The Dark Side of Software Development: Job Stress amongst Autistic Software Developers

Abstract

The software workplace is a competitive space and presents significant stressors for software developers. Autistic software developers are more susceptible to stress, and due to the unique challenges they face in addition to those faced by the majority, neurotypical software developers. There is very little research addressing stressors for autistic people in the software workplace and how to mitigate those stressors. This paper synthesizes the existing literature relevant to software workplace stressors for autistic people and proposes a framework to guide further research to investigate the implications of and mitigate stressors in the software industry for autistic software developers.