As Autism Acceptance Month comes to a close, various businesses and officials—including Foot Locker, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Biden administration—have celebrated the estimated 5.4 million adults living with the disability known as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Despite the month-long spotlight on autism, advocates say that autistic people continue to face barriers to inclusion. The unemployment rate for autistic people in the US was as high as 85% pre-pandemic, according to data from Deloitte, a persistent problem for autistic workers that some researchers have attributed to employers’ concerns about perceived costs and accommodations.

Unconscious bias. Author, journalist, and autism advocate Eric M. Garcia told HR Brew that there is still a lot of stigma associated with autism, in part because it’s only had a distinct diagnosis in the manual that clinicians and psychiatrists use as a guide for diagnosing mental disorders (DSM-III) since 1980.

Much about the disability remains unknown, but organizational psychologist Nancy Doyle argues that autism is not a mystery to be solved. Rather, “the most radical act you can perform as an ally to autistic people is to accept them exactly as they are,” Doyle wrote in an opinion piece for Forbes. Keep reading here.—KP

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.

As workers return to their offices, Covid may start to look to some as if it’s in the rearview mirror, particularly in the wake of a federal judge in Tampa, Florida, striking down the mask mandate on planes and other public transportation on April 18. Tampa’s EEOC field office, however, recently warned employers that the virus in the mirror is closer than it appears. In a public webinar on April 11, the agency shared guidance with employers on continuing to lead through unprecedented times, including how to handle vaccine mandates. Here are the top takeaways.

Mandates are (still) messy. During the webinar, the Tampa field office said the agency has fielded 2,700 charges from employees nationwide involving a vaccine-related dispute as of December 2021.

Reports from around the country show that while the vast majority of US workers support vaccine mandates, some employees continue to resist them, in some cases, resulting in terminations.

But the future is unpredictable, and just because an employer has a vaccine mandate today, does not mean it will tomorrow. Some of the workers who were fired for remaining unvaccinated without a medical or religious exemption when the mandates were in place could come asking for their jobs back—in March, hundreds of NYC municipal workers held a rally demanding to be rehired and receive back pay. United Airlines (a company that made headlines for terminating workers who did not comply with its mandate) began to allow employees with approved Covid vaccine exemptions to return to customer-facing roles, and companies including JP Morgan Chase & Co. are hiring unvaccinated workers again. A soon-to-be-released study suggests others may follow suit. Keep reading here.—SV

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @SusannaVogel1 on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Susanna for her number on Signal.

On Wednesdays, we schedule our weekly 1:1 with HR Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Since February, Linda Kong has been the director of people operations at Morning Brew, the media company that publishes HR Brew. As Morning Brew’s first director of people operations, she’s responsible for company cultural engagement and is an expert at LOAs. Kong brings ~15 years of experience in people ops to Morning Brew and holds a master’s degree in labor and industrial relations from Cornell University. Read on for her insights on HR and what she’s got cooking for Morning Brew.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

How would you describe your specific job to someone who doesn’t work in HR? I try to cultivate a place of belonging for everyone at the company so they feel valued, heard, and seen.

What’s the best change you’ve made at a place you’ve worked? I used to work for an organization that was trying to change their culture, and one of the big changes we made was on feedback. There is so much power in managers, peers, and leaders being able to give feedback in a meaningful and timely way. We implemented tools/resources and had held many training sessions company wide on ways to give feedback. This included giving feedback on areas of opportunity, one-on-one conversations with your manager or direct report, and casual shout-outs to anyone going above and beyond. I think this helped create a culture of transparency where employees felt valued and invested in.

What’s the biggest misconception people might have about your job? I think people only know HR for what they personally have experienced, whether it be implementing a policy, employee relations, benefits, etc. But that is just one aspect of HR. Since we are the people part of the company, HR is constantly evolving as the needs of companies and employees change. For example, diversity, equity, and inclusion is something that has recently been a big priority that HR is now responsible for. So on top of employee relations, compensation, recruiting, etc., we are also responsible for the company’s culture.

What trend in HR are you most optimistic about? Why? Keep reading here.—JDS

Want to be featured in an upcoming edition of Coworking? Click here to introduce yourself.

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: A new survey from SHRM found that while ~94% of HR professionals think offering mental-health resources can improve the overall health of their workers, only one-third of HR pros believe these resources are a “high priority” for their organizations. (SHRM)

Quote: “I immediately understood the vibe. It was very Mad Men,” Sam Welch, a freelance writer, said about a new client’s office, noticing the prominence of alcohol in the post-pandemic workplace (the Wall Street Journal)

Read: An unwanted birthday party, an anxiety disorder, a termination, and—three years later—a $450,000 payout for lost wages and “suffering, embarrassment and loss of self-esteem”: how one Kentucky man said his coworkers’ good intentions triggered a panic attack at work. (the New York Times)

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Catch up on the top HR Brew stories from the recent past:

• “What can I do?” about mental health in the workplace
• Nearly one-fifth of HR professionals say qualified candidates were excluded by automated hiring software
• What to consider when implementing a social media policy