This article
and the one that follows it next time will focus on the question of
TS in the workplace. One of the biggest conundrums that we TS'ers face
is: should I tell or shouldn't I? The fears and issues we agonize over
are not that unlike those that children and adolescents with TS face
when grappling over whether or not to divulge "the big secret" in their
classroom: rejection, being socially ostracized. In either environment
it is an individual choice to be sure, but here's some of Dunc's disinhibited
thoughts on the matter……
One thing I often
tell TS adolescents that I work with is: "If you tell people about your
TS and they continue to mistreat you, and to perceive you and your abilities
poorly, that is their problem. BUT, if you DON'T tell people about your
TS, how it affects you, and what they can expect from you, and these
people treat you poorly due to misperceptions, that is YOUR ownership
and YOUR problem." I would suggest that by not disclosing your TS in
the workplace you as a TS'er are not giving your employer a CHANCE to
show understanding OR intolerance. You don't know how your employer
or fellow employees will react to the disorder, because you never gave
them any information about it in the first place. This can set up a
self-fulfilling cycle of paranoia, since any negative treatment borne
of ignorance to what you are going through and dealing with can then
be automatically viewed as rejection of your disorder.
To be fired in
this scenario, for example, isn't a reflection of mistreatment in a
discriminatory world. It's a reflection on the ignorance you have perpetuated
- others in the workplace saw difficulties in certain situations, eccentric
behaviour, etc. and in the absence of the true explanation saw it as
purposeful, as manipulative, as immaturity, as ill will and a "bad attitude",
etc. We are of a different breed, and while we have no boundaries on
the successes that we can achieve, we DO sometimes need to go about
things in a different way from others. If employers don't know this
and haven't the chance to give us what we need then they are fully justified
in being dissatisfied with substandard work.
I will stress
as well that of course discriminations do indeed occur. If a person
fires you because of your TS then this is discrimination, and this should
be fought passionately and to the last man. But if a person fires you
because you did not inform people of your symptoms and your particular
requirements so that you can do the job expected of you, then you are
not taking responsibility for your disorder and you earned what you
received.
Until next time,
my friends!
Duncan
