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Autistic Civil Servant

Blogs about being an autistic civil servant written so other autistic civil servants don't feel alone

17/11/2025

Small talk's a social expectation - a code. It doesn't exchange any information and it doesn't require honesty. So why do the neurotypicals need it?

If you’re autistic it’s likely one of your struggles in life is small talk. You go up to someone and you need a piece of information from them – but can you just ask for it? No & #…

10/11/2025

Face the facts! Easier said than done for many people, but for autistics it can be the only way we can cope with the world.

Talking to other autistic people in the workplace, I’ve tended to find that they prefer to look facts in the face like I do, but others may differ. Sometimes just knowing that actually the wo…

03/11/2025

The autistic nightmare - when the simple words you say are interpreted to mean something else that's bad, and everything you do to try to unravel the misunderstanding makes it worse.

You say something. The person you’re talking to’s face changes. They go very silent and walk away. Much MUCH later, you find out what they took your words to mean, which wasn’t wh…

27/10/2025

Being very conscientious is good, right? But for an autistic brain it can easily flip over into not knowing when to stop!

There’s plenty of things in a world not designed for autistics that can make our lives difficult. But we autistics can also work against ourselves with over-conscientiousness – going no…

20/10/2025

Dress for the job you want not the one you have, right? Well if you're an autistic person, smartening up your clothes might be the one thing you just can't do.

Picture the stereotype you have in your head of an autistic person. It’s probably a geek or a nerd – maybe wearing loose, scruffy clothes and trainers, possibly with thick glasses, hair…

13/10/2025

Is it "autistic person" or "person with autism"? Quick clue - most autistics prefer to former. But here's a bit more info.

For me, like many autistic people, precise language is important. But unfortunately not all autistic people agree on the language that’s best to use about autism. This is an attempt to summar…

06/10/2025

Having a fixed desk can't make all that much difference can it? I accidentally did an experiment and it totally can...

One of my most important reasonable adjustments for autism is having a fixed desk. Like most workplaces, mine operates a hot-desking policy and colleagues have to book in advance where they will si…

29/09/2025

Today the Church celebrates St Michael and All Angels, but Guardian Angels can be precious hard to come by if you're autistic. I used to feel mine must have a broken wing...

Colleagues sometimes ask me if they should tell their manager and colleagues about the fact that they’re autistic. I tend to say that if you’re going to be open you should be aware in a…

22/09/2025

Autism's my brain's operating system - it's not an illness to be cured. And yet the mischaracterisation of autism as an illness persists.

If we call someone “mad” or “crazy” or any number of other words meaning “mentally ill” then we often mean we can discount what they’re saying. That’…

15/09/2025

If your autistic person seems to be "cured" or "less autistic" then probably they've learned to hide who they truly are because being true to themselves isn't safe. We autistics need choices about how we present ourselves, not to hide out of fear.

It’s asking a lot of parents, but I really think it would be better for an autistic person if they were allowed to be who and what they are, rather than trained to fit in. Or, I should say, i…

08/09/2025

Even now the stereotype of autism is male - but what does that mean for autistic females?

Most autistics are men or boys, right? It makes sense that women and girls who are more naturally people-focussed and communicative wouldn’t be autistic doesn’t it? Well no. That’…

01/09/2025

Even *ahem* years since leaving school I get a deep sense of dread at this time of year. Such is the damage caused by by undiagnosed (so unsupported) autistic in the classroom.

If there are any people aged about 4 to about 18 in your family, you might have been confronting “back to school” for a few weeks now. For many children school is something to be looked…

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