Lunch with Your Austism Spectrum Employee

You probably have that employee who just sits there quietly and does his or her work, but doesn't interact too much with anyone. When you decide to go out to lunch with your co-workers, you probably don't even think to ask him or her to come along. But you should. Believe it or not, they want to come along. They want to be social--they just don't know how to be social the way you are. Of course, if you decide to take my advice--or perhaps, you already asked before and had this happen--you will likely find the request turned down. You should do it anyway, and you should do it every time you are going out with your co-workers. The reason you are turned down can be many--it may be the person is anxious about going out with people who have never asked him or her to go, it may be that they are simply not up to it at that time, or it may be that they had something else in mind for lunch and they are resistant to changing it even though it is certainly possible for them to do so--but you should nevertheless keep trying. It may help to tell them the day before, or even earlier if possible, and tell them you don't need to know right then, so they have time to get in the mindset to want to go.