Industry Realities & Navigating Autism at Work with Laura Thompson | Cab Confessions Ep.3

0:00How long did it take to get ready? Do you know what? I've gotten better as I've grown up, as I've started to care less. But like when I was a teenager, it was like full beat on the face. Like it took me, I want to say a good two hours to get ready in the mornings. Oh wow. And I didn't even look that good, which is the ironic thing. Oh really? Yeah, I just didn't. I must admit, I was going to say, but...

0:30I have a chronic lateness disease. I am late to everything. I used to, when I was a kid, my parents used to like, if we had to be somewhere at 10, they'd tell me I had to be ready for half nine and I'd still be late for 10. But like just everyone in my life knew it was just a rule to like, give me way too much time to get ready. Interior design, is it all it's cracked up to be? I think yes I love it I mean I always tell people like it's the only career I've ever wanted I still feel like it's very pinch me like when I come back to work every day I'm like oh I'm reliving little Laura's little dream which is fun yeah so fun I studied interior design architecture at uni and I think the uni course is very different to being in the industry is it stupid it's just very like conceptual the first year of my degree we weren't allowed to touch a computer so everything had to be drawn by hand.

1:26So we had proper drawing boards and we had to draw floor plans by hand and learn the different line weights of mechanical pencils. Although that sets the building blocks, like when have you ever met anyone drafting up a floor plan by hand when they have a day turnaround? Like it just doesn't happen. What's the biggest lesson you hit when you landed day one? How expensive everything is. Oh really, what's the most expensive thing? just everything like i think i've had to learn over the last four years like how to be bougie on a budget like how to make things not look cheap while still not spending a ton you know that is such a cool thing to interior design bougie on a budget bougie on a budget is quite a cool saying isn't it because often like interior designers we don't necessarily see the money side of things we're either told like you're over budget and that's kind of you have to scale back from there I remember once I did a scheme and I picked a tile that I thought was like amazing and I had it on like a whole bar and then after we PC'd on that project the commercial manager was like you know that's the most expensive tile I've ever come across in my whole life and then every time I saw the leasing agent of that building he always makes a comment about this really expensive tile Have you got OCD?

2:46No, but I'm autistic. Are you? Yeah, I cannot tell. No? What does autistic mean? Now what does that mean? Do you know what? I still don't know to this day. Like I was diagnosed like two years ago, so it's still quite recent or it feels quite recent for me. Went to the doctors for a completely different reason, but like it had been something that had been building up over years and I'd been writing down things I'd been struggling with. and I went to my GP with like a list of all my symptoms and she was like oh have you ever considered getting a diagnosis for autism and ADHD and I was like you know like I've heard that as a buzzword a lot in recent years and she was like oh I think it'd be really worth you getting a diagnosis.

3:30And can I ask what were you writing down that you were struggling with? I feel like growing up I always found it really hard to make friends like I just could never hold a friendship group down or like a best friend and I never knew why like I've always considered myself to be a nice person like I think you know I'm quite good at making people feel comfortable but for whatever reason a lot of friendships just never lasted or like they would fall out with me and they would never tell me like why like I just always thought I was really weird um I think I've always like growing up struggled with my mental health as a lot of people have.

4:05I've always had bouts of you know just sadness, anxiety. I really struggle to communicate with people which has been you know like a lifelong thing that I need to work on. Like sometimes I feel like I don't come across maybe how I want to or like people interpret things I say not how they're meant to be and I've never quite understood like that barrier. I originally just thought I was maybe depressed and that's why I went to the GP and she was like actually it sounds like autism and she was also like a lot of younger women tend to have autism and depression often depression is a result of the autism or like an undiagnosed autistic.

4:50Is there anything you say to your colleagues or your team or your like whatever directors how to like help you communicate differently or how to talk you to help you understand i don't really tell anyone to be fair like it's not something i like shout from the rooftops not because i'm like embarrassed okay good i'm glad you're not embarrassed no not at all i just think it's like the least interesting thing about me so i don't necessarily lead with that as such unless i feel like it's a real issue when i got my diagnosis she said i'm quite a high functioning autist so like i do get by day to day and i'm fine so yeah i've never but it's never really been like a massive issue that I've noticed anyway.

5:36You don't know this, but you've got to nominate the next person to get in the cab with me on camera so they can't get out of it. Can I nominate Zach? Who, Coles? Yeah. Absolutely, if you're nominating Zach Coles, that's who you're nominating. Can I nominate Zach Coles? Yeah. I think he'd be good.