Western Pennsylvania Author’s New Book Asks Why Good Employees Keep Leaving

“Most people in Ellwood City work with someone who has autism or ADHD, or have it themselves, and the book is about why good employees leave and what coworkers and managers can do about it. For the past three years I’ve worked with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission on how it hires and supports its employees, so the ideas come from work right here in the region,” says author Racheal Pallares

Pallares, from Saint Petersburg, PA and founder and owner of Neurodiversity Training Institute, releases The Right Room on Nov. 11

When one company kept losing its audit team every six months, its plan to keep people was pizza on Fridays. “Pizza is the duct tape of the corporate world,” writes Saint Petersburg author Racheal Pallares. “It holds nothing together but gives people something to do while the situation gets worse.”

That story comes from her new book, The Right Room: Building Teams Where Autism, ADHD, and Other Cognitive Differences Succeed Together, which comes out Nov. 11. The book looks at the everyday places where work breaks down between people with autism and ADHD and the people they work with, such as feedback, last-minute changes, remote work and getting started on tasks.

The Right Room is written for both sides of that relationship: people with autism and ADHD, and the managers and coworkers around them. Many chapters speak to each reader directly and end with questions a team can talk through together. The book also covers masking, monotropism, working memory, emotional regulation, stimming and fidgeting, and burnout on the job. It explains the difference between formal accommodations and the small, everyday adjustments that help a whole team work better.

Most managers can’t change the office layout or the company mission statement, Pallares writes, but they can change the unwritten rules on their own team. “You control the culture inside your team,” she writes. “That’s enough to start.”

Pallares is the founder and owner of Neurodiversity Training Institute, based in Saint Petersburg. For about 10 years she has helped workplaces understand how people with autism and ADHD work best. Her clients have included NASA, Microsoft, Bank of America, Penguin Random House and LifeLabs, and for the past three years she has worked with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission on how it hires and supports its employees. She holds a master’s degree in organizational psychology and is working on her doctorate. Learn more about her work at neurodiversitytraininginstitute.com.

ABOUT THE BOOK: The Right Room will be available in hardcover on Amazon on Nov. 11, 2026. Learn more at therightroombook.com.

PICTURED BELOW: Racheal Pallares with The Right Room in her Saint Petersburg office.