Aspie women: how is your workforce experience?

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Are you able to keep a job? What do you do? Are you successful at your career? Do you work part time or full time? How are things like with your co workers ?

I work part time as a nurse. I'm not very successful at my career and I'm barely able to keep a job due to my difficulties with socializing. I'd like a new career. I've never done well with co workers. I tend not to notice or understand what's going on socially. I can do the job but work politics triumph work ethic and ability. Being good socially is more important.

I failed at every job I ever tried to hold down, until I became self-employed in something where I can work alone and the routine and what to expect stays pretty set once you've got it.

The social politics is what got me every time too. Keeping in work isn't just about being able to show up and do the work, it's unfortunately about the complicated dynamic of all the other people involved, and that figures way more into success or failure than even being a good worker. It shouldn't be that way but it usually is.

With my work I do now, there is a small social aspect but it's so much less contact and with usually one one individual at a time, that there's enormously less scope for it to go wrong. It's the only thing that's ever worked out for me long term in my working life, and I do attribute that to the fact that I work alone with minimal contact or need to engage in complicated dynamics with anyone. I clean houses. It's hard work and has no status, nobody's impressed and in social encounters if I have to say what I do, people feel sorry for me, which I hate. But I've made a living from it and it's the only thing I've been able to hang in there with.

i work at a full time job. it's been a bit...stressful as of late, since we moved into a new building. i'm surrounded by lights and noise. i hope i can get moved to a new quieter darker area before a meltdown happens....

I wonder is the unemployment rate for Aspie women higher than the unemployment rate for Aspie men? I bet most Aspie women don't work.

You did the right thing. Your happiness and mental health is more important than money and having a high status job.

I struggle getting hired because of how awkward I am.

Thank you Dreamsea, I appreciate that as it's a very supportive comment and it reminds me of that truth.

I work in field sales/merchandising. I really like what I do but it has a lot of downsides as I've written about a lot on this forum. I am on my own most of the time which can be good or bad. The upside is I don't work with the same people every day and I don't have to deal with a lot of politics or drama. I don't see my coworkers that often but when I do we get along fine and they are great people.

Most of my past jobs have been in retail and were horrible because of all the drama between people...lots of pettiness, gossip, bickering, and backstabbing. I worry if I change jobs that I'll end up in that again so I stick with what I've got. But it can be very stressful for other reasons. It's a tradeoff. The hours are part time and I don't know if I could do this job full time.

Honestly it is pretty non-existent I tried having a waitress job when I was a teen which didn't last long, had a work-study position my first year of college(but that's not really like a real job) and whilst staying with some relatives in minnesota when I was 20 after dropping out of college from stress, I did some work at a place that built wooden coat racks, and mirrors with wooden frames and stuff like that but got fired because they thought I couldn't keep up well enough and seemed 'aloof' or something like that. After failing that job I came back to Colorado and tried to go back to college only to drop out again from stress. I did go out job hunting a few times before re-registering for college but that didn't go very well at all.

It was around then I came to find out it was very likely I had aspergers or was at least on the autism spectrum when I went to a therapist for concerns I had PTSD(not going to go much into that or I'll derail my own post)...so from there I applied for SSI which I am still on. I do seem to be doing better than when I applied, but with my lack of past work experience I imagine it would still be very hard to find a job. I feel kind of bad not working....but I do try and keep up on keeping the house clean, doing dishes, weeding the yard, tidying up back patio and doing me and my boyfriends laundry while he and everyone else is at work during the day.

Aside from my aspergers and other mental health struggles though I also feel like that I am not a typically 'feminine' female doesn't work in my favor. I mean especially for any work you deal with customers they want attractive, feminine women who know how to do their make up and dress pretty and do their hair and all that. It's kind of intimidating when you're mannerisms and style is a bit more masculine/androgynous than feminine....especially if you don't have a loud, confident personality along with it as I have noticed more outgoing, confident women who aren't very feminine don't seem to have quite so much trouble.

Last edited by Sweetleaf on 20 Jul 2016, 8:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

You might consider becoming a nurse anesthesiologist. Your patients are out of it most of the time.

I currently work as a medical scribe(someone who does charting for doctors) in an emergency department. I love the job because I get to learn a lot about being a doctor, but trying to adapt to doctor's work style has definitely been a challenge. Some are very clear and easy to work with, while others are sometimes too passive so I never know what they want. The lead scribe thinks she can bully me and the other scribes for some reason, which also is quite frustrating.

I've always had some sort of job from the time I was 17, but getting them is always very difficult. For some strange reason, I only get hired when interviewed by men. I have been rejected from every single job in which I was interviewed by another woman. Maybe they saw something off about me that men don't notice, but I am not exactly sure why this is the case.

I've had the most success in factory work.(full time) Interactions aren't as important as production numbers, which I have some control over.

Everytime I try full time I become physically ill due to the stress. I had to go in medical disability a few years ago due to getting sick from job stress. Doctors in the past even threatened to hospitalize me due illness.

It seems like I can only work part time too.

Yeah. I hate the gossip. I don't participate but am quite often talked about behind my back, even by people that I thought I've "bonded" with and like. It's very discouraging and I don't think it's fair because I don't talk about them behind their backs. Socially, I really suck.

If you're willing to work at walmart they'll hire without any experience. I just got hired there at 23, and while I have some job experience and jobish experience I didn't put any of it on there because at the time all I had was the workish experience. I got a different job after I applied there, lost that job because they overstaffed and I couldn't keep up and was nervous (it was dog washing and drying), then about two weeks after I was laid off I got a call from Walmart about doing a cake decorating job in the bakery. They background checked me, which I assume means they know I'm 23 and have very little to no experience.

I think this should be better because less people come up to the bakery. I like people but I'm not a customer service type of person. I am the "typically feminine" type you mention (well in that I dress feminine and do my makeup, though the clothing and hair bit isn't going to mean anything in a job where you're expected to wear a collared shirt and a hairnet), but it does f**k all when you're awkward and look like you're cringing or smirking when you smile lol.

Actually I feel that the biggest hurdle is job interviews. I can't seem to convey that I'm perfectly capable of doing a job in an interview because I'm awkward and don't know what to say other than "I can do it, what more do you need from me?"

I wish you could "prove" your ability to do a job rather than be expected to talk it up. I know some tech/computer science jobs do that now, but not just general every day jobs.

I can talk up anyone else but myself lol.

I prefer male-dominated fields, which are the only ones I have worked/gone to school in, the M:F ratio is ~10:1.
I wonder if these fields are easier for autistic women in terms of communication.
Even in male-dominated fields, it is easier to be around BAP people than NT people.
BAP people have less of a NT social blueprint, so they are more accepting of differences and more interesting to interact with.