Do you prefer Blue collar or White collar Employment ?

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I Just wanted to see if there is an actual job preference among Autistics in general; but especially Aspergians.
I know the economy is still "whacked", but I think we can still see if we have any real preferences beyond that... .

Otherwise, most of us take what we can find .

What say you .

Last edited by perpetualconfusion on 19 Mar 2012, 1:27 pm, edited 4 times in total.

White collar generally make more for one reason

True, but I am looking more at work preferences based on what is comfortable for you as someone on the Spectrum.
Really, just the whole social aspect of it. Co-workers and all......... .

Does this clarify it better? Sorry if I was unclear in my OP.

I prefer office work, specifically data entry, so that I can work more with computers than customers.
Ideally, I'd like to be a computer programmer but unfortunately never finished my degree so I've been doing order entry/invoicing for the past 4 years.

I make small-talk occasionally with the co-workers but for the most part am left to my own devices.

Tried to edit title, but to no avail.
It should read: Do you prefer "Blue collar" or "White collar" employment ??

You probably ran out of characters. There's a character limit on thread titles.
You can edit the thread title by editing the first post.

Thank You ! Fixed Title .

I am on several other forums as well (all different types, all different user names); they all work differently. Learning curve.....

When I was able to work I did factory, warehouse, general office, and a little retail. I absolutely hated retail, and would not do it again. I didn't care for factory and warehouse work, but was willing to do it until my knees gave out. I managed to prolong my limited working career after that by only taking general clerical work because I could sit most of the time for that. I never had any advanced work skills and my health problems interfered with my ability to hold down jobs, but I did manage to get some work history. I find that I prefer mindless tasks for some reason. I guess they are less demanding, and thus less stressful. I think I preferred mindless office work over mindless factory and warehouse work, but was willing to do any of those types of jobs that I could handle, as the jobs, were few, and never lasted. I kind of liked filing, faxing, photo copying, stamping, stapling, labelling, envelope stuffing, collating, etc. When you do that type of work, you can get into a kind of rhythm while doing a specific task, that helps the work go smoother. I found that the same thing happened when doing light factory and light warehouse work, so I was able to get temp assignments doing these things, and do them okay, until the bosses got tired of my coming in tired and late due to my sleep apnea and IBS. They also didn't like my long bathroom breaks (IBS). Eventually I just got too exausted from my sleep apnea, my knees gave out, and my chronic lifelong depression got worse, so I wasn't able to work any more. I do know about CPAP machines and have one for my sleep apnea, but the air pressure mask never stayed tight all night long, and I would wake up gasping for air, so I haven't been using it. Sleeping without it is better than suffocating with it.

I think those of us who can work, at least some, are often willing to take jobs that may not be our dream job, just to be working and earning money. I certainly was, although I did place some reasonable limits on my assignments. If it was too far, or too noisy, or the supervisor was a super jerk I would drop the assignment. I rarely had to drop assignments, though, because I would ask the temp agent for details about any job before accepting the assignment. It also helped that my sound sensitivity isn't as bad as many others on the spectrum, and I was willing to work with people who were difficult, up to a point. I had had a lot of experience with difficult people while growing up, so that kind of prepared me for it in the work place.

I prefer office work but only lower level office work where you aren't really responsible for a whole lot and aren't supposed to be that independent. I'm a good worker but
I don't do well in environments where I'm required to "network," and professional level office jobs often requires that.

I had a light industrial blue collar type job and enjoyed that since it was repetitive and again, we weren't responsible for anything other than our specific task. But it involved a lot of standing and was hard on me after a while.

One of my favorite jobs was restocking and washing dishes at a restaurant or a college cafeteria. I just did my thing and nobody bothered me for the most part. Being a proof operator at a bank was pretty awesome too. I just encoded checks all day long and never had to deal with any customers. The florescent lights were horrid, but I spent every lunch hour out in the woods, in the real light, and that was nice. It hurt my hands pretty badly though... I periodically have tendonitis issues because of the time I was working there...

There are negative trade-offs for any job, IMO, unfortunately.

I think your experiences, especially what you said in the first sentence mirrors what I have had to do. Just doing something because that's what there was at the time I needed employment. Also having to put up with sometimes difficult people/personalities . It's just part of working, no matter where you work. There is always something/someone that will bug you to death; even more so as an Aspie IMHO . The good thing is, you only have to get along with them for 8hrs. .....
Excessive noise is annoying... I usually wear earplugs.........A lot! . I actually get teased a lot for wearing them, but you know what? I'll still be able to tell secrets when I get old!

How did you get into data entry? I want to too.

i was blue collar most of my life but i didn't care for it, but it was all i could do. the last year of my working years, i made it up to "pink" collar, in that i was a hospital labor and delivery/maternal child health unit secretary and billing coder. this last job was the only time i'd actually found a job that fit my abilities. if i had a 400 horsepower brain like bill gates [or a lot of the successful aspies here on WP] i wouldn't mind being white collar and living high on the hog.

Well I started my office career as a file clerk. That was more challenging because that specific file room was far from isolated and was actually the hub of the business and I was like the go-to person to get everyone's projects done and pull files for them. That job actually helped me to learn to interact with people and be pleasant since I was forced to do so as part of my job description. Anyway, that's beside the point.. the point is that after having the basic office experience and being able to pass a typing test with a minimum WPM and having plenty of computer knowledge, I was able to get a primarily data entry job (there were still interactions with customers and sales reps in the form of emails and phone calls, though, there are very few jobs without any ouside contact). I applied to anything I thought I could do on CareerBuilder.com and emphasized the fact that I am a fast learner and am very good with computers. These are true for myself and I have recieved compliments from every boss regarding how quickly I pick up how to use the computer system at various jobs. So these qualities have helped me personally.

I'm not entirely sure that my ability to get a job can be separated from my physical attributes of being seen as an innocent, sweet young girl. People are shallow and I think this may have something to do with it. My bosses have been female so it's not a lecherous thing, I just think that I come off as pleasant, earnest, and harmless. (Various pieces of evidence to support this theory but not my purpose of this post) I've also learned how to smile and do small talk and be friendly and various things like that from my experiences. I think all of those things factor in to "how I got into data entry"

I like filing. Alphabetizing things and/or putting them in chronological order makes me happy

i find that such distracts me from my lack of happiness.