By DEE DePASS, Minneapolis Star Tribune. MAPLEWOOD, Minn. - Temple Grandin wants more autistic people in your workplace. If they don't become part of the work force, your company will lose out.
That was the key message from Grandin, an industrial designer and fellow "ASpie" (a term referring to the "autism spectrum") who designed Cargill's slaughterhouses across the United States and Canada.
The noted author, animal scientist drew more than 1,600 corporate executives, state officials and parents to the first annual Autism and Employment Forum at 3M earlier this month.
Cargill, 3M Co., Best Buy and the Autism Society of Minnesota sponsored the event, which hoped to raise awareness in the workplace and improve the hiring rates of people with autism. Only 3 percent of people with autism are currently employed. It used to be that one in 250 people would be diagnosed with autism. Today that number is one in 91. It's more prevalent today than ever, executives said in explaining why they asked Grandin to talk to business leaders.
People with mild autism or Asperger's syndrome are basically "geeks," Grandin said. They have tremendous skills that can help corporations solve problems, grow sales and program a company's ways to greatness, she said.
Silicon Valley, Hollywood, corporate labs and IT departments are often "loaded" with well-paid individuals who live somewhere on the spectrum of autism, Grandin said.
Many just haven't been diagnosed yet, she said, and so don't carry the label of the illness, which is typically characterized by heightened intellect, awkward social skills, black-and-white, literal reasoning, an intolerance of noise and the inability to read facial cues or body language.
But people with the brain disorder also frequently possess a commanding grasp of science, statistics, research and engineering. They make great innovators, engineers, scientists and graphic designers, said Grandin. For example, her ability to think in pictures allows her to "see" every aspect of an industrial machine before she draws it.
"OK, businesses: So why should you hire the ASpie geek? Because they are the ones who will solve the energy crisis," she said. With job coaching and the training of managers, more ASpies can enter the work force and do more than collect a Social Security check each month, she added.
ASpies "can be taught social skills" in the workplace. The key is to be highly specific about which behaviors work. "Don't be subtle," Grandin said. It's not enough to tell the employee that the lunchroom is open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The ASpie worker may interpret that to mean that he is to take a two-hour lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. "Now how long do you think it will be before that worker gets fired?" she quipped.
Instead, tell him that lunch is a 30-minute time slot anytime between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., she said. "Be specific." It's not helpful to tell the ASpie worker "not to be rude." Instead, calmly explain that they shouldn't chase that disinterested customer all over the store.
Click here for my employers. Brittany response: In all of my recent research, when I come across this statistic, I think of how lucky I've been, but also how hard it has been for myself, and how it would be for other ASpies.
Proposed symbol for ASpies: "A cloud. When you have Asperger Syndrome you spend most of your time lost in your own thoughts and daydreams. It feels as if a dark cloud was enveloping your head and when somebody interrupts you, the cloud dissipates. Aspies live inside this cloud most of their lifetime."
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