The Cognitive Cost of Corporate Masking

Masking—the conscious or subconscious suppression of natural autistic traits to conform to neurotypical expectations—is a primary survival strategy in corporate environments.

However, this strategy comes at a severe cognitive cost. Autistic employees must allocate significant processing power to regulate non-verbal communication, make eye contact, and decipher social subtext, leaving fewer cognitive resources for their actual work.

Over time, this constant expenditure of mental energy leads to autistic burnout, a state of profound physical and mental exhaustion that can take months or years to recover from.