7 thoughts on “Asperger’s Syndrome at Work”

  1. Good series — though the existence of the label, I have Aspergers, and the assumptions about how symptoms will play out in an individual seem off-base to me, I think the advise seems very good.
    I really like these two quotes:
    “The biggest difference between men with Asperger’s and women is that women get help from other women, and men don’t. So women with Asperger’s are generally more high-functioning than men.”
    and
    “Note to parents: the most painful part of being an adult with Asperger’s is not the lack of relationships. Really. I have a lack and I want to care, but I don’t. And most people with Asperger’s will tell you that the painful part of having Asperger’s is not being able to work successfully.”
    Grandin makes a big deal of that as well — that she gets most of her positive interactions from work, and that’s how she likes it. She’s not interested in socializing for human contact, but she does like having other people around her who are interested in what she wants to talk about, and interacting with them. So, finding a way to get that is the “secret.”

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  2. I just continue to have trouble with this idea of taking career advice from Penelope Trunk. Everything I read of hers is borderline (or not so borderline) offensive. How exactly does she get to set herself up as a career advisor? Or maybe if you shout it loud enough, no one notices you’ve got no clients?
    Now on the other hand if you view Trunk’s web site as a glimpse into the Aspergian world, sure. Or a freakishly entertaining, massively inappropriate overshare? Absolutely. IMHO that’s the space she’s really in.

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  3. Jen — did you read the columns on Asperger’s? I found nothing at all offensive about it, and if you do find something offensive in it, I’d be interested in hearing what it was. I found both her column on the miscarraige & on her abortions off-tone, but haven’t noticed that about her other work.
    And I wouldn’t dismiss her input because of those two columns — not sure where you saw the other offensiveness.
    Not sure how generally I would take this argument — I do think that she seems to have an odd choice of career (and, frankly, I don’t actually know what her career is). Does she have a career other than writing a blog? She implies she does, but I can’t really tell what she does for those clients she describes.

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  4. She does over share quite often on her blog, bj, especially since her blog is tied to her profession. But that’s one of the reasons that I read. I like a good train wreck. I don’t know. Maybe the lines are shifting.
    I liked these posts on asperger’s, because I like to see how adults w/this condition function. What does the future hold?

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  5. “I liked these posts on asperger’s, because I like to see how adults w/this condition function. What does the future hold? ”
    I’m wary of relying too much on what folks with aspergers diagnosed as adults (often after their children were diagnosed) say about how they function. Grandin is another story, ’cause although she didn’t have a diagnosis as a child, her developmental history is quite well documented.
    that’s what my comment about labelling meant — I don’t care if people find comfort in being diagnosed as adults, but I’m not certain that that sub-population will give us a good understanding of the trajectory of those who were diagnosed with the developmental disorder.
    And, I keep hear you guys talking about “over-sharing”, but still haven’t heard what people are talking about (except for the abortion/miscarriage columns).

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  6. I did read the columns on Asperger’s. Previously I have read her columns on the primacy of social skills within the workplace (ah, the irony), on what we can learn from the training autistic kids get, and on other issues such as hating Tim Ferriss.
    In the interest of finding oversharing examples, I flipped thru exactly one page of headlines from this blog and immediately found the following:
    Tweeting about wearing a teddy to bed, because “the farmer” asked for a “trade”
    How about the one where a one-night stand with a 25-year-old — met at a work function, no less — ended with said 25-year-old peeing on her hotel room carpet?
    Maybe her confession that she always gets a crush on her boss?
    (I won’t even touch the religiously-themed posts. I have NEVER worked in an office where religion was discussed, beyond “I’ll miss status next week because I’m taking the day off for Eid.” But others may have more tolerance for this.)
    If this were a personal blog that would be one thing. But this is supposed to be about the workplace, and she’s presenting herself in her professional capacity. It’s all just inappropriate.

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