To shed light on why so many bright people are languishing—and whether the barriers they face are real or socially constructed—David Hagner of the University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability conducted a study of successfully employed autistic adults to determine what they had in common. Overall, he said, “the comments I got from employers were almost as superlative as you can hear about a worker.”
The challenges employers reported to him were pretty consistent: for one, autistic employees generally don’t fare well in job interviews (eye contact and small talk are a challenge). They can be hypersensitive to noise, light or scent, and are often uncomfortable working in open-concept spaces. Most commonly, they work best with very specific instructions, a great deal of consistency, and advance notice of any changes to their routine. “Once employers saw these things, they realized it was a cost of doing business,” says Hagner. “But supervisors told me it’s not a greater cost than someone else. It’s just different.”
In fact, ironically, Hagner’s research found that the quirks that make social situations challenging for people with autism are often the very things that make them great employees. For instance, a person with autism, he says, is not going to get caught up in office gossip or politics. They’re not going to cut corners, or lie, or steal. Universally, these employees were said to be loyal, punctual and thorough. “I think the thing the supervisors really liked most was their work ethic,” says Hagner. “If they’re told, ‘Your break is 10 minutes,’ they would take 10 minutes. Not nine or 11. Just 10.”
The genius of Specialisterne is that it was set up to take so-called “odd” behaviour and make it the norm. “They are the ‘normals,’ ” says Sonne. “Many have never had a job before. They might not have an education, but we don’t care.” Instead of a traditional interview, Specialisterne engages prospective consultants in a five-month training process to determine where they excel. “We see their personality, their vocational, personal and social experience, and their learning profile,” says Sonne, “and we try out different set-ups and work hours and find out what kind of stress level would go well with them.” Once they’re hired, consultants typically work 25 to 30 hours per week.
Seventy per cent of their work is performed on-site at clients’ facilities. To ease the relationship, clients are given a short introduction to autism and to the firm’s culture. Specialisterne also offers a full-time, on-call response staff who are trained to deal with any situation that may arise. Disruptions, although infrequent, do happen. In one instance, a Specialisterne consultant, disturbed by an inexplicable irregularity in his work, would get up and pace the hallway between his desk and the men’s room every time it happened. The client called the support staff who stepped in to counsel the consultant. In another case, a consultant described as a brilliant mathematician would occasionally be hit with bouts of depression. On those days, he would simply get up and leave. A support person would be called upon to find a substitute.
Overwhelmingly, however, clients have expressed great satisfaction with the work Specialisterne does. Microsoft Denmark, for example, hired its consultants to test its Windows XP Media Center. “The assignment could have been solved by one of our own employees,” said Nis Bank Lorentzen, business group lead of Microsoft Denmark, “but there was a great risk that he or she would lose the ability to concentrate after repeating the assignment a couple of times. With Specialisterne, the risk is non-existent. Their ability to concentrate remains intact, even after solving the same task many times over. Furthermore, they have a fantastic ability to locate errors and aberrations.”
In December, confident that the company was on solid footing and ready to take it to the next level, Sonne sold the company to the Specialisterne People Foundation, which he created, for one Danish krone. “The role of Specialisterne is still to earn money,” he says, “but the money will not go to external sources, but to the foundation, and the foundation will use the money for creating jobs and developing new knowledge, new services.” His hope is that, by the time Lars turns 18, the world will be a little more hospitable to people like him. “My goal is to showcase or demonstrate what happens if we embrace people with autism instead of keep on thinking they are problems to our society,” he says. “Otherwise, they have no chances.”
Pages: 1 2
