Last night there was a “What Next?” presentation at Andy’s school by various organizations in Hong Kong that cater to the needs of English-speaking students with special conditions such as autism or down syndrome after they graduate from high school. What jumped out at me after reviewing the slides from their presentations was how many of the job opportunities were in the field of hospitality, and how many of the corporate partners and potential employers were hotels.
To many people, this may seem counterintuitive, since the hospitality business involves lots of interactions between staff and guests, and people with autism who find social interactions difficult would naturally not necessarily come off as being particularly “hospitable.” However, having worked as an intern in several hotels myself, I would say that there are in fact many jobs that would potentially be quite suitable for people with autism, particularly among the many non-guest-facing positions. These may be in the kitchen preparing food or in housekeeping, or for the many autistic jobseekers who enjoy creating spreadsheets and graphs and working with computers, there are even opportunities supporting the management teams.
I was also reminded of a visit to Prior’s Court (https://www.priorscourt.org.uk/), a British school and young adult center for students and young adults with complex autism in the countryside that we had considered for Andy, partly because it had provisions for autistic young adults up to the age of 25. During the tour, our guide mentioned that many of the older students work part time in the nearby Hilton-group hotels: for example, one non-verbal autistic teenager worked at the Doubletree and was especially good at arranging the desk areas of each guest room. This young person with complex autism was better than neurotypical staff at making sure all the items on the desk were presented correctly. They could also work more efficiently, arranging more desks without losing interest or accuracy (this rang true with me as Andy to this day needs certain items– his ipad when charging, say– to be lined up in a position that’s precisely parallel to the wall).
Indeed, autistic workers generally exhibit many strengths over their neurotypical peers. A greater attention to detail and higher levels of concentration are two important traits, as can been seen in the example above. Autistic workers are often also more reliable and conscientious. This is all consistent with the studies that I’ve written about previously regarding disabled people being able to contribute a lot more to the workforce than generally recognized if given the proper incentives. Overall then, especially given the huge shortage in workers to fill many hospitality positions around the world, a more enlightened approach when hiring-- to include more candidates with autism and other special conditions– would make perfect sense.
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