Does anyone have trouble holding on to their jobs?

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Comkeen
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16 Sep 2005, 9:08 pm

So far, I've worked at 2 places in the past 2 years. First one was at Ritz Camera. Well, it wasnt a terrible job. But, they left out the part in the training about "machine will always break down, and any color that you see on the video display will not print out correctly". My boss was a real hardass and wouldnt give me an inch to manuever. If I printed out more then 1 'wrong' picture she would yell at me. Eventually, she had to let me go because I failed to pass the 3 month trial.

My second job I thought I did a lot BETTER. I was a safeway courtesy clerk. If you ever walked in the store then we're those sappy, scrawny people at the front door that greet you with warm hellos and bag groceries and help carry stuff out to the car. Towards the end of my first 2 month stint I asked the employees how well they thought I was doing and they said I was good. But to my surprise, the store manager called me in and said she had to lay me off. She said I was 'good, but not great; :(

Now I'm unemployed again, w/only 5-6 months of actual work in my belt. Does anyone else have the same problem as me? What's a good job that doesnt require much in the way of public relations since I apparantly suck at it. :?:



animallover
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16 Sep 2005, 11:44 pm

I had a hard time until recently with getting too involved in my job and thinking one day I would find the job that would make me feel normal and therefore happy . . .

Now I realize that I am working to get a pay check - granted, I do like my job most of the time - but I have given up the idea that things will be fair or that anything I do will ever make a difference for anyone . . .
That sounds sarcastic, but it works for me . . .



irishmic
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17 Sep 2005, 11:58 am

Sad, but all of my empiracle evidence seems to suggest that this is the case animal lover.



irishmic
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17 Sep 2005, 1:31 pm

Yet, I have to disagree, that I will never be able to make a difference.



Comkeen
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17 Sep 2005, 5:58 pm

I'm starting to think that when they mean 'good, but not great' its you're not genuine or warm-hearted enough like NTs are. I dont know - they expect you to fake it but I cant. Whats there to be happy about when it comes to pushing carts and bagging groceries? Its a job - I do what I am expected and thats it. I'm not mean to people at all, its just that at work I dont go out of my way to be super-friendly. I help people and thats it. :?

EDIT: Oh yeah, and that eye-contact thing. Probably gave it away. Meh.



monastic
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17 Sep 2005, 9:18 pm

Quote:
Whats there to be happy about when it comes to pushing carts and bagging groceries?


All jobs could be summed up like this. You just bag groceries, she shuffles papers, he tightens bolts....but look beyond the job you're doing to find what really matters.

I talk with people all day long, this is very hard for a person like me that generally lives a monastic life when I'm not at work. I get up each morning and go to work to do the thing I know is important. I'm not talking about the service I am paid to do, I'm talking about the lives I will touch by just being a listener. I try to calm people that are upset and I listen to people that are frustrated or that are invisible to others. This is not part of my job....I have made it my job.

My son pushes carts and bags groceries for a paycheck. He also talks to World War 2, Korean War and Viet Nam Vets that come to the store and they actually seek him out because they know that my son is someone that cares about them. Old people and young children also brighten up when they see he is working. When I go places with my son, it's amazing how many people from all walks of life come up to my son just to say hi and talk with him - I swear, it's like he's a celebrity or something, no lie.

We both work a job to pay the bills, but our careers are something quite different. It's a struggle to keep a job especially since we are so "odd" to the rest of the world but the job doesn't matter quite as much as what we really feel the need to do with our lives.


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SmallFruitSong
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18 Sep 2005, 4:30 am

I like monastic's post.

Anyways, I am another who has had a terrible time finding, and holding down jobs.

I worked briefly in 2001. I worked as a waitress until I was laid off. It wasn't until this year that I found another job.

One problem I have with working is I am terrified of any job that entails direct contact [i.e. face-to-face] with people. I hate that fear, but hating the fear doesn't make it go away :roll: Since most jobs do a certain amount of contact with people, I find myself severely curtailed.


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ACG
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09 Oct 2005, 8:29 am

I've been a software engineer at the same company for five years. Software engineering isn't the way it used to be -- you can't really be a "lone shark progammer" anymore -- computers are so complex that you MUST have social interaction. This causes problems from time to time, and I'm still prone to tantrum, which is bad.

I keep on feeling like I'm going to be laid off -- but there have been many, many layoffs and I'm still there! I see no reason why they didn't let me go -- I get the impression that all of the other employees are as capable as I am. My manager has told me to try to improve my behavior, and I've done as much as I can -- but I haven't been able to do everything. Most ominously, I have realized that everything that still needs to be done involves theory of mind, which I can't "fake" (I'm not "out" there). I can become more social -- change my output -- if I work hard at it. But if the *input* is garbled there's no way I can respond to it: garbage in garbage out, as the engineers say. My manager keeps on telling me that "it's as if you're coming back from Jupiter every single day".

Here's what I think is going on. Supposedly I have a reputation as a talented engineer (though I don't see myself as an engineer -- I see myself as a problem solver: give me a problem and I solve it). But that's not the main issue.

