I work in the dietary department at a hospital. We deliver food to patients, pick up their dirty meal trays, wash dishes, and more. 

I work with a young man with autism. Which wouldn’t pose an issue, except everyone keeps using it as an excuse for why he “can’t” do his job. He’s perfectly capable, it’s just that they won’t let him. 

“He can’t deliver trays because, you know, he’s autistic. It would stress him out too much,” says our head cook. 

The rest of us are trained on the “janitor” position, which means you go get dirty trays and take out trash and recycling. But he never has been trained on it, despite being here for about 6 months already. Which leaves myself and the others on the janitor position for 4 days at a time.  

He also likes to run off and hide in the locker room throughout the day, sometimes 20 or more minutes at a time. We all have noticed it, even my boss at one point, and she did nothing about it. 

I’ve been trying to hold my tongue, because every time I say something to one of my coworkers, I hear, “Stop picking on him! He’s autistic, you know!” I’m not picking on him, he was hired to do a job, and he needs to do that job. 

WIBTA for bringing this up to my boss? I feel like any employee, no matter if they have autism or not, should do what’s assigned to them and be held accountable for their actions. 