Have you ever been fired?
I was a cashier at a supermarket for over six months. THis ended when I lost a considerably amount of money some how, I'm not even sure how much. An investigation was conducted, and I was suspended. At that point, after about a month, I was drummed out and fired.
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Dr. House: I assume 'minimal at best' is your stiff upper lip British way of saying "no chance in hell."
Dr. Chase: I'm Australian.
Dr. House: You put the Queen on your money, you're British.
I worked as a salesman/unofficial assistant manager at a wargames toy store in a local mall. I had that job for 1 year from one Valentine's Day to the next.
I think the only way I got and could do the job was that my current obsession was the game they sold there.
I could talk for hours on end about the game. I was also completely dependable. I coped with dealing with people by observing other sales people and constructing several conversation scripts that I could use. One thing I struggled with was keeping my script fresh and remembering to adapt and respond to the customer instead of just following the script I had constructed.
I liked the job, but due to my obsession I did not fully realize how much stress had been piling up. I would stay late to get a project done on my own time, I would spend more money than I intended near month end to help make our month's sales goals. I ended up crashing my car into a tree because I fell asleep driving home due to lack of sleep.
I was fired from the job because of my refusal to go into manager training. I just didn't feel that I could take dealing with hiring and firing people and such. I remember questioning myself and being real hard on myself for a while as to why I turned down the management training.
I view that job as a source of learning. Looking back I can see where I learned many of my AS coping abilities from that job. It was the first time that I was really forced to interact with a variety of people. My previous jobs were more of maintainance or behind the scenes jobs where interaction was minimal. My favorite job was as a library page.
I got fired once, and deserved it. I was supposed to take care of three horses and instead went off with some kids to the beach, just because they asked me to. Then I made up some lame, stupid-sounding excuse about going to the dentist. That was 35 years ago and I am still embarrassed about it.
