Defending Wellbeing at Work: A Case Study of Autism

An analysis of the British Workplace Behaviour Survey by Fevre et al. (2013) found that ‘employees with disabilities and long-term illnesses were more likely to suffer ill-treatment in the workplace and experienced a broader range of ill-treatment. Different types of disability were associated with different types of ill-treatment’ (p. 288). The authors concluded that such treatment was ‘embedded in the social relations of the workplace’ and came from co-workers, supervisors and managers. Furthermore, they found that people with ‘invisible disabilities’ were as likely, if not more likely, to suffer from ill-treatment or discrimination (p. 303).