I talk about how the unemployment issue among people with Autism is clearly a systemic issue and not an individual's issue alone. I highlight many of the common issues and barriers people with Autism face with employment and as a result many give up or try a more unconventional path.

1. 1/5
Post author By Charlie April 22, 2022
Unemployment Among People with Autism is a
Systemic Problem, not an Individual’s One
theweeklyrambler.com/unemployment-among-people-with-autism-is-a-systemic-problem-not-an-individuals-one/
Featured Photo: Image by www_slon_pics from Pixabay
I think it is obvious to anyone who looks at the statistics that the level of unemployed
people who have Autism speaks of a systemic issue rather than an individual’s issue. But
there are many people who would rather blame each and every person with Autism
instead, because I guess that’s easier to do. “Oh, they’re just playing the disability card to
be lazy/scrounge on benefits” are some of the classics we get told on the regular.
The ignorance can sadly be astounding. But all you have to do is look at the statistics to
realise that the issue is systemic. If the vast majority of people with Autism are not
employed then rather than blame each individual unemployed person with Autism, we
should instead look at the system.
It is a system that routinely singles us out and tosses us off. A system that makes us
anxious and uncomfortable on a regular basis more than not. A system that forces many
of us with Autism to mask to try and fit in – further increasing stress and anxiety, causing
depression and often leading to meltdowns that lead us to quit. A system that will often
under-employ us and underpay us.

2. 2/5
Not being able to act like yourself is always horrible. The mantra of fake it until you make
it may as well be torture yourself to get there, and then keep getting tortured anyway. I
always feel a stabbing sadness in my gut when I see people online or elsewhere telling
someone to ‘fake it until they make it’. I think each person’s unique personality should be
embraced and nurtured, not stripped and made bland. This goes for anyone, Autism or
not.
The above is just one of many examples of a much more widely flawed system… but let’s
get back to the main point of this post…
There are two major hurdles that I myself as a person with Autism can identify when it
comes to obtaining a job. The first is the interview process and the second is actually
holding down and moving forward in the job. Both of these hurdles are smaller for the
average person but for people with Autism they are often vast, almost impossibly so.
The reasons for this are that people with Autism communicate and show emotion
differently than neurotypical people, and people with Autism often have problems with
executive functioning and therefore consistency in a work place environment.
Often, we are tossed off at the interview process due to our odd social quirks and
uncanny-seeming emotions. We often get mistaken for being emotionless but this is only
what people perceive from the outside. On the inside we are some of the most emotional
people ever – a big part of Autism, we are just not the best at showing it. Why do you
think meltdowns happen? It is the emotion bursting out of us.
Interviews are hard because they are largely based on perceived body language. If you
look off or do not properly follow the many unspoken social rules then there is a good
chance you’re getting rejected, even if you did speak well, answer questions, and ask
questions.
These things can be difficult enough for neurotypical people – so how do you think it
affects us? Other problems can be how we perceive a question, we may answer it in an
unusual fashion, speak too much, speak too little, or even misinterpret the question and
as such answer it in an unexpected or incorrect way.
All very, very common things with Autism. For myself I have learned to recognise the odd
look in people’s eyes when I have made one of these classic mistakes. Many people with
Autism also fidget a lot and like to wring their hands or fiddle with an object or their
fingers, this can be for nerves, to keep calm, or even a way to help us stay focused. For
interviews though it can be one of the things that gets us rejected.
Need I also mention eye contact? Very hard for many people with Autism and a major
rule of interviews – maintaining eye contact. It is extremely uncomfortable for many of us.
Many of us will try and do it but keep reflexively looking away, or we’ll look slightly to the
side of their face or at their forehead, which will look off to them and probably be one of
their many variable ‘red flags’.

3. 3/5
My favourite colour may be red, but me and red flags have a tenuous relationship. I think
many with Autism can agree here. Red flags like to single us out a lot in life.
But let’s say we manage to get through this torturous process and get the job through
sheer determination and luck but soon end up quitting or getting fired due to not being
able to cope in the social and unnatural (to a person with Autism) work atmosphere, and
not being given enough time to settle in correctly and learn from initial mistakes. Yay,
back to square one and the torture of interviews again, I can’t wait.
Many people with Autism would rather get on with work and leave the social element to
the side. We may engage now and again but ultimately… we prefer to just ‘get on with it’.
Something like this can make us especially determined and hard-working people, but can
also get us in trouble for seeming rude or disinterested with coworkers, when that is not at
all the case.
Others with Autism may love social interaction, we can be different of course. But in these
scenarios, it is typical that again the way we communicate and the topics we choose to
talk about can be highly focused on a particular interest and seem generally over the
top.
Neurotypical people may see these kinds of people with Autism who do look to socially
interact as being too overly animated, seem over-bearing, talk outside of typical office
chit-chat (such as avoiding small talk which many people with Autism tend to despise),
and unintentionally go over or outside of the unspoken rules of social interaction and once
again be seen as rude.
These things can again get us into trouble in the work place. When it comes to social
interaction, we’re either very quiet and reserved, or very talkative and animated – we
don’t tend to have a middle ground on it. This can be off-putting for many people. But we
honestly don’t mean it.
At the same time people with Autism also like to hyperfocus our interest on things.
Hyperfocus will have us focus strongly on a task or project to the point we may even lose
track of time and not realize anything going on around us. It causes the same social
disconnection that can get us in trouble and can also mean we accidentally neglect other
tasks and projects we need to do.
Memory is another of the strange issues for people with Autism. Many people have the
stereotype that we have excellent unrivalled memory and should never forget anything.
This is not the case; our memory is just as fallible and usually more so in specific areas.
We can demonstrate extraordinary memory on our interests…
but when it comes to the mundane and things that we are less interested in it is as if the
information goes in one ear and out the other most of the time, it can be very fleeting.
This means we can often forget to do certain tasks, or do other tasks incorrectly because
we forgot certain points.

