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Managing Engineers on the Spectrum

Hi HN, I'm a software engineer with ~5 years of experience in the industry turned newly-appointed engineering manager. I manage a small group of people, each with their own projects, while I continue to have my own engineering projects that I contribute to in parallel to my managing duties. One of the people I manage is having difficulties in their position. Although I am not a doctor, I am fairly certain that this person is high functioning on the autism spectrum (what might otherwise be diagnosed as Asperger's.) I say this only because I myself am diagnosed as Asperger's, and I see many of this person's behaviors in a younger version of myself. Despite the similarities, I'm unsure how to help them. They are a wonderful caring person with clearly very strong technical abilities, but are being held back in their career by certain difficulties. They're having problems with task management and stress. They will take an inordinate amount of time to complete otherwise simple tasks, rehashing work that has already been completed for the sake of organizing it in a way that is pleasing to them (formatting, commenting, etc.) rather than working on the deliverable objectives of the project. This leads to delays, which causes increased stress, which in turn causes more delays. This sets up a feedback loop that ends in them "shutting down" and that eventually requires intervention. I've tried being a mentor to this person and helping them improve in these problem areas, but the advice or constructive criticism I've been giving on how to manage these issues does not seem to be helping. Are there any good resources for learning how to manage people (specifically engineers) on the spectrum, or even just resources for new managers in general? I'm worried that if things don't improve, this person will end up being let go by the company.

deodar 6y ago
I am sorry I don't have any specific advice for your situation. I am answering the part about good resources for new managers. I personally learned a lot from "First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently" (ISBN: 978-1531865207). The key idea is to not try and change the basic nature or capabilities of any person but to give them tasks that help them showcase their natural strengths. This may not always be possible. I have found this idea to bear out in my experience. If you try to make a cat bark, it will result in a lot of frustration for both you and the cat. Personal growth and learning is a long, difficult journey and you as a manager can only give ideas or hints. You cannot mold your reports' nature or style of working.
- catherd 6y ago
  My experience matches this. You can move heaven and earth to teach everyone the exact right way to do things, or you can set some overarching guidelines and move people around or re-define their roles until it starts working. In an environment where the work is always changing the first method never ends and quickly descends into chaos if you ever let up. Almost everyone loves to do work that other people value, but it's hard to predict how they internally calculate what is valued and what isn't. See if you can learn why this person has this behavior. Perfectionism? Fear of looking bad in front of peers? Unclear goals? With some creative thinking it may be that those internal motivations are compatible with tasks that need done. If not, a harder to implement solution would be to see if you can frame some higher level goals they can internalize. Particularly with people on the spectrum I've found that they have a hard time seeing the forest, but if you can explain things in a way they can process they will happily adopt those higher level goals into their value system. Unless that person is driven to get straight A's on their report card, make it clear you value the right stuff is getting done, but try not to turn it into mechanical process.
- ThrowawayAcnt09 6y ago
  Thanks, this is really good advice. We have been working with this person to try and find tasks that they are better-suited for, but unfortunately the type of work our company does involves fast-paced one-off projects that seldom require the level of meticulousness that this person seems to want.
  - giantg2 6y ago
    This sounds like my situation.
giantg2 6y ago
Maybe you could have the person write an auto-format script to format it how they want. You might lose a day or two as they develop it, but maybe that would save time in the future.
itronitron 6y ago
It's possible they are burned out and are stressing out on the task management because they don't 'believe in' or have confidence in the outcome. If your work environment is characterized by a lot of re-work due to changing requirements then that might also force someone into analysis paralysis which would look like they are not making any progress. One thing that might help is to meet with them once a week to list on paper or sticky notes the higher priority tasks and discuss whether there are any unknowns or dependent items that need to be resolved before they can make progress.
superflit 6y ago
I did managed some people on the Spectrum and it is an eye opener. The best way to explain is: Imagine you can only see black and white (no gray tones) and all other people can see full colors. Then someone says: "look at that Orange and pink tones" <...> That is it. They can't identify these "orange and pink" tones. Example on priorities: 1. You set 5 task on priorities; 2. CEO/Big Boss secretary calls because report Y is not printing; 3. Your fellow on Spectrum says rigidly: "Sorry that is not important or priority, bye". That may look "funny" but these people suffer a lot. In work, relationships everything. They can't see "pink and oranges". Sheldon from Big Bang theory is "funny" until it is not. What is my suggestion: 1. One task by time (only leave ONE task on their queues). 2. Be EXPLICIT . VERY EXPLICIT. Examples: 2.1 "I Need this class to input X,Y,Z, and produce Z with W,G results. Do not change code-style,lint or whatever." 2.2 "We need to improve W but we Can't turn off Z. or Y" 3. Ask and understand how they think (example with real cases): 3.1 "Why you turn off the whole call center electricity? A. To restart all machines faster after Service Pack." 3.2 "Why you blocked CEO mailbox? A.: "There was a virus running and I did to safe him" The thing is to be their "pink and orange tones". One Task only, be explicit what you want, be VERY explicit what is the result. Once you reach this you will have a fine tuned productivity machine.
oftenwrong 6y ago
I had a co-worker who was on the spectrum. Communicating with him face-to-face or on a voice call was difficult. He would often latch onto a small aspect of the conversation that didn't really matter, and then walk away from the conversation with only that small thing in mind. This would lead him to work on seemingly random things. I found that communicating with him in writing seemed to work much better. If you have not already, try switching to written communication. Beyond that, I don't have any advice to offer.
- giantg2 6y ago
  I find written communication much easier too.

