Should I disclose my recent Autism diagnosis to my employer?

This is tricky. By default, my philosophy is:

Do not volunteer information in the workplace that could be used against you.

This is especially true during interviews when there's no incentive alignment between the candidate and the employer.

However, incentives are more aligned between the employer and a full-time employee, especially if the employee has some tenure and a track record of success. You can be more vulnerable with people you trust, and as you mentioned, legally there should be no issue.

I think it boils down to whether revealing your autism diagnosis can positively impact your work life. A few ways I could imagine that happening:

• You feel more at ease and understood at work
• Your manager may adapt their behavior/feedback based on what you tell them
• You can find community within the company

Two questions I'd ask myself:

1. I'm not sure how big your company is, but I wonder if there are groups for neurodivergence? e.g. at Meta, there would be an "employee resource group" for this. Could you browse through some of the discussions in that community as a signal of how they feel?
2. How stable is your manager relationship? When you shared something vulnerable in the past ("I didn't get anything done in the past week"), how did they respond? Your manager is, by far, the most important person in your career, so you should be careful about rocking the boat too much.

I second Rahul's initial thoughts about this being a tricky one. Couple of thoughts and considerations:

• What is the primary "Why" behind sharing this update & what are you expecting as a potential outcome?
  1. Are you looking to request specific accommodations and what is the expectation regarding such accommodations?
  2. As a follow-up to the previous one, has the organization provided any additional support for Neurodiverse employees in the past and has the financial and logistical capacity/muscle to do so?  I don’t know the size and specifics of the organization, but if it is a startup/small organization, I’m assuming they would need to set up something to process your request (another item on their plate!)
  3. Most corporate org are for-profit and so mostly they tend to approach things w.r.t employee utilization as Input resources spent (Vs) Output generated? Above “Could” get risky during any cost/ work reduction events (RIF, Furloughs, etc.). Have you considered this scenario, as in the U.S, I've been noticing an unfortunate trend of folks on Maternity/Paternity leave being the first to be impacted?
  4. Understand that the ND learning is bi-directional. The onus of managing one's own ND symptoms + plus educating one's manager/leader as to how ND impacts work tasks, could be an additional overhead. Have you considered that?

A few high-level recommendations:

• To your point around managing expectations around good & bad days: Agreed that especially for ND folks, not all days are linear & productive.
  1. I'd suggest utilizing techniques like mindfulness, exercise, or collaborating with an ND Coach to discover tips and strategies for managing difficult work days.
  2. Gradually but consistently, recommend moving to a “Systems-based approach” for better managing some of the challenges such as:
     • Maintain a work reflection log (good days - things which helped, bad days - things which didn't work in your favor). Incorporate learnings into workday planning. Rinse-Repeat
     • Using the Time blocking technique to schedule a Pomodoro style 25 or 50-minute blocks to tackle a task.
     • Leverage body doubling accountability platforms such as Focusmate, Flow, etc, to help you not fall off the wagon but continue making incremental progress on rough days.
     • Incorporating windows in between work timeblocks for exercise/movement. Apps such as “Bend”, “Calm” have helpful short exercise routines
  3. Frame the support you're looking for in a different yet tactful way:
     • Request changing the location of your desk to a less noisy/distracting spot
     • Leverage Mental Health Day / Unlimited PTO (if org allows it)
     • Mindfulness/Meditation apps or Coaching reimbursement

Hope this helps!