4. 4/5
Such can include forgetting meetings, forgetting deadlines, forgetting to send an
important email. Anyone can have the odd forgetful moment but for people with Autism it
is far more pronounced and especially frustrating, due to our more emotional nature we
usually take things harder. Even writing it in a planner cannot always work because we
might simply forget to check the planner.
Again, when hyperfocusing on another task or job the issue of forgetfulness on other
things increases. These are all things that can get us into trouble and cause us to
eventually lose a job, even though we are trying our absolute best to hold it down.
Many of us give up in the end and try and go our own way after so many dead ends and
failed attempts. For myself I like to describe it as being an expert of always finding a new
way of doing something wrong somehow. And even then, good luck for us remembering
each and every wrong way we did something to hopefully try and avoid it next time.
This is why many of us are better at going by our own rules. At least then we can be
flexible enough with ourselves to enable ourselves to keep on going rather than being
tossed out again into insecurity. There are many with Autism who have a far more
successful path with self-employment. Who understands you more than you? With that
logic I should be my own boss.
Of course, that’s all easier said than done. Becoming self-employed is by no means an
easy endeavor. Without the right support in place, it may not be possible. But I have at
least found carving out my own path and going at my own pace is much more comforting
rather than facing being scolded and tossed out over and over again.
Self-employment does allow us to be ourselves and also lets us focus on our interests
without issue. We can hyperfocus far more without it becoming a negative problem. Do
we still forget things… sure… but that’s less of an issue when you’re your own boss. You
can more comfortably amend and work around these problems, with all that flexibility. And
being self-employed means that you do not need to put up with social pressures.
But I do not think self-employment should be paraded as one of the only ways out for
most people with Autism. And it can be a rather narrow and hard to reach solution for
anyone – self-employment is a massive commitment. Some of us may rather just be
employed and that’s fine, it’s actually good.
Things in the workplace for people with Autism has improved, such as with reasonable
adjustments. But there is still a long way to go as statistics show. One thing that needs to
be done is to eliminate stigma and prejudice towards people with Autism, both in and out
of the workplace, and rather than beating us down actually allow us time to reach our
goal.
Many workplaces also need to take higher consideration with any employers with Autism
that it employs, too many workplaces and employers assume people with Autism are not
good enough for a promotion or to reach a higher position, and in many cases,
workplaces will treat people with autism quite differently than those who don’t have it. We
get passed up a lot.

5. 5/5
One example I have some personal experience with is being given a basic run down of
something while another new employee gets given a far more in-depth run down and
even an explanation of future opportunities they should aim for. It’s as if they feel I am not
capable for anything more than base-level operations and give me little opportunity to
move up the rungs.
This is why Autism awareness is more important than ever, as well as improving and
tightening rules around discrimination in the work place for people with Autism. There are
many who still exploit loopholes at our detriment, continually giving us the shorter end of
the stick. Others who do it may not even have thought to consider in the first place, and
made assumptions based on how we are.
People like that, and people who treat people with Autism as something lesser need to be
made to understand, but failing that, they need to be outed. We need to challenge people
even more who do not take Autism seriously and only view it as an excuse to not try hard
enough, or not have a job, or insert other ignorant accusation. People who view Autism
as something fake are some of the worst people out there who need to be outed more
than ever and face tough discrimination rules in workplaces.
Do not fight abuse with more abuse, but fight with reason and facts. Fight with the
knowledge of your own experience in this harsh system. Throw statistics at them that
clearly show the systemic issue. Ask them how it makes sense to blame each individual
with Autism when the vast majority of us are unemployed and struggling – how is it
largely singular then?
Sure, there will still be many who decide to hum and herr and bury their head in the sand.
But the more people who do understand and come to realize, then the less the people
who refuse to realise matter and the less their poisonous speech affects.
Make us feel welcome, make us feel involved, make us feel included, give us
opportunities, pay us fairly, treat us as equal human beings and perhaps we will see
employment as something more serious for ourselves. Many of us want to work, we’re
just not being given an equal chance.
We should all be a positive force. Together we can make a difference.
And remember – it’s okay to be yourself.
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