自闭者：尚未开发的人才

    “如果将自己的阅读障碍和运动障碍视作必须忍受的残疾，就会让自己的精神状况处于最糟糕的境地，”索内指出。他发现，越是意识到自己难以启齿，演讲的停顿时间就越长。“对这一问题一笑了之，并承认你所拥有的优势，这是一种很好的治疗和健康的心态。”

    索内表示，当发表演说或演讲时，他每15到30分钟需要与一名助理交换。“通常他们能够快速迅速大量信息量，而且和ADHD患者一样，拥有能更快运转的脑组织，”他解释说，“这对观众来说是个好事，因为可以一下子获得包含很多个主题的内容。然后，他们又回到一个缓慢的状态，等待爆发。”

    现年41岁的珍•瓦恩加德纳非常热爱她的文字编辑工作，而且做得非常出色。不过，在毕业后的那些年，她一直很难融入工作环境，后来被诊断为自闭症。“工作一段时间后，我总是遇到社会交往方面的困扰。然后我就会找一个理由辞职。”瓦恩加德纳在一封电子邮件采访中写道，“我想，如果我早点理解了我的神经构造，就可以帮助自己找到应对职场工作以及适应环境的方法。”

    她提到，患有自闭症的员工精力更为集中，在社交方面浪费的时间也不多，而且能够持之以恒直到任务的完成。“我认为，一些公司看重这一优势并且积极寻求这类人才的做法值得肯定。我唯一的愿望就是社会对这类人群的接纳和理解能够继续下去，”瓦恩加德纳在博客中这样写道。目前，瓦恩加德纳担任ASAN的办公室经理，并且开了一个名为Stimeyland的博客。

    所有受访者一致认为，公开自己的自闭症或ADHD等隐性残疾是一个很艰难的个人决定。

    “每个人都要盘算一下，被社会严重孤立的风险是否会高于受到宽容接纳的可能性。”罗宾逊说，“这就相当于在一个满是异性恋的办公室里站出来说自己是同性恋，或是在一个全部信奉基督教的工作场所里承认自己是犹太人。有人会说，‘我要隐瞒这个问题。’这可能会让你与同事渐行渐远，也可能让你们更加融洽团结。”

    首先你要考虑是否能够控制自己的病情，或是找到一个变通方法，这样就无需提到病情。譬如，安永的戈尔登曾帮助一位自闭症谱系障碍的同事设计了一份台词，以提醒其他同事和客户，他的行为可能欠缺一些社交礼节。他会告诉其他人，他有时会说错话，并且希望他们在他说错话的时候能帮他指出来。

    “这样一来，他一下解决了几件事：消除了意外因素，表现脆弱变得更加招人喜欢且平易近人，而且他还邀请其他人一起参与建立解决方案。”戈尔登回忆道，“无论你有何种缺陷，最重要的是要了解自己，了解自己的优势和劣势，并能够在此基础上作出决定。”

    类似的情况还有来自旧金山的40岁律师路易斯，她用幽默感和判断力来控制自己的躁郁症。如果药物导致她说话出现结巴或是说话困难，她只会轻描淡写地说一句：“我今天真的不能讲话！”

    她将开庭安排与情绪周期保持一致，狂躁的情绪有助于她出庭辩护，而在情绪不可避免地崩溃之后，她又可以选择远程办公。她说，“我会在服用完药物后观察自己的表现，然后将精力最集中最充沛的时期拿来完成大量工作，然后在没有任何能量的时候在家办公。有时候，这对我来说非常有用，作为律师我可以表现狂热，只要情绪不会陷入恐慌的程度就好。而且我还能获得充沛的能量，大脑可以飞速地运转。”

    出于对失去律师从业执照的担忧，她在工作时都会将病情隐瞒，在接受本文采访时也要求不使用她的全名。

    62岁的教育家贝斯•贝克则表示，她必须不断提醒自己，要用60%的时间倾听，40%的时间说话，这样才能控制她自我诊断出来的阿斯伯格症——一种自闭症谱系障碍症候群。她说，“患有这种病的人都在想尽办法、用尽策略熬过每一天，在边缘和极限状态挣扎。”贝克目前是威斯康星州里奇兰中心的一名教练和辅导师，她还是国际创伤消除项目的负责人。

    如果你的隐性残疾影响到了工作表现，你至少应该考虑通知人力资源部，他们会替你保守秘密。比如，如果你患有癫痫症，一旦癫痫发作，你的雇主能够及早准备加以应对。戈尔登指出，在与人力资源部交谈时，应当以你需要何种工具、设备以及环境来实现最佳的工作状态作为主题，而不应重点讨论你的疾病。

