Expecting too much happiness from a job

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This is a tendency that I've noticed here on the forums and among aspies that I know. It's no secret that work isn't always fun, it isn't always ideal, and sometimes it's just something you do to put food on the table. Even NTs don't like to work.

Much of the discussion on here is about finding the right job, the alignment of interests to the role, and aspie-friendly work environments. Of course, some environments are truly awful for most aspies (think traveling salesman), but most are just not ideal.

This need for the ideal is a part of the disorder that creeps up as much as you let it. This isn't meant to belittle the challenges that others face (and indeed so do I), but it needs to be said that no job is perfect. You'll find something wrong with any job out there, but you have to commit one way or another.

/rant

It makes no difference whatsoever if I have a great, mediocre or poor attitude at work. In any case I always get fired.

Having a negative attitude can set in motion a series of events that ends up with getting fired. It's just one thing that can take you down that path, but it's probably the most common. The problem with attitude is, it shows through even when we try to put on a positive facade. That's why success at work is more of a mind game than a matter of being right. Of course, you have to be right more often than not, but in the working world, it's usually better to be wrong with a good attitude than right with a bad attitude (not that I agree with this, but that's how it is in most places). Some exceptions exist, such as floor traders and fund managers, who are born swearing and have an attitude that make rappers look like saints. For those jobs, being wrong can mean losing billions of dollars, so their employers will tolerate their general grumpiness, but for the rest of us, giving off the impression that we're unhappy or uneasy at work can be interpreted as a bad attitude, and this will set in motion a series of events that bring out the worst in you, which eventually gets you fired.
That's not to say this was the case for you, but it's usually what happens to aspies.

Also, even though your mood can change on a daily basis, your attitude is fairly long-term, and more difficult to change. I don't know if you might have confused these, but your comment itself has an attitude to it that raises flags. This is what I mean, that attitude tends to show through.

You're making an assumption that "having a bad attitude" specifically is what makes some people who have posted about job woes all universally get fired or choose to walk out etc.

That's too broad an assumption. Not everyone who has posted about this topic will have necessarily "had a bad attitude" even while coping with the downsides of their job. Some people who have posted on these subjects have mentioned their reasons for a job becoming toast was other stuff, such as because things they did or said, or didn't even know were negative were taken the wrong way by NT co workers or bosses, which accumulatively led to firing or quitting.

Remember there are as many reasons to find oneself either fired or quitting as there are individuals, not just merely attitude problems. Misunderstandings even with the best will in the world; sensory issues even when valiantly borne, these are just a couple of other reasons why jobs become untenable for some. Not everyone "has a bad attitude" or has not tried hard enough to deal with what they didn't like about a job.

As you yourself say (OP), there really ARE some jobs that are nothing but untenable for some people on the spectrum and you can't blame them for having the realism to face up to the fact that that really is not a good fit for them.

I think it's perfectly fair game for people here to make posts about which lines of work might be closer to tolerable for certain issues that individual faces with their autism, in a way no different than NTs talk about which jobs are best suited to their aptitudes. It's not even about "expecting too much happiness" as it's about simply hoping for something that they can manage in regards to very real challenges -- again, not much difference there from an NT figuring out he hates office work and thus might really be better as a park ranger or what.

I responded to a comment about attitude, so of course I was talking about what role attitude plays in getting fired. This has nothing to do with quitting, that's a separate matter.

I can't find anything in my post that makes such an assumption. As I said, it's a common reason (and among aspies, it's very common indeed, hence my feeling that this needed to be said here), but its not a universal. And I should mention, this thread isn't specifically about getting fired, it's about looking for jobs as well.

This is specifically what I said: " It's just one thing that can take you down that path, but it's probably the most common"