You have no idea how many neurodiverse and chronically ill people in your company are trying to pass for normal.
Our fixation on “normal” makes people resist getting help that would make their lives easier and possibly make it easier for them to be “out”.
You have no idea what your coworkers are struggling with. I found out one had stage 4 cancer by asking why it was taking him so long to fix a problem. I’ve had exactly one coworker in >20 years who was open about being on the autism spectrum, and people were weird about it.
Nobody wants to be defined by these things so they don’t bring them up.
thats the problem then, right?
i bet if people would just open up, in general the reactions would be positive.
at least at the places were I worked at.
You’re asking for people to live in a future that doesn’t exist.
You don’t need “in general the reactions” to be positive, you need 100% of your bosses and peers to have a positive reaction, and you need to be able to predict it ahead of time because you can’t but that cork back in the bottle. Developer communities can be small. That information could affect future employment opportunities as well.
Our fixation on “normal” makes people resist getting help that would make their lives easier and possibly make it easier for them to be “out”.
You have no idea what your coworkers are struggling with. I found out one had stage 4 cancer by asking why it was taking him so long to fix a problem. I’ve had exactly one coworker in >20 years who was open about being on the autism spectrum, and people were weird about it.
Nobody wants to be defined by these things so they don’t bring them up.