Autism and Employment Challenges: Perceptions of an Autistic Employee in the Workplace

Background and Purpose: High unemployment rates are found among adults on the autism spectrum. Problems with social functioning in the workplace can be significant barriers to employment success. Traditionally, social functioning challenges among autistic adults have been viewed through the lens of the medical model of disability and attributed to autistic impairments in Theory of Mind (ToM). ToM refers to the ability to read the behaviors of another and accurately determine their mental state upon observation. Alternatively, consistent with the social model of disability, the Double Empathy Problem (DEP) posits that social challenges arise not from autistic ToM deficits but instead from mutual misunderstandings in the autistic and non-autistic social interaction. This study compared the ToM deficits explanation of autistic social functioning versus the DEP explanation, within the context of the workplace and autistic employment challenges.

Methods: A sample of 254 participants (173 non-autistic, 81 autistic) read a vignette about a hypothetical autistic employee in the workplace and answered open-ended questions about their interpretation of the employee’s behavior. Participants also answered questions regarding autism knowledge, their autism experience and attitudes towards the employee’s competency and social acceptability in the workplace.

Results: A significantly greater proportion of autistic participants accurately interpreted the behavior of the hypothetical autistic employee portrayed, compared to non-autistic participants (χ² = 8.65, p. = .003). Being autistic (OR = 3.23, p = .008) and having more autism knowledge (OR = 1.12, p < .001) were significant predictors of more accurate behavior interpretation scores. Independent of all other factors studied, autism knowledge was an influential predictor of positive attitudes towards the hypothetical autistic employee’s competency and social acceptability at work. The association between greater autism knowledge and more positive attitudes was especially evident when autistic behavior at work was not intuitively understood.

Conclusions and Implications: Contrary to autistic ToM deficits and consistent with the DEP, autistic participants were more likely to accurately understand and interpret the behavior of an autistic employee in the workplace, compared to non-autistic participants. Findings of this study contribute to shifting the paradigm of autistic adults’ workplace difficulties away from the deficit model of ToM impairments consistent with the medical model of disability, and towards the DEP which is consistent with the social model of disability. Addressing autistic employment challenges should involve addressing the ways the workplace environment creates and perpetuates disability by misunderstanding the behavior and challenges of autistic employees. Recommended employment supports for autistic employees include addressing mutual misunderstanding in autistic/non-autistic workplace interactions and workplace autism education and accommodations. Initiatives such as educating the workplace about autism and autistic traits will help remove the barriers for autistic adults in obtaining and retaining employment, significantly impacting their adult functioning and quality of life.