It is a strange contradiction that most people say they value straightforwardness and clarity, but in practice, activities often run very differently! Expectations may be hinted at, softened, implied or not said or written down at all! It is ‘hoped’ that the recepients of the information will infer expectations from tone of voice, facial expressions, vague wording and context. This is often how misunderstandings happen however!
When expectations are not directly stated, many neurotypical people often navigate them using ‘common sense’ and social intuition. They may find it easy to be flexible and go with the flow. They just get on with what they need to do.
In comparison, autistic people really struggle. They need the communicator to be very clear and to provide explicit rules. Their detail-orientated thinking means it’s hard for them to ‘guess’ the best way to go about something. In their mind, there are too many variables relating to a project and too many questions they need to clarify before they feel they can proceed. This additional effort is an invisible workload they suffer on top of the actual task.
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