Haldan (who asked us to publish this article using his first name only) is an old friend of mine from my community college days. We met when I was in my early twenties, and this funny, intelligent gentleman was actually one of the first people to invite me to explore my own neurotype. Haldan was also one of the first people I met who made me question the stereotype that all autistic individuals are averse to socializing, and this is something that Haldan uses to his advantage in his work with Argus Event Staffing. I enjoyed catching up with Haldan and learning about his work with one of the largest event staffing companies in Colorado, and how the flexibility of Haldan’s work supports him.
Rebecca: Tell me a little bit about what you do for Argus and what you enjoy about the work you do.
Haldan: With Argus, I usher and do security. I mostly do just security now and I’ve moved away from the ushering side of things. I’ve been with this company since 2016. I’d have to include my year of Covid furlough since they were still paying my benefits and I still had my job open with the company when the furlough was over. So, yeah, I’ve been with them eight years now. At event venues like the theater or the venues that host sporting events, I do security or ushering. I deal with the public a lot, which can be a lot for some people. You want to talk about being on the autism spectrum, I’m on the end where I don’t mind dealing with the public. A lot of autistic people hate dealing with the public, and here I am dealing with people!
Rebecca: As someone on the spectrum who also works with lots of different people every day, I can relate to that sentiment a lot!
Haldan: Yeah, I mean even if, say, I were to get a different job in the future, I’d still stay with this job and work when I can. It’s one of those jobs where you can schedule yourself and work your own hours as long as you work once or twice a quarter minimum to keep active employment. I get paid for the shifts I work, and it’s not like I’m always required to work other than my assigned shifts. In other words, the flexibility of this job is really, really nice.
Rebecca: Flexibility is definitely important for folks like us! Tell me a little bit about what your experience was like discovering you were on the spectrum?
Haldan: Well, for me, it’s a two-fold complicated story. I wasn’t diagnosed officially until halfway through senior year of high school. So that, in and of itself, already explains complications. Before that, there was probably an inkling something was up, even though I was always in accelerated classes after kindergarten. But there was nothing to attribute it to anything other than potential behavioral issues. There’d be meetings to deal with it until it became a headwall in high school where I was in both accelerated classes and special ed classes because I had issues with my study skills. Having study hall all four years of high school is kind of annoying, but that was the one thing they decided to do. It’s complicated in the sense that there aren’t ways to help handle it sooner when you know there’s potentially a problem. You would think that hopefully because of who’s noticing it and where it applies in school, people would be able to notice it and help. Schools are responsible for helping with that, and at the time, they were not.
Rebecca: What are some strengths you would say being neurodivergent presents itself to you at Argus?
Haldan: From my take, dealing with the public as an usher/security person at events, your real job is about flow metrics of getting people in. That way is safer, because you’re getting people out of harm’s way before they get inside the event venue. With flow metrics, most people who work for us who are neurotypical might look at our security system and something might seem off to them, but they can’t put their finger on it, and they might pass it off as no big deal. I’ll look at any hiccups that happen and say, “Here’s what’s causing the problem. What can we do to potentially fix it?” Implementing those things isn’t always easy because we have to deal with ordinance and codes once we bring it to management’s attention, but we’ve been able to make changes because I can notice those details that others would skip over.
Rebecca: Do you feel supported by your employer? If so, in what ways?
Haldan: In general, the biggest thing is that the company I work for definitely doesn’t discriminate. It’s not hard to get hired! Within the company, we work for lots of venues, and we have many different layers of management at different venues. If you find a venue you like, you can request to work there more often. You’re not limited to working at any one venue if you don’t want to, although sometimes management will ask for help staffing certain venues at different times. There’s still no pressure to work at any one particular venue. As far as accommodation is concerned, I don’t really receive any. But if you’re willing to let management know that you’re having problems, they understand, and they get it. It’s an environment that lends itself to being supportive.
Rebecca: It’s always wonderful when you work in an environment where your neurotype is already naturally validated.
Haldan: Yeah. Given the nature of the work I do, I don’t really need accommodations. The fact that I have the flexibility to choose my own schedules is already a built-in accommodation for me. I can choose my hours based on my availability, and if there aren’t any shifts at one venue, I can always pick another venue that might have shifts that I want. And if there aren’t any shifts that I want available, I’m not required to work. It’s a little like being a volunteer, except I’m a paid volunteer! The pay isn’t bad either! But as far as actual accommodations, if someone needs to step away or request time off, management understands. Dealing with the public is stressful. Some shows are stressful! Like Hamilton…yeah, can we please stop sending it back to Denver? The first time was fine. The second time was meh…the third time was like, please stop coming back!
Rebecca: Oh, this reminds me of the horror stories you used to tell me about working Frozen the first time it came to the Denver Center of Performing Arts!
Haldan: Don’t remind me! But honestly, the hardest part is when members of the public come in with entitled attitudes, which happens a lot during larger shows. But any time someone on my team sees someone else struggling with a member of the public, they’ll step in and try to help as much as they can. They know it happens. Even the supervisors and management get it. It happens to them all the time, so they step in and help wherever they can.
Rebecca: Any advice for autistic job seekers looking for the right career fit?
Haldan: Sometimes, something adjacent to your interests can be worth looking into first when you’re deciding on a career fit. You may have a passion for something that you think might be your best job fit. You might end up really hating the thing you thought you were passionate about as soon as you have to start doing it for work. I say this from experience. I did that when I went to college for the first time. I was going for either video game design or IT, and it was basically a soul killer. It felt like having to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day (including weekends) for three years straight and you never want to touch anything peanut butter-related (except for maybe an annual Recess Peanut Butter Cup) again! But don’t be afraid to keep your passion a hobby or a luxury. As for when you are job seeking, be up front about your autism. Even if your job coach tells you not to disclose, don’t listen. Be up front right away, because if you don’t, it’ll come back to bite you. Even if you don’t need accommodations right away, once you disclose your autism you can kind of tell whether the employer will be discriminatory.
Rebecca: Do you have any suggestions for employers on how they can create a more neurodivergent-friendly working environment?
Haldan: After everything I just said, I’m actually going to play devil’s advocate from the side of the interview panel! For employers, you do need to know we’re autistic, but don’t push past it once you get the answer. Don’t push it. We don’t know whether you as the employer genuinely care that we’re autistic and want to support us, or if it’s one of those screening questions used to throw out our applications. Many of those questions already feel slanted and discriminatory as it is. Just being mindful of terminology used in the interview questions and being mindful of hidden meanings can go a long way. Be more open-minded. Just because someone’s on the spectrum doesn’t mean they can’t do the job.