Autistic people often struggle to maintain employment, and employers rarely provide adequate, appropriate adjustments. The aim of this study is to critically explore the extent to which the Job Demands-Resources (JDR) Model and Impression Management Theory adequately capture the experiences of autistic workers and assess whether their coping strategies and workplace adjustments are likely to prevent burnout.
Using a critical realist perspective, 28 in-depth interviews with autistic workers with recent experience of burnout were conducted and analysed using thematic analysis. The findings reveal that the JDR Model needs to be adapted to account for autism-specific job demands (needs), job resources (adjustments), coping strategies (including the pursuit of their ‘special interests’), and features of burnout. In particular, autistic workers show different manifestations of disengagement and exhaustion, and burnout is accompanied by ‘identity crisis’ related to loss of special interests and (in)voluntary unmasking. Impression Management can be used to explain masking at work while burning out, including reduced awareness of needs and suffering, not being believed when disclosing, reduced access to support, difficulty reconciling multiple personas, and difficulty making needs known and understood by others.
The study contributes theoretically through: drawing out the omissions and inconsistencies of the JDR Model when applying it to autistic workers; developing our understanding of burnout and coping strategies; challenging Goffman’s Impression Management theory for not accounting for the unique differences and additional costs faced by autistic workers who engage in such intense social behaviour; and providing an integrative framework which links the JDR Model, burnout, coping and Impression Management in autistic workers. Methodological contributions include new insights into how autism-centred (not just autism-friendly) interviews may be conducted. Recommendations relate to how the JDR model might be adapted to enhance autistic peoples’ working experiences, how employers might prevent burnout, and the necessary policy recommendations supporting these endeavours.
