Ask a Manager: Update to "My New Manager Loves Ice-Breakers"

[minoanmiss]

3. New manager loves ice-breakers

So I spoke to my manager about being on the spectrum and how hard it is for me doing icebreakers and being called on like that is extremely stressful. She promised to stop and just didn’t. The very next day she called on me again for a “fun fact about you” so I decided to really make myself heard. My fun fact ended up being that I’m autistic and video chats and ice breakers are extremely stressful for me. The meeting ended very quickly and she then insisted on video chatting with me to apologize, still not recognizing my stated desires to communicate via email. She has slowed with the ice breakers and rarely calls on people now but still seems to think that she can change me. Ableism just seems to be her bread and butter, if she just ignores disability it won’t exist.

Comments

[lilysea]

Plus for people who were abused as children, photos of themselves as a child could be very upsetting or even triggering.

[conuly]

Or they might not have/have access to childhood photos, for various reasons.

[joyeuce]

Yes, I discovered when I was about 10 and was told "bring a baby pic into school" that my parents had no individual baby photos of me - family group shots from my christening, but nothing else. I asked why and my mother said they didn't have a camera then, though presumably someone had one at the christening! They'd acquired one by the time my brother came along a couple of years later.