Handling Small Talk at Work: Challenges for workers with intellectual disabilities

Interpersonal workplace interaction provides many challenges for workers with intellectual disabilities. While these workers are generally able to handle well the tasks required of them at work, the social interaction which others manage with ease often presents unexpected hurdles to such workers. This paper analyses tape-recorded workplace small talk collected in a range of New Zealand workplaces, including workplaces employing workers with intellectual disabilities. The topics, the distributional patterns, and the functions of small talk are described, and aspects of the management of small talk which may present problems to workers with intellectual disabilities are illustrated and discussed. Finally, some suggestions are provided concerning ways in which teachers and trainers may be able to assist workers acquire some of the basic sociolinguistic skills in small talk needed to operate effectively in their workplaces.