Twenty-seven-year-old Thomas Baldwin has a great head for numbers. He loves working with them. But, until recently, Asperger’s Syndrome and the stigma that goes along with it, has prevented him from entering the workforce.

People with Asperger’s Syndrome can have a hard time understanding and responding to social cues, but it does not mean they are not intelligent. In fact many people with Asperger’s Syndrome have above average, or even superior, intelligence. They can be excellent employees as they are often reliable, punctual, have a professional attitude to work, a high level of attention to detail and are good with routine and repetition.

Thomas, who has been studying maths subjects since leaving secondary college and is currently studying accounting at Gippsland TAFE, is certainly fitting the bill, having been recently employed at Pollard Accounting in Bairnsdale.

“It’s almost like one of those stories you hear about where someone who has Asperger’s is a bit of a genius in a certain field,” job coach with atWork Australia, trading as Work Solutions Gippsland, Sam Smith, said.

“To look and speak with Thomas you would never in a million years think that he was a maths prodigy, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.”

Sam said while his slow approach can make it a little difficult to converse with Thomas, he does not have an intellectual disability.

“It’s his Asperger’s,” she said.

“He understands everything you are saying and he also has quite a funny sense of humour. His brain is extremely high functioning; freakishly good.”

Sam said when she was initially seeking work experience for Thomas through the National Work Experience Program (NWEP), Pollard Accounting owner, David Pollard, was the only one to respond to her request.

“David Pollard is a wonderful man,” Sam said. “He is exactly what Thomas needed. He is patient and invested in Thomas.”

David admits he had considered not responding Sam’s email.

“If she’d emailed me now, during the busy tax period, I admit it probably would have gone straight to trash,” he said.

“For some reason, David told me, he went back to the email and read it properly,” Sam said.

“I had expressed quite frankly and openly in the email about Thomas’ barrier and that employment for him would be hard work at the start.

“But I begged whoever I’d addressed the email to look past this and give Thomas a shot. I knew what Thomas would be capable of.

“I thought no one is going to give this kid a go because of his high needs in an employment situation, but David was different and I needed to match Thomas with someone like David for this to work.”

Told recently about the term ‘positive said this was certainly a case of that.

“When I saw that Thomas had Asperger’s it was a flag and I thought ‘no one’s going to give this kid a go’,” David said.

He felt he could at least give him a shot and offer him work experience.

“Sam was asking for four weeks’ work experience for him. Not knowing what I’d have to offer him I also contacted Jeff Graham (general manager) at Bairnsdale Golf Club to see if he could offer a week for Thomas.”

It was only four hours a day, two days a week, that Sam was asking, and while Thomas did some work at the golf club it was at the accounting firm where he really showed potential.

“When his four weeks were coming to an end, myself and my manager, Melanie McCann, sat down with David to thank him for the opportunity and thought that was the end of it,” Sam said.

However, Sam and Melanie were proved wrong.

“David said ‘I don’t want to let Thomas go. I’d like to employ him for eight hours a week as a trainee accountant’,” Sam said.

With a twinkle in his eye, David said Thomas’ secondary college schooling was also a big tick.

“Thomas went to the right school, just the wrong house,” he said.

“He was a Nagle boy, as I was, though he was in Chisholm. He really should have been in McKillop, the right one. He’s lucky it wasn’t in that original email from Sam.

“And he’s lucky he didn’t get kicked out on his first day too. Using the computer for my work, I’ve been using Excel for about 20 years, I used to think I was a good user. But Thomas made a fundamental mistake of, on his first day, correcting something I’d been doing for 20 years. And the worse thing about that is he was correct. Never easy,” David laughed.

David asserts it was his Asperger’s that got Thomas’ foot in the door.

“He got the opportunity for work experience because of his Asperger, but he got the job because of his worth. He showed me he had the ability to do the work,” David said.

Thomas has been conducting a lot of preparation work during his first couple of months, summarising information, and he has progressed into BAS work, working on about a dozen BAS jobs at the moment. He will eventually work up to looking after all of Pollards’ BAS clients.

As Pollards Accounting grows, with new staff, including Thomas, coming on board in recent times, the firm will be moving to larger premises in Bairnsdale’s Riviera Plaza in the coming months. Staff members will each have not only their own desk but their own office, and as a valued member of the team that includes Thomas.

Thanks to a local businessman giving him a chance, Thomas is now a 27-year-old young man in a job he is loving and with the world at his feet.

IMAGE:
Job coach with atWork Australia, trading as Work Solutions Gippsland, Sam Smith, and Pollard Accounting’s David Pollard with Thomas Baldwin, who has knocked over the barrier of Asperger’s Syndrome to become a valued member of the accounting firm’s team. K845-503