Anyone scared to have a job?

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MacDonald's is a nightmare job for Aspies, so please don't judge yourself on this. Like many of you, I worked there too, it was my first job aged 16. Although I made a few friends there, I would do some really stupid things like leave the till wide open in the middle of a transaction and be rude to customers completely without meaning to

I'm a great believer that there is a job for everyone out there. You just need to find something that interests you - can you tail your career path towards any of your hobbies or interests, or find something that you think will fascinate you? For example I like being an accountant because I like the sector I'm in and I like finding patterns in numbers.

I don't know about the UK, but in the USA a number of stores hire people to stock shelves and straighten up at night. The store isn't full of customers then. The Kohl's department store near me is always looking for people to do that. Fold sweaters and straighten up the piles of towels. Calm and quiet while the store is closed.

Grocery stores (big ones, not 7-11) are often open all night here, and there are certainly less customers then. Some of you might find an evening/night situation less stressful.

If you can drive, there is always delivery work. A large portion of your time would be alone in a truck listening to music. Are you good with maps? Or does traffic upset you?

Personally I am a lone worker and will never be a team player. And I could never do customer service. I'm not really, but I LOOK angry to meet people. LOL! I think if I lost my science job I'd try to be a turnpike toll taker. I love maps and can give good directions, and I can make change. I used to think I'd just go clean offices at night, but my back is getting too bad for that.

Trying to think of quiet jobs, less people interaction required, but it's hard.

At lot of shops here do that too. I did shelf staking for a while during the day and it wasn't too bad as I just stayed focused on what I was doing and it was rare any customers asked for help etc. I worked at the airport witch I enjoyed but there was a lot going on and lots of people so also quite frustrating and overwhelming at times. I hadn't worked (in the paid sense) for a long time as I was looking after my children at home but recently the idea that I would need to again soon really scared and stressed me. But it gave me the push I needed to make a proper go of working for myself and making a long term hobby into a business. I also write articles and projects for craft magazines.

I've had 3 jobs. 10monts as a dishwasher, 25montsh at WalMart doing floor-cleaning & about six months latter I had a job doing custodial stuff at a sporting goods store for about 3months. I am NOT scared of having a job & working but I am scared of having the wrong job. I left my last job(the sporting goods store) because I didn't feel safe doing certain aspects of the job due to physical disabilities. I was on medication that made me very sick & after being out two weeks the company considered me no longer employed. My SSI was cut off rite before I got sick & it took a couple months before the paperwork caught up & they started giving me money again. I ran up a lot of medical bills & I'm still paying that debt off. I am scared of losing my benefits by getting a job that doesn't work out & i am also worried about my health being adversely affected by working. I am NOT on any medication rite now & I am not seeing docs for anything. My health is OK right now but I do not handle stress or routine changes well & if I'm going to have to start seeing docs regularly & taking meds to work a minimum wage job with no benefits & my government benefits get cut off; I'm better off not working at all; for my health & probably my finances. i would of been much better off if I didn't work that last job. I have five thousand on a credit card with a rate of 3.99% interest rite now that I'm slowly paying off because of it

I'm scared of the interview process. I hate having someone I don't know giving me too much attention staring at me or asking me questions/ picking me apart. I think the longest I've had a job has been 2 years. I got all my jobs through acquaintances so I don't have to subject myself to the dreaded interview.

I have never in my life had a job so yes I am definitely scared. Though I sort of want to try it, test it out. But my mom is telling me to do college first before.But I don't know.

I think it's possible. However, you also need to do your own part and don't get the temptation to go into meltdown mode on the job. Me, I never even had a part-time job before and I am only 18.

I'm terrified. And the more i read this particular part of the forum i feel justified in being so. Trying to somehow work alone would be the key if i were ever forced into that horrible situation.

My new job will start in exactly two days and I'm scared as hell. Not so much about the work part, this one should be fun, but all those new people, the useless chit chats, sharing the office with a co-worker... Eh, I don't wanna think about it...

I imagine alot of aspies would be automatically isolated , bullied or both in the workplace. Am i wrong?

I'm more scared not to have a job.

