To tell or not to tell – disclosure of autism in the workplace

Abstract

Autism, sometimes called an ‘invisible disability’, can lead to different difficulties for young adults entering the workplace as well as maintaining the job. One of the questions young adults with autism face: should he/she/they disclose the information about their autism to the employer? This current study aims to fill a gap in research on the young adult population with autism in the workplace, particularly within the Latvian context. Four young adults (aged 18–26) living and working in Latvia, who have identified themselves as having autism, job seekers and employees with strong language and intellectual abilities, and their mothers participated in this study. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather in-depth data from participants; after that, an inductive content analysis was made. The results reveal that young adults do not disclose that they have autism to neither co-workers nor employers, yet at the same time, they are ready to disclose it to close friends outside of the workplace. Four main reasons for not disclosing their status on the autism spectrum emerged. To begin with, young adults did not want to be treated differently; they wanted to be perceived as ‘normal’. Second, they feared social stigma. Third, they did not feel there could be any benefits by disclosing their autism to their employer. Finally, it is much more important to explain to their employer what the often-unique limitations of each specific young person with autism are and how to overcome them than to just inform only of their autistic status.

Keywords:

• Autism
• autism spectrum disorder
• disclosure
• Latvia
• workplace
• young adults

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.