Access to flexibility I-deals: the case of autistic individuals

This study examines access to i‐deals for autistic employees at work. We draw on a mixed methods approach consisting of 300 qualitative surveys and 12 semi‐structured interviews with autistic individuals in employment. The findings show that autistic individuals desire especially flexibility i‐deals but find it challenging to negotiate them. We contribute to the literature on i‐deals that has focused mainly on its outcomes by studying access to such personalized arrangements and positioning this negotiation as a social process between autistic workers and their employers. Second, we extend the literature on the dark sides of i‐deals by drawing on critical disability studies, ableism, and power dynamics to reveal its potentially inequality‐enhancing character for autistic employees. Third, we contribute to multilevel models of workplace inequality by highlighting that access to flexibility i‐deals is influenced by interrelated multilevel factors. Although flexibility is important for autistic employees, we show that they seem to have less access to flexibility i‐deals, hindering their inclusion in the labour market. We argue that collective flexibility could overcome this and might be useful to make the workplace more inclusive.