Being aware of common neurodivergent misunderstandings and learning how to navigate them can go a long way in saving time, energy, and feelings while boosting morale and productivity all around! 

Lift the burden of guesswork and uncertainty for all of your employees by providing clear and explicit instructions about conduct expectations, so your employees can use their energy and unique abilities to propel your business into its next leap forward! 

Autistic people thrive on details and structured tasks. Clear and direct communication with all the details and expectations laid out at the start of a project is essential.

All employees can feel workplace joy if organizations support joy crafting – aligning work with our strengths and sources of intrinsic satisfaction, such as creativity or meaning. This win-win approach is essential both for individual well-being and for cultivating a thriving, innovative, and fulfilled workforce.

Avoid assuming you know or understand any of your employee’s intentions, whether they are autistic or neurotypical. Instead, open up a dialogue and create a culture of psychological safety for everyone within your organization. The benefits far outweigh the risks.

By including autistic employees, along with nurturing a culture of accountability and open communication, organizations can reduce bystander apathy and create more honest and resilient systems.

An employee who needs extra processing time isn’t trying to be difficult, rude, or insubordinate. Their brains work differently from those of your non-autistic employees.

Crafting inclusive holiday celebrations calls for an inclusive and participatory approach. When we plan with everyone in mind, we aren’t just celebrating the season – we’re celebrating our collective humanity in all its diversity.

Autistic people are assets in the workplace, but that can be difficult to see if your primary focus is on how they don’t “fit in” with your current culture. They weren’t meant to fit in, mask, go with the flow, or toe the line. They are meant to be innovative, avant-garde, and just different enough to help guide your business into the future.

With awareness and accessibility, holiday parties don’t have to be something your neurotypical employees look forward to but your autistic employees dread, they can be a place where people of all neurotypes meet in the middle and use compromise to find common ground and create a true sense of community.