot of autistic people get jobs in warehouses, stocking shelves or wrapping up stock. I wash dishes in a kitchen. And I love it. I make sandwiches or prepare starters the odd time, or plate up dinners and desserts if we have a party in, but overall my work consists of pretty much the same stuff day in, day out. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Obviously solving the issue of unemployment within the autism community is much larger and more complex than this, and a lot more needs to be done than giving us otherwise 'boring' jobs. As previously mentioned, a lot of us are very smart and qualified to take on all types of jobs. I'm currently studying History with the hopes of becoming a genealogist. What this is really about is building correct support systems in workplaces for autistic people, the same way there are support systems for us in education. A lot of employers wouldn't know where to start with setting up something like that, but that's why organisations like AsIAm and Specialisterne Ireland exist, to advise employers on how best to support their autistic employees. Because we are so, so intelligent. We just need a little bit of help sometimes.
I hope this blog post helped bring more awareness to the issue of unemployment within the autism community. Hopefully, more people will be made aware of it, because it is a real issue. We need to work too.
Don't forget, you can always message me on Facebook, ask me a question on Tumblr, or Tweet me!
Until next time, see ya around, it's been a real slice!
Meagan (but my friends call me Meg)
Wow, I had no clue on these issues! Great post sweet!
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Thank you so much! Glad my post is making more people aware! <3
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