The invisible labor of assimilation by individuals with stigmatized identities: a qualitative study of autistic workers’ organizational socialization

Abstract Organizational socialization is challenging for anyone, but especially for individuals with stigmatized identities, such as autistic people. Although the modern workforce is increasingly neurodiverse, autistic individuals continue to face persistent socialization challenges rooted in neuronormative expectations embedded in the social, cognitive, and sensorial environments of the workplace, which often conflict with autistic ways of relating, thinking, and feeling in organizations. Drawing on literature on organizational socialization and assimilation, stigma, autism, and neurodiversity, and interviews with 31 autistic workers, we theorize assimilation labor: the deliberate, sustained, and often invisible efforts individuals with stigmatized identities expend to adapt to normative expectations. We identify the structural conditions that give rise to assimilation labor, describe the individual practices through which it is enacted, and discuss theoretical and practical implications for understanding and recognizing the disproportionate burdens stigmatized individuals face “behind the scenes” during organizational socialization.