deodar 6y ago

I am sorry I don't have any specific advice for your situation. I am answering the part about good resources for new managers. I personally learned a lot from "First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently" (ISBN: 978-1531865207). The key idea is to not try and change the basic nature or capabilities of any person but to give them tasks that help them showcase their natural strengths. This may not always be possible. I have found this idea to bear out in my experience. If you try to make a cat bark, it will result in a lot of frustration for both you and the cat. Personal growth and learning is a long, difficult journey and you as a manager can only give ideas or hints. You cannot mold your reports' nature or style of working.

catherd 6y ago
My experience matches this. You can move heaven and earth to teach everyone the exact right way to do things, or you can set some overarching guidelines and move people around or re-define their roles until it starts working. In an environment where the work is always changing the first method never ends and quickly descends into chaos if you ever let up. Almost everyone loves to do work that other people value, but it's hard to predict how they internally calculate what is valued and what isn't. See if you can learn why this person has this behavior. Perfectionism? Fear of looking bad in front of peers? Unclear goals? With some creative thinking it may be that those internal motivations are compatible with tasks that need done. If not, a harder to implement solution would be to see if you can frame some higher level goals they can internalize. Particularly with people on the spectrum I've found that they have a hard time seeing the forest, but if you can explain things in a way they can process they will happily adopt those higher level goals into their value system. Unless that person is driven to get straight A's on their report card, make it clear you value the right stuff is getting done, but try not to turn it into mechanical process.
ThrowawayAcnt09 6y ago
Thanks, this is really good advice. We have been working with this person to try and find tasks that they are better-suited for, but unfortunately the type of work our company does involves fast-paced one-off projects that seldom require the level of meticulousness that this person seems to want.
- giantg2 6y ago
  This sounds like my situation.

giantg2 6y ago

Maybe you could have the person write an auto-format script to format it how they want. You might lose a day or two as they develop it, but maybe that would save time in the future.

itronitron 6y ago

It's possible they are burned out and are stressing out on the task management because they don't 'believe in' or have confidence in the outcome. If your work environment is characterized by a lot of re-work due to changing requirements then that might also force someone into analysis paralysis which would look like they are not making any progress. One thing that might help is to meet with them once a week to list on paper or sticky notes the higher priority tasks and discuss whether there are any unknowns or dependent items that need to be resolved before they can make progress.

superflit 6y ago

I did managed some people on the Spectrum and it is an eye opener. The best way to explain is: Imagine you can only see black and white (no gray tones) and all other people can see full colors. Then someone says: "look at that Orange and pink tones" <...> That is it. They can't identify these "orange and pink" tones. Example on priorities: 1. You set 5 task on priorities; 2. CEO/Big Boss secretary calls because report Y is not printing; 3. Your fellow on Spectrum says rigidly: "Sorry that is not important or priority, bye". That may look "funny" but these people suffer a lot. In work, relationships everything. They can't see "pink and oranges". Sheldon from Big Bang theory is "funny" until it is not. What is my suggestion: 1. One task by time (only leave ONE task on their queues). 2. Be EXPLICIT . VERY EXPLICIT. Examples: 2.1 "I Need this class to input X,Y,Z, and produce Z with W,G results. Do not change code-style,lint or whatever." 2.2 "We need to improve W but we Can't turn off Z. or Y" 3. Ask and understand how they think (example with real cases): 3.1 "Why you turn off the whole call center electricity? A. To restart all machines faster after Service Pack." 3.2 "Why you blocked CEO mailbox? A.: "There was a virus running and I did to safe him" The thing is to be their "pink and orange tones". One Task only, be explicit what you want, be VERY explicit what is the result. Once you reach this you will have a fine tuned productivity machine.

oftenwrong 6y ago

I had a co-worker who was on the spectrum. Communicating with him face-to-face or on a voice call was difficult. He would often latch onto a small aspect of the conversation that didn't really matter, and then walk away from the conversation with only that small thing in mind. This would lead him to work on seemingly random things. I found that communicating with him in writing seemed to work much better. If you have not already, try switching to written communication. Beyond that, I don't have any advice to offer.

giantg2 6y ago
I find written communication much easier too.