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I read recently that episodic (aka autobiographical) memory is specifically impacted in autistic people. I had thought this was something specific to me, personally, not an autistic trait, so it was a big surprise to learn otherwise! I struggle significantly with intentional recall of personal experiences. My memory will spontaneously replay experiences from when I was a year old, or replay traumatic life events on infinite repeat, but if you ask me to remember what happened yesterday, or to pull up specific examples of a generic category, I often will struggle to answer. Meanwhile, I have encyclopedic recall for non-autobiographical information.
Now, the reason this is on my mind right now is, I just finished a "behavioral" interview round with a major tech company. What do interviewers ask you about, no matter what kind of job you're looking for, if the interviewer is "properly" trained or coached? They ask you questions about experiences. Autobiographical questions. "Tell me about a time when you worked with a difficult coworker. How did you deal with the situation?" That sort of thing. *Exactly* the sort of question where an autistic person's memory is likely to skip over reporting anything the interviewer is interested in hearing, and put some horrible, traumatic, and irrelevant memory on infinite repeat, to the exclusion of all else.
Interview questions like these might as well be *designed* to filter us out and trigger past traumas. You see, when you ask me about a difficult coworker, you probably think you're asking about someone who was a little stubborn, or argumentative, or liked to take credit. But what I think of as "difficult" are things like that manager who nicknamed me "autistic boy" and called me that in the office, loudly, or the manager who specifically put autistic traits down as his basis for a negative performance review and refused me a promotion for it, or the manager who watched me lead a major initiative and then gave credit to someone else on my team and none to me at a global corporate meeting with tens of thousands of attendees, or the manager who straight up lied and made things up on a performance review in an effort to get me fired, or... You get the idea. People in power, being abusive because I'm disabled.
So it's no surprise at all to also read that interviews are autistic people's Achilles' heel, and that unemployment has been estimated to be 85% -- higher than for any other disability. (No, I'm not making this up, and I'm not exaggerating. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_of_autistic_people)
If you are an HR person, a hiring manager, or anyone else connected with or tangential to the interview and hiring practices of your organization, I urge you to consider the impacts your interview process has on autistic people. You might have no idea that your company's hiring practices are discriminatory, and they may be designed with the best intentions in mind, but that makes them no less discriminatory. It's easy to *accidentally* discriminate when it comes to disability, and autism in particular. You don't even have to hold any prejudices against autistic people; mild levels of ignorance are enough.
#ActuallyAutistic
#DisabilityRights
#Discrimination
#HR
#HiringPractices
#Interviews
@hosford42 Cannot stress this enough. I can *tell* when an interviewer gets the ick from me from being different, and sitting through interview questions that assume neurotypicality are incredibly uncomfortable. Interviewing is hard enough and meltdown/shutdown inducing. Unconscious bias and neurodiversity training for those involved in hiring is critically important to improve against this.
@arcadetoken The shutdown part is very real for me. This interview happened on Monday. I might be back to normal next week. I'm absolutely exhausted and trying to stay hyperfocused on interesting things that make me curious and give me energy, to get through it.
@hosford42 again, I really relate to this. So much trauma in the job search. A few years back I was on the market and had thirty interviews. I ended up having to take a job I didn’t want bc it was the only one I was offered. I cried the whole day before I accepted the offer. Then I was in a job that wasn’t a good fit, and I was blamed for doing a bad job (even though I didn’t) bc I didn’t have support. I was only there for six months. All this bc of doing terrible in interviews.
Unfortunately, all too often the skills needed to get a job and those needed to do a job are completely different.
@hosford42 @the5thColumnist EXACTLY! I’ve been saying this for a long time. Being competent in a job and being able to sell yourself are very different skill sets, yet are viewed as the same.
@DrSuzanne @hosford42 Best thing you'll ever do for yourself is start learning everything that interests you. Not many probably have the options I do, I've become an electrician, plumber, builder, gardener etc all in one. I make due on internet and electric bill money, less than 100€ a month if I include a little reserve for machines breaking down irreversibly.
The most important skill I learned IMO is axe work. Cheap tool, infinitely flexible. Best materials: wood, clay, stone.
I wonder if you've come across Specialisterne Aaron? - https://us.specialisterne.com/ - also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specialisterne
@GeofCox It's new to me. Thanks! That's pretty awesome.
@hosford42
I know for a fact that I got passed over because my style of "teaching" wasn't friendly enough- for an "associate software engineer" position
@hosford42 Interviews just seem like a filter for me. None of the jobs I’ve had involved an interview prior to hiring.
@hosford42 oof yeah i'm in this picture. i bomb interviews so badly that now i have trauma around interviews themselves
@hosford42 One issue when employed as an autistic person is that once some coworkers notice that you are on the spectrum then they use this at their advantage or trick you to get into trouble or embarrassment.
@djomnimaga I wish I didn't have to agree with you, but it's true. Not all of them. The vast majority have been highly supportive, in my experience, at least since I started working white collar instead of blue collar jobs. But that handful of assholes will go out of their way to destroy you just for kicks.
Usually it's a person in a position of power, like your boss. I've had bosses call me names and insult me openly for being autistic. I've had them give credit for my work to other people I was training. I've had them write me up or deny promotions, specifically citing autistic traits. I've had them harass me to tears, day after day after day. I've even had them try to get me fired, going so far as to blatantly lie about me in performance reviews.
Next in line after bosses is HR staff, particularly those who specialize in disability accommodations. Yeah, you read that right, dear non-disabled readers. Many of the people *paid* to help us actively contribute to the bullying.