We live in an age that rewards appearance with indecent speed. If you sound confident, many people will assume you are competent. If you move quickly, people may mistake that for clarity. If you never hesitate, some will call that strength. If you speak in superlatives often enough, a surprising number of listeners begin to absorb the emotional shape of certainty without ever pausing to ask whether anything meaningful has actually been said.

Corporate culture has an odd habit of speaking about belonging as though it were a soft, decorative extra. Something pleasant. Something warm. Something that sits somewhere between cupcakes, onboarding, and whatever inspirational quote is currently wandering around LinkedIn in a slightly overcaffeinated font.

World Autism Awareness Day gives us a useful reason to challenge that. It asks us to think more carefully about what workplaces assume, what they reward, and how much talent is lost when one type of behaviour is mistaken for one type of capability.