Passed her over for learning new skills in favor of a new hire that has 2 years industry experience (she has 1). Now she threw a tantrum and is giving attitude. We’ve also been having issues with her asking to go home early and not wanting to do certain other tasks but being sneaky about it, Taking more shifts off than normal and the like. Anyone with experience have any advice ? I personally would like her to go but I have to tread carefully due to her disability. She’s not had any other write ups since she’s not done anything to that level just been irritating and lazy at times in the past.

  • DropsTheMic@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    You are in luck, I happen to teach vocational rehabilitation skills to adults with disabilities for a career and have worked with people with Autism for almost 15 years.

    It sounds to me like she isn’t respecting the boundaries you have set. The best thing you can do is clearly redraw them and establish some natural consequences that can occur if they continue to behave the way they are in the office. Put the ball entirely in their court. Some notes to consider for the conversation -

    1. Note the relationship, bring in some personal anecdote or story about them that highlights their positive qualities. Let them know that they are appreciated for those quality outputs that have been seen in the past. How long have you known the person? “I have known you for X years now” is a very grounding statement that doesn’t illicit argument, establishing a history with no bias.
    2. Address the change in behavior. In short, what happened? Give some very specific examples of the undesirable behavior and contrast it with the desirable behavior. Use I statements that can’t be argued with like "When I heard you say X thing I was surprised. I have always known you to be a level headed person. (lie a little if you have to, you need to establish that you believe that they can achieve the results that you are expecting)
    3. Reasonable accommodations - note the accommodations you have made to make sure they actually do fulfill the function they are designed to. Extend an offer to revise these accommodations if need be but they are probably fine. You still need to ask for HR reasons anyway. I wouldn’t linger long here, it is their responsibility to let you know if they don’t have the tools they need to do the job.
    4. Let this person know that you are personally invested in their success. You also have a larger business to consider and your obligations that that business is an obligation to everyone in your office. Be candid about the lack of adequate experience and why you felt the best decision for the company was to lead with someone with more experience.

    Document it all. Either they change their behavior or you already have your paperwork done for when they file an unemployment claim.

    • Puzzled-Case-5993@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      “people with Autism” is not preferred language. If you’re going to profit of us, at least have the decency to use our preferred language.

      IFL is preferred. Which you’d know if you listened to autistic people (not “people with autism”, as you said). It’s gross that you’re using person first language AND presenting yourself as someone to listen to regarding autism.