I think the reason they're keeping me is because I AM different. I think in ways no one else does and as a result add a lot to the team. If you think of a Venn diagram, the overlap between my worldview and the NT engineer's worldview is very low, so I extend the group's knowledge by a great deal. I often manage to find weird links between various pieces of the system, which is a great asset (I shouldn't say "savant ability", but from their standpoint...).

The best-case scenario is I think of a crazy idea ("how would I know it's crazy? I'm from Jupiter!") and manage to pawn it off to some committee or group to implement it (that's why I like filing bugs -- and HATE it when the QA department gives them back to ME to fix, especially if they're high priority!). I get all these wild ideas for features and stuff, and wind up taking investigations down paths no NT's would even have thought of (so I tend to discover use models no one else thought of during testing). I've found over 300 bugs -- and I'm not in the QA department. I've always had a very strong sense of curiosity and mischief ("hehe...I don't think I've ever seen that button before...what happens if I push this button?").

In a nutshell, they probably think I'm off the wall, but I bring a lot to the table and often find people coming to me for advice. That's why they keep me.

ACG


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crimethinkful
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13 Oct 2005, 11:57 am

I've always had trouble with jobs... I work hard, I learn quickly, and I'm like any of my coworkers apart from the fact that the managers don't seem to like my difference. I'm undiagnosed, and I basically act as NT as possible (some people think I'm a little aloof or always PMSing) and I've even won an unofficial poll that the owner of my last place of employment took.

He had just bought the store (a little snobby, indie movie store... think Empire Records with movies), and he hung around the store sometimes and asked people who their favourite clerk was for service, recommendations, over-the-counter banter, etc. and I won. It didn't keep me around long enough, though, because even though the customers liked me, he didn't.

Let's put it this way - my longest running job was as a youth coordinator for lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered/allied youth, and I was at it for 2 years before my contract ran out. The organization scrambled as hard as they could to find money, but I was finished. That's such a high-contact job, and they trusted me with it, but they couldn't trust me to be the most senior member of staff at a crappy video place?
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pooftis
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13 Oct 2005, 2:04 pm

Sounds weird, but apply at Wal-mart, when you go in explain the AS to the manager, they have some of the best policies for helping employees who have special needs. (I'm engaged to a store manger of a wal-mart and he said the company goes out of it's way to help thier employees do well and have jobs that suit them.)


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Benjammin
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21 Feb 2006, 8:58 pm

Yup. other than the service, I've only had one job for more than a year, and that was probly cuz there was so much partying going on, even I could last it out for a year.



k96822
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27 Feb 2006, 9:47 pm

I've had problems keeping jobs, although strangely not keeping my salary up. I'm a computer software engineer and my talent helps me get jobs by word of mouth (interviews are usually a disaster, no matter how much I study and practice and get advice -- many of you know the frustration of nailing an interview, yet blowing it somehow). This web site has made a big difference already, although I know I didn't do good today, feeling pretty run down and tired. I even think I swore a few times too, forgetting to leave the weekend talk at home because I was so tired and out of it. Since I work in an environment that is without walls all the way to the top (they are there, but they have no sound barrier), I know my days are numbered when I have to talk out loud. The worst thing I do is forget sexual connotations to things. For example, I could say something like, "I'm not trying to be a dick..." to a woman worker because it is so common of a word, but totally forget that what that means in a sexual way, which puts me at risk. I've never lost a job because of something like that (or ever got in trouble over the last decade of working), but that is something I still worry about.

Worst thing is, there is this guy who just loves to talk on the phone and makes me do it instead of IM'ing. I hate that, hate that, HATE that in an environment where the entire company can hear me speaking. I know they say aspies are so good at speaking, but I differ in that. I'm good at writing, but I have trouble considering all the possible shades of what I'm saying out loud because there is so much pressure to say things on demand.



Benjammin
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27 Feb 2006, 10:40 pm

...cuz I'm beyond that point of not speaking lest I be mis-understood, or someone might twist my words to fit what they want them to. In fact, I do my best to say things that can be taken in more than one way... (double-entendre' I think they call it.) And other times I go for the shock-value and then accuse whoever is offended of having their mind in a gutter. I figure if I have this "skill," might as well enjoy it, huh ?



k96822
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27 Feb 2006, 11:00 pm

Benjammin wrote:
...cuz I'm beyond that point of not speaking lest I be mis-understood, or someone might twist my words to fit what they want them to. In fact, I do my best to say things that can be taken in more than one way... (double-entendre' I think they call it.) And other times I go for the shock-value and then accuse whoever is offended of having their mind in a gutter. I figure if I have this "skill," might as well enjoy it, huh ?


Hey, yeah! That sounds like fun :P



Fred54
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28 Feb 2006, 10:45 am

I got lucky for my job (9 years at the same place now), I am a software engineer and I work with a small team (about 12 people) who are all highly educated and I am sure 3 or 4 of them are aspie too, others are nerd/geek, so we are almost all in the same bag...



k96822
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28 Feb 2006, 2:05 pm

Fred54 wrote:
I got lucky for my job (9 years at the same place now), I am a software engineer and I work with a small team (about 12 people) who are all highly educated and I am sure 3 or 4 of them are aspie too, others are nerd/geek, so we are almost all in the same bag...


Ack, I'm so jealous! No tongue-biting in your day!! ! :D