“I’m 100% open with everyone I meet on the basis that it enables things to go more smoothly.”
“My current boss is good. He knows when I get a bit wonky.
If I tell him I need a sick day he
gives me time off.”
“It was good to be listened
to and nice to be supported.”
However, the majority told us that they hesitate to be open about their neurodiversity at work. This is consistent with findings from other sources.
An informal survey conducted by a dyslexic engineering consultant on LinkedIn found that of 713 respondent engineers who identified as dyslexic, more than 98% said they wouldn’t tell their employers about their condition.26
A cross-sector survey conducted by the Institute of Leadership in 2020 found that the lowest numbers of neurodivergent people talking openly about their neurodiversity came from engineering, manufacturing and construction industries.3
Participants gave several reasons as to why they might choose not to speak up about their neurodiversity at work.
The workplace does not feel psychologically safe enough
For some, talking about their neurodiversity feels ‘too intimate’, particularly when there’s no evidence that their manager or colleagues are likely to understand neurodiversity or the experiences of neurodivergent people at work.
Sharing something so personal can feel risky and anxiety-provoking: “Just talking about this with my manager would be hard,” one participant said.
Some already have well-established coping mechanisms
The engineers and technicians we spoke with were all either in postgraduate education, actively working or had retired.
They have developed the ability to mask their neurodiversity in neurotypical contexts by hiding or adapting their behaviour, and either don’t want to draw attention to their neurodiversity or don’t see the point of sharing their neurotype.
They don’t see any obvious benefits
As one person said: “I don’t like sharing my ‘label’. It’s not important, and people generalise from it which is not helpful.”
Responses may be well-meaning, but can often be uninformed, disempowering and sometimes harmful:
“The senior manager moved me to the most exposed desk in the office as she thought it would make me engage more with other employees”; “I told my immediate manager and was referred to occupational health. I hadn’t chosen that”.
They observe and experience the downsides of speaking up
These can include the stigma associated with being neurodiverse in a neurotypical workplace and the impact on career progression:
“They see us as nerds, I know people have said behind my back ‘he’s just an engineer’”.
Several people explained that they had only felt able to talk about their neurodiversity once they were in a senior position where “they [the employer] need me more than I need them.”
In general, it seems that neurodivergent engineers and technicians cannot rely on a positive response to telling their employer, manager or team members about their neurodiversity, and are constantly calculating the risks and rewards of doing so. Many feel able to tell some people and not others, in some circumstances and not in others.
Whether they share or not depends on questions such as:
- How well do I get on with my manager at a personal level?
- How well do I get on with my colleagues and peers?
- What have I already observed my employer doing and saying on diversity and inclusion in general, and neurodiversity specifically?
- What do I want and need to be different as a result of sharing my neurodiversity?
References
26 ‘Opening up building services to neurodiverse engineers’, CIBSE Journal, January 2022 https://www.cibsejournal.com/general/opening-up-building-services-to-neurodiverse-engineers/
3 ‘Workplace Neurodiversity: The Power of Difference’, The Institute of Leadership, October 2020,
https://leadership.global/resourceLibrary/workplace-neurodiversity-the-power-of-difference.html