Free Asperger's on the Job: Must-Have Advice for People With Asperger's or High Functioning Autism, and Their Employers, Educators, and Advocates by Rudy Simone Page B

will have to talk to your boss to see what the alternative could be. If you don’t want to disclose AS, say you have skin allergies or something similar.
Many with AS like the feel of tight clothes with no air or fabric brushing against the skin. This is due to skin sensitivity, but loose or fussy clothing is another thing that is moving around you, another distraction. Many with AS like tight pressure on the body, but soft textures. There are things you can wear under your work clothes that will give you that feeling of security you require, such as a posture belt, shirt, or leggings. This can also help with temperature issues, as discussed earlier.
     

To employers and advocates:
     
Customers and clients may not be as interested in seeing an office clone as you think. There is growing evidence that staff should be as diverse as a company’s customer base. This makes organizations more creative and improves their profitability (NAS 2005). As long as a person is clean and presentable, allowing some personal expression might make an employee want to stick around because he/she likes it, rather than staying in it for the money. How many of us long for a little bit more freedom and self-expression in our lives and in our work?
If you have to ask your AS employee to dress differently, please be tactful. Accentuate the positive: “you look great in a tailored suit,” as opposed to “did you forget to change out of your pajamas today?”
     

    Ideas for self-improvement.
    What image do you want to convey?
    What can you do to achieve that?

CHAPTER 11
A Little R&R Goes a Long Way: Ritual and Routine
    F or the person with Asperger’s, grabbing or maintaining control over a situation is a stress management technique, for it means fewer variables will come into play and they will know what to expect. They have a plan, for the hour or the day, and if the plan gets changed by any factor large or small, they may not have a contingency plan. That’s why we often don’t like surprises and can sometimes react strongly to them; even pleasant ones can be annoying. If you alter the routine, we might get irritated because it means re-learning something, re-preparing. Same thing if you change the layout of the office; we might grumble at first. You also may not succeed in getting some to try food they’ve not tasted before, or to vary their habits. It’s always good to challenge people to try new things, but it isimportant to understand what’s at stake—a feeling of safety and security in an otherwise anxiety-provoking world.
    This doesn’t mean, by the way, that we can’t always think on our feet, or that we will fold up in a crisis. We may be quite cool-headed or brave in a true emergency, but move a meeting from ten to eleven and we may balk.
“Teaching was unbelievably difficult for me. I would get thrown off-track every time a kid interrupted. I was unable to control the class.”
    - BEN
    People with AS require more alone time than others. This is not just to recharge their batteries; withdrawing from social contact, whether physically or mentally, is a control technique:
By withdrawing into one’s own thoughts, [an] individual may be limiting his environment in order to have a greater feeling of mastery. If I don’t engage with the world, then I can have control over my own small world, the thinking may be. (Nelson 2009)
    Being organized is another form of control. You know where everything is so no time is wasted on confusion, wondering, and searching. Having fewer variables means less stress. Hence the practical nature of rituals; some may have to eat the same foods all the time, shop at the same stores; whatever it is, it is a source of comfort and security, and one less decision to make.
“My worst job was working for a paint company. Every day we had no idea where we were going to have to go. I enjoy going to the same place each day”
    - BRIAN
    Many people with Asperger’s have several self-taught skills and an