Is my autistic co worker abusive?

[Anonymous]

My co worker is 37. He's pretty severely autistic. He has a pretty bad speach impediment. he's pretty much a child in a mans body. I've been working with him for a year. Occasionally he'll throw a little fit in front of me. He just gets overwhelmed easily, but he's never yelled at me. We work for a commercial Cleaning company. One time he was vacuuming, and I showed him a spot he missed. He looked at me, and slammed the vacuum on the ground. I walked torwards him real fast. He was like "im sorry I didn't mean it" I said that he needs to calm down, and we can't be breaking vacuums. So last night we were talking. He had supportive staff. Like people who come to his house to check up on him, and help him with things. He said that one time one of his supportive staff was at his house. My co workers treadmill broke down (he's obsessed with walking on it) and he started screaming. He said he screamed at his supportive staff too. I guess he was just trying to calm him down. After his outburst, my co worker said that he was sorry. I don't know if this is emotional abuse, or if it doesn't really count. Like I said because he has the mind of a child?

[Anonymous]

Autistic people can be abusive for sure, being handicapped doesn't mean you're incapable of being a bad person.

But screaming isn't necessarily abusive, especially if it's just expressing upset/frustration and not threatening or insulting you.

I used to work as a caretaker and having to calm down a screaming adult who doesn't mean to react that way is no different than having to help a paralyzed adult into or out of the shower. Apologizing honestly isn't even necessary, but I can understand how it would feel more needed when it's something that can come across as aggressive and hostile even though it's really just upset.

[rosemilk]

that is just what people with medium functioning autism do and how they act.

if he was high functioning, he could hide it better.

you just have to be patient. and maybe don't point out a mistake and fix it yourself because you know he'll react wrongly. and it'll turn into a whole thing.

[Asker]

Yeah that's what I did the other night. He missed a small section while he was vacuuming. He had already put the vacuum away, and I certainly didn't wanna ask him to get it out, and vacuum again, so I just did it myself.

[butterly248]

I have mild autism. It's hard most of the time for me :(

[Asker]

Sorry to hear that. I didn't mention it in my post, but I too have autism. I have a lot of trouble interacting with other people, and it's difficult for me to keep a job. I can't believe I've had my current job for over 2 years.

[butterly248]

All we can do is try our best

[butterly248]

Can you speak to anyone about this?

[DonFredoCorleone]

Is it bad to work with an autistic person?

[Asker]

Not had. Once I've figured out how he operates, what to do, and what not to to do around him, it's manageable.

[Asker]

*bad