How to work with my highly functional autistic co-worker
You don’t have to know that someone has a diagnosis with a name to ask their preferences. If your co-worker seems upset, ask if there’s anything that particularly bothers her. (This is appropriate for all co-workers, not just the ones who have a diagnosis you know the name of.) Even if it’s something as simple as noise or overstimulation, take it seriously instead of dismissing it as trivial, that’s all. Maybe she needs a a room with a door. Your office might be a cube farm, but perhaps there’s an extra meeting room that she can use in the mornings to ease into things (or in the afternoons to recover from the stress of being with co-workers). For instance. Be tolerant if she needs to wear earplugs, and ask the best way to get her attention when she’s wearing them. She probably has trouble directing her attention from one thing to another quickly, so interruptions will drive her nuts. (Most people are like this to some extent. It’s a matter of degree.
Who knows if this will work for your situation but it definitely worked for a friend of mine, who’d never had a friend in her life until she stumbled into a chat community that I was a member of. See, she literally sortof *can’t* look people in the eye and yeah, she is somewhat different socially, but none of that makes any difference in newly minted words showing up on a screen. She has tremendous communication ability but writing was the best way for her to interact with others. She didn’t know that until she stumbled into our chat one afternoon and began immediately making friends. She’s super cool, one of the smartest people I’ve ever known (maybe THE smartest – this gal is bright), she writes really well, she’s a great painter and photographer – she is basically a renaissance woman but lived in her own world for all those years.
