Horrible Track Record!

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I've been in the process of taking a close look at my life over my 56 years, and this evening I reviewed my work record. I was apalled! I have intelligence and natural charm, so I can get jobs with little trouble. But within months that uh-oh moment seems to happen, and before I have a clue, I'm being called by HR. Since I was 10 (I counted baby sitting and my paper route as well as all full time, part time, professional and second or summer jobs) I had 41 jobs. 24 ended normally with 2 week notice, 5 I quit in a huff (granted, they were awful!), and I've been let go a whopping 10 times! I'm currently avoiding politics, and really talking about little beyond the weather, and since discovering I'm probably on the spectrum I've been honest with my bosses about my challenges... and I'm doing all I can to make this one work. I'm shocked at how lousy my record has been! If anyone has had similar experiences or ideas on how to make jobs last, please share!

Please don't let the past affect your present. Sorry I didn't respond to you sooner.

Your job is working with kids with various types of challenges. Your challenges probably assist you in understanding their challenges.

I am glad you are able to be honest with your employer about your own challenges.

Where I work, if I even mention that I might be on the Spectrum, I would probably be on a short list of people whom my HR wants to get rid of (except that I have Civil Service protection LOL). There is definitely a risk in letting people know you are within the Spectrum within many employment contexts.

Thanks for the encouragement! . My feelings toward disclosure (coming out is how I think of it!) are probably inappropriate. I'd be okay with the entire world knowing because I've never been good at hiding who I am, even when people don't like me. If they didn't like me when I thought I was NT, they probably won't anyway - and I wouldn't like them. I'd rather have an explanation for my oddball ways so I can deal with them, and if the bosses don't like it, I can hopefully clue them in that I have more to offer than a label implies, and now would be as good a time as any for them to learn about it - otherwise I wouldn't want much to do with them anyway! I'm getting diagnosed later this month, so I'll have some degree of legal protection.

You disclosed already. And there is a degree of legal protection.

But you'll really have to document what's going on should they decide to fire you. You have to have LOTS of proof that they fired you for being Aspie/autistic. Because employers can come up with ANY excuse, really, and not even mention Asperger's/autism.

You'll have to record all statements which allude--directly and indirectly--to your Asperger's/autism. And you have to be precise about the date and time of these statements--this would indicate some sort of consistent progression.

Please note: I doubt that they would fire you. Special education teachers are not exactly a dime a dozen. There's very high turnover, and a very high degree of burnout. It's more a matter of survival, really.

You'd be surprised! I'm currently reading about executive function, and I can see how a legitimate impairment would look like irresponsibility. This current job feels like a good fit, and as I learn more about myself I can probably make it work. But thanks for the suggestion of writing everything down... just in case I need it!

I have had the same kind of experiences my whole life, as a kind I always thought I was just a stupid person. It was very difficult for me to learn, I never had friends my own age, they were always younger than me, even today the people I get along well with are 20+ years younger than me. Since I am 30 years old I can't hang out with kids , unless I am helping out at church, or substitute teaching. I have always had trouble making generalizations, and inferring information from texts, this made standardized testing really hard for me, even though my reading level was always slightly more advanced for my age. When I was in middle school, I read the book "Children with Autism and Asperger Syndrome" by Patricia Howlin, and it was at that time I felt I might have Asperger's, but my parents always convinced themselves that I didn't have anything wrong with me, and that I was just lazy. Since I graduated high school 12 years ago this May, I have struggled the find