Avoiding humans is about the most you can do i think. Doesnt lead to a very fulfilling life though

I'm afraid I already have too many bad blotches in my employment record to even get hired anywhere...even if I were to go through the interview with any interviewing skills (which I dont have). I recently completed a Medical Coding and Billing school with the CPCA certification attached but I was forced into this school. My family did all the talking to get me in. But even with all that going for me, I can not see myself going into this field without screwing this up. It's a job that makes me financially responsible for whatever medical place hires me and even the smallest screwup can be fatal. I still find some aspects of coding/billing confusing, and doing Medical Billing doing my extern shows I have problems with communicating with people and getting the right information from them in a quick timely matter. I always get one thing and then the supervisor complained that I didnt do this or that or that I should be doing this or that when something happens but they never trained me to do that. They trained me to do things that never ever happen and dont train me how to handle situations that constantly come up.

In other words, I REALLY dont want to go into Medical Coding/Billing. The jobs are only available for the confident and experienced no matter what anyone tells you. Plus I cant see myself doing paperwork constantly (even though for an aspie it should be more of a piece of cake) and I fear I will be trained to do one thing but will find myself constantly dealing with problems that people arent training me to deal with and just put the blame back on me for not handling the problem right.

I also have a problem with not being passionate enough. All through high school I thought I was totally into music and theater but the biggest complaint I got was that I wasn't passionate enough about music and theater to go beyond the beginner's level and the way these classes were taught really suck the fun out of it. They treat musical theater at my high school like a professional course for training future Broadway stars, not as a fun extracurricular. That kind of prep, to me, should be strictly for a college major, not a standard public high school. And that kind of "passion" is usually what's required in order to be hired in a job like Medical Coding/Billing. Why the hell would I be passionate about a Medical Coding/Billing job when I forced into the school against my own will?

Back on topic and to the point: I've been bitched at too much my whole life. I dunno how much more of that I can handle.

I had to go back into the work force (or enter the work force, really) after a DECADE of unemployment, back in 2007. It was also my first post-Asperger's-knowledge attempt.
I was terrified. But my biggest motivator was the years I had wasted frozen in fear, unable to do ANYTHING, and completely dependent on others for the smallest thing, like what kind of toothbrush I could or couldn't have. You know?

The most important piece of advice for Aspies in transition is do volunteer work! They're so grateful you're even there, everyone will give you the benefit of the doubt on just about everything. No one is heaping expectations on you, and you'd have to throw a chair through a window and punch an old lady to get "fired"!
I volunteered in a hospital E.R. after leaving my ex-husband, living with my mom and starting my life over. I knew I had to desensitize myself from social pressure in a work environment, after 6 years of being a complete shut-in. I only went once a week for about four hours at first. I was in control of the situation because I could leave early if i needed to, and there wasn't too much to be done. It's also how I learned preliminary techniques for dealing with "crabby customers".

I have been doing retail work for the last few years. Retail is one of the worst jobs for Aspies, and is also the most available and easily gotten sources of employment. I spent a year as a sales floor associate, and spent most of my time avoiding customers and folding hundreds of towels exactly the same. I didn't really have a problem with it. Unfortunately, that company went out of business. Then I spent a year as a cashier, and boy did I hate it! I would get so angry at having nothing to do when there weren't any customers, and when there were, I hated the morons!
I don't even think of customers as people. They're like...sets of buttons I have to push, a reciting of stock phrases. Sometimes I would amuse myself by finding a reason to insert a non sequitor phrase into EVERY conversation with a customer during an 8-hour shift. Ugh.

Now, I do building maintenance with the same retail company. I LOVE it! My coworkers are still annoying sometimes, but my job only depends on ME. I don't have to talk to people if I don't want to, I can just do my job and go the f*** home. PERFECT.

In general, jobs that concentrate on working with objects as opposed to people are the best ones for aspies. I'm going to college to become a professor, which is an interpersonal interaction I can actually understand. Heh. So in the meantime, doing my current job while being in school is working out really well for me.

I'm scared of employment, yes, even though I've been employed twice. Both experiences were somewhat traumatic. I've got a friend with previous experience doing housekeeping, and he was talking with me and our mutual friend - all NNT - last night about starting up a small cleaning business together. The volunteering suggestion is a good one as well.

It's really a pretty major self-esteem issue for me. I want to know that I can support myself, yanno? Not just rely on others for support.

I'd really love to have a quiet job at a front desk or something at some casual place, where I can spend most of my time reading and drawing. I know a guy who's a comics creator like I am, and he works at a quiet little art supply shop, painting and drawing behind the register and interrupting his work when a customer comes in to answer questions and such. I've coveted his job for a long time...