Autistic and AuDHD employees are still paying a hidden tax at work

Autistic and AuDHD employees are still paying a hidden tax at work

For years, autistic and AuDHD adults have been sharing a common story: the exhaustion of masking through the workday, the hard choice about whether to disclose, and the support systems many have built themselves at work. A new national survey from NEXT for Autism puts numbers behind that experience: 79% of autistic employees report masking, almost 70% are building their own support systems outside of work, 73% have disclosed in some capacity, and 92% still fear stereotyping, career impact, or being left out of key projects. The quality of a relationship with a direct supervisor is the most important factor in whether someone feels safe disclosing.

Gobble's Take: If the workday feels like a second job in the background, that’s not a small adjustment problem.
Source: What Autistic and AuDHD Employees Need at Work in 2026

A Neurodivergent Fellowship that says the quiet part out loud

Palantir Technologies just posted a job listing calling it a Neurodivergent Fellowship, aimed at people with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and other conditions outside neurotypical norms. The post opens by telling candidates they “see past performative ideologies,” and it includes the line: “This is not a diversity initiative.”

Gobble's Take: When a program highlights a specific group and then insists it isn’t about diversity, the framing is doing a lot of work.
Source: We Already Knew Palantir Was Building a Surveillance State. Now ...

In Case You Missed It

Yesterday's top stories:

• The Broward EMT Who Says Autism Makes Him Better at His Job
• One Person Has Held Over 30 Jobs. That's Not a Character Flaw — It's a Systems Failure.
• The ADHD Disclosure Question Has No Universal Answer — But Here's How One Person Is Thinking About It
• The Accommodations That Actually Move the Needle (And Why They're Simpler Than Your HR Team Thinks)