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I recommend not telling her. People that work in HR have the biggest mouths and will tell plenty of other people behind your back. They will find ways to retaliate and use it against you indirectly.
There is no reason to disclose. Now you just have to hope that Helen will keep her mouth shut. She may think she's being "helpful" by mentioning it to other people. Hopefully not. Even if she does, though, you have no reason to confirm it.
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Originally Posted by 313Weather
You CAN tell her. She can't legally retaliate against you (by that, I mean fire you or mistreat you) if you've been officially diagnosed.
That said, if it's not interfering with your performance, I wouldn't mention it.
The HR manager doesn't have to fire you for having Asperger's - if they want to get rid of you for having Asperger's, they can find plenty of legal ways to do so. It's not hard for a boss to get rid of an employee if they want to. We had a boss who decided she wanted to fire an employee, so she looked in that employee's email, found a personal email sent from his work address, and that was enough for her to claim he was "abusing" his work email, and he was fired.
It's ridiculous, but there are people out there who, upon finding out you have Asperger's, will all of a sudden think you can't do your job properly, despite you having done it properly for the past two years. Since you don't need to mention it, and you don't feel it's interfering with your work, then I don't see why you should.
An HR person is not the company psychiatrist.
If you have a proven medical condition that may impact your job ability or
may be needed to know (allergy to bee stings and you work outside, or a beehive next door)
then by all means your HR, Safety Officer, or operational manager should know.
But since something like Aspergers just recently was reclassifed as high functioning autism,
and is unique to every person, I wouldn't mention or parade it as the med. issue of your day.
What's to gain? and there's a lot to possibly lose.
Don't tell Babs anything. If she asks you about it, tell her you never said any such thing to Helen. I'm being serious. If Helen is an instigator, Babs probably already knows about it. If not, and Helen blows the whistle, you could just chalk it up to confusion during chit chat broken up with work, and that you wonder how on earth Helen got the idea that you have it.
And you could always get Helen back by telling Babs that Helen implied that she is slipping. Then chalk that up to a misunderstanding.
I'm joking about telling HR that Helen "implied" that she is slipping, but you see how this could play out. Helen's up to something.
I think all this bad mouthing Helen is uncalled for. I believe she does have a grandson so affected and thus her concern for this young man with the same condition. I expect that she knows that if it does ever affect his job performance and he has not said anything to let HR know about the condition, that he cannot then rely on telling them after the fact that he has it.
I think all this bad mouthing Helen is uncalled for. I believe she does have a grandson so affected and thus her concern for this young man with the same condition. I expect that she knows that if it does ever affect his job performance and he has not said anything to let HR know about the condition, that he cannot then rely on telling them after the fact that he has it.
I do think she is trying to be helpful to him.
She might be trying to be helpful, but she's also in her 60's, close to retirement, and may not be up to date with what HR is like these days. She may think that HR will "protect" or "help" the OP by making sure he's not discriminated against for having Asperger's. But that's not really the function of HR these days. HR is more about making sure the employer is protected, not the employee. Meaning if the company wants to fire the OP, they'll ask HR how they can do it legally, so it doesn't appear to be about his Asperger's.
If Helen were more "with it" regarding HR's purpose, then I don't think she would recommend the OP talk to HR. Because, as of right now, the OP has successfully been working at that company for two years, and his Asperger's has not been an issue. If something isn't an issue, why make it into one?
Helen's heart may be in the right place, but it's not a good idea for an employee to willingly inform his employer of medical issues that so far do not affect their work performance, especially if the medical issue could potentially be a reason for the employee to be discriminated against.
I'm trying to understand why Helen feels the need to instruct you to inform anyone at your job of your condition. What's the end game for her? I would absolutely not tell anyone at work because it's not their business. She guessed only because she's aware of the condition. But it's not for her to decide who you should tell.
Keep the information to yourself, keep doing an awesome job at work, and I would also limit what you reveal to Helen in the future as she may appear to have your best interests at heart, I doubt she does.
I have a feeling that Helen already told Barbara in HR and to not look like just a gossiper or pot stirrer she wants OP to go in there and confirm what she ALREADY told Barbara.
I would not discuss it anymore and especially with Helen. If Helen brings it up again just tell her that you wish her grandchild the best and you do not have time to discuss personal issues right now.
The problem is that I usually don't tell the company I have it when I try to get jobs because they would be likely to turn me down, but when I get a job, I have to tell them sooner or later because I have real problems at work especially with social dynamics. This condition really is destroying my working life. Another incident has just happened and I really don't know what to do next particularly. There seems to be no future.
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