Tackle It Tuesday: Small Talk

October 23, 2024

Welcome to Tackle It Tuesday, a social media series where an autistic employee at AAoM (yours truly) writes workplace tips to better cope with the stresses of a working world not built for neurodiversity.

While creating the latest entry for AAoM’s social platforms, I realized that social media alone isn’t the ideal archive for all the past Tackle It Tuesday entries, as it shares space with all the other important work AAoM does. So, this blog companion was born!

This Tackle It Tuesday’s subject is Small Talk! Well, how do we ace or avoid it?

This one was made before the name “Tackle it Tuesday” stuck.

The image has a green background. On the right, there is a pair of overlapping speech bubbles with two side profile faces in each one. The text reads: "Autism At Work: Small Talk Small talk is a polarizing subject for many autistic people. Even though small talk is meant to be inoffensive, trying to keep up with conversation without clear purpose can be difficult, especially when you add the extra element of masking to the mix."

The image has a green background. On the right, there is a smaller pair of overlapping speech bubbles with two side profile faces in each one. The text reads: "Autism At Work: Small Talk People make small talk for one of three reasons: To know more about you through topics they find easy to talk about To see if you’re thinking the same thing they are To find things in common with you and steer the conversation to a more interesting spot Food, weather, Netflix/HBO programming, various sports, simple childhood stories, and general weekend activities are common small talk conversations. If you’re not much for talking at all, people love a good listener!"

The image has a green background. On the right, there is a smaller pair of overlapping speech bubbles with two side profile faces in each one. The text reads: "Autism At Work: Small Talk Simply say you’re not much for small talk. If someone gets pushy about it, my answer to this situation is to be calm, casual, yet upfront about it, but only offer the necessary information. “Eh, I’m not the best at small talk.” And then, if you’re inclined, you can let the person know you’d be happy to talk to them if they need something or want to be your friend. Friendship is a two-way street, but putting in the proverbial crossing lights and walkways (social boundaries here, to make this metaphor crystal clear) makes it easier to cross."

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