While public understanding of neurodiversity is growing and companies such as EY, Microsoft and Walgreens have built programs to help neurodivergent employees succeed, the unwritten rules of “belonging” in the office still challenge people on the spectrum.
Navigating the social expectations often turns into a form of extra labor for employees on the spectrum, according to Mary Eve Speach, an assistant professor of management who studies disability and difference in the workplace.
“There are a lot of stereotypes about employees with autism — that they struggle with connecting with other people or that they don’t want to connect with others, or that they will shy away from social interactions at work because it’s uncomfortable or difficult,” Speach said. “And what we found through the studies in this paper and through the interviews is that’s not necessarily the case. There is a lot of interest in and effort put into wanting to connect.”
Speach was part of a long-term study of the workplace experience for employees on the spectrum and their strategies and struggles. She and her coauthors — management researchers Tiffany Johnson James at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business, Aparna Joshi of the University of Michigan and Glen Kreiner of the University of Utah — published their findings in “The Social Dance: Sociality Strategies and Tradeoffs for Autistic Workers” in Academy of Management Discoveries earlier in 2026.
Through surveys of hundreds of employees diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and in-depth interviews with several dozen employees on the spectrum and their coworkers, they found these employees put a lot of effort into thinking about or navigating social interactions.
“One thing that came out across our studies is that the small interactions that we kind of take for granted — like small talk or having to go to a meeting— stressed people out,” Speach said. “These interactions took a lot of thought and were very meaningful for employees who were on the spectrum … Our participants had many different strategies that they would use to try to connect and manage these social interactions.”
Speach and her coauthors found three trends in the strategies their participants used to navigate social interactions and office expectations.
The most often described strategy was one in which employees chose not to adapt to neurotypical social norms, instead focusing on personal strengths such as strict rule adherence, precision, attention to detail and solitary work.
Employees who used what they termed as “the lone ranger strategy” avoided the stress of constantly second-guessing social cues, but often suffered social isolation, felt devalued by colleagues, and worried their behavior would cost them a promotion or cause them to be let go.
Other participants described a pattern of adapting that Speach and her coauthors described as the “expatriate strategy,” which involves the employee viewing the workplace as a foreign culture they need to assimilate into.
Employees might mask their autistic traits or try to match their coworkers’ behavior to blend into the team, Speach said. Maintaining this persona comes at a steep psychological cost. Employees who employ this strategy feel a continuous state of anxiety that leads to long-term burnout and job insecurity, she added.
A smaller group of participants described a strategy that included formally disclosing their diagnosis to managers and coworkers and requesting accommodations, such as modified lighting or quiet break rooms. This strategy, dubbed “the functionalist strategy,” produced the best work outcomes, but employees reported they traded vulnerability for access to what they needed, exposing them to possible social stigma and anxiety about being labeled.
“We found these ‘expatriate,’ ‘lone ranger’, and ‘functionalist’ strategies, but we didn’t find that there was one catch-all, best way to manage your interactions at work, especially when you look at the quantitative data,” Speach said.
“There’s obviously a spectrum about how people feel about their autism and the challenges they have, and the way they relate to their coworkers and the workplace environment is totally different. We felt like it was a mixed bag in terms of what worked for people and the trade-offs.”
The key takeaway for managers and coworkers is that they need to acknowledge that employees on the spectrum will show up differently and need different types of support.
The role of advocates and allies is important for employees across the spectrum, but it’s more important that systems support the strategy the employee has already established, Speach said.
“I think having effective training with coworkers and supervisors so they have an awareness, I think, is really helpful,” Speach said.
Basic reminders that people have different communication styles and ways of working can go a long way to help an office community be more welcoming for employees on the spectrum while making the team as productive as possible.