    健康的员工可以从神经多样性倡导者所取得的进展中学习并受益。人们对大脑功能和沟通偏好差异认识的提高有助于改进所有人的工作表现。

    “你能够想象得出，当你走进某个工作场所，大家都对自己的能力和沟通模式了然于心吗？”威廉玛丽学院的伍尔夫说道，“我们正处于这样一种浪潮的开端，未来还有发展空间。”（财富中文网）

    译者：南风

    审校：Patti

    “If I view my dyslexia and dyspraxia as a disability that must be endured, I put myself in the worst position neurologically,” says Sonnon, who finds that the more conscious he is of having trouble with word access, the longer the pauses in his speech. “It’s so therapeutic and healthy to be able to laugh at the tradeoffs and embrace the fact that you have advantages.”

    When he gives a speech or lecture, Sonnon says he trades off every 15 to 30 minutes with an assistant, “usually someone who has a rapid intensity and more rapidly firing brain organization like ADHD,” he explains. “It’s great for the audience. They get the rapid infusion of many topics at once. Then they come back to the slow, big boom.”

    Jean Winegardner, 41, loved her work as a copy editor and excelled at the job, but struggled to fit into the workplace in the years after graduate school, before she was diagnosed with autism. “The social aspects always got to me after a time and I would find a reason why I needed to quit,” Winegardner writes in an email interview. “I think that if I had understood my neurological makeup earlier, I could have found ways to help myself cope with the way workplaces work and how I could fit into them.”

    Autistic employees can be more focused, waste little time socializing, and persevere until they complete their tasks, she notes. “I think it is wonderful that some companies are actively seeking out autistic people because of their strengths. I only hope that this acceptance and understanding spreads,” writes Winegardner, who now works as ASAN’s office manager and writes a blog called Stimeyland.

    Everyone interviewed for this article agreed that disclosing an invisible disability like autism or ADHD is a challenging personal decision.

    “Every person has to decide, is the risk of severe social isolation greater than the possible greater social acceptance?” says Robison. “This is much like coming out and saying you’re gay in a straight workplace or you’re Jewish in a Christian workplace. Some people will say, ‘I can’t relate to that.’ It may drive you apart from your coworkers and it may bring you together.”

    First, consider whether you can manage your condition—or find a workaround— without naming it. For instance, EY’s Golden says she helped a colleague on the autism spectrum develop scripts to give colleagues and clients a heads up that he lacked some social graces. He told them he had a habit of sometimes saying the wrong thing and asked them to do him the favor of pointing it out, if it happened.

    “That way, he accomplished several things: he took away the surprise factor, he made himself vulnerable and therefore more likable and approachable, and he invited people to be part of the solution,” Golden recalls. “An individual with any kind of disability needs to—above all—know him or herself, what his strengths and weaknesses are, and be able to make … decisions on that basis.”

    Similarly, San Francisco lawyer Louise, 40, manages her bipolar disorder with humor and discretion. If her medication causes her to stutter or have trouble accessing a word, she says she’ll make light of it, saying, “I really can’t talk today!”

    She manages her trial schedule in keeping with her mood cycles, using the manic energy for her benefit in the run up to a hearing or trial, and then telecommuting when she inevitably crashes afterwards. “Being medicated and watching myself as I do, I use periods of high intensity and high energy to get a lot done, knowing there’s always going to be a period that I don’t have any energy and I have to work from home,” she says. “Sometimes it’s very useful for me to be manic when I’m a litigator, so long as it doesn’t tip into the panic range. I have a lot of energy; my brain moves very quickly.”

    Out of fear of losing her license to practice law, she keeps her condition a secret at work, and asked that her full name not be used in this article.

    Educator Beth Baker, 62, says she must constantly remind herself to listen 60% of the time and speak 40% of the time, to compensate for her self-diagnosed Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. “All of us develop strategies and tactics for making it through the day and dealing with life, and dealing with the rough edges and approximations,” says Baker, a coach and facilitator based in Richland Center, Wis., and director of the International Trauma Abatement Project.

    If your invisible disability may affect your work performance, you should consider disclosing it at least to human resources, where it will stay confidential. For instance, if you have epilepsy, your employer would benefit from being prepared in case you have a seizure. The discussion with human resources should revolve around the tools, equipment, and environment you need to do your best work, not about the disability itself, Golden notes.

    Neurotypical employees can learn from and benefit from the advances made by neurodiversity advocates. An increased awareness of differences in people’s brain function and communication preferences could improve the work that everyone does.

    “Can you imagine if you went into a workplace and everyone had a sense of their abilities and their mode of interaction?” William & Mary’s Wulf says. “We’re right at the beginning of the wave. It hasn’t crested.”