My father worked with a man, and I don't know if he was autistic, but he donated to the social club but didn't attend any workplace parties. One day, Dad asked him why, and he replied, "I have my colleagues; I have my friends; I have my family. I don't allow my colleagues to become friends." I think that managers need to understand that autistic employees, and later autistic managers, may prefer to come to work, do their work and go home at the end of the day, rather than going out for drinks with colleagues after work, and that's fine. And that for an autistic employee, who works in even a glass cubicle, that a ten minute chat in the lunch room might be their socialising cup for the day.

I am proud to be autistic, as it has meant a lifetime of difference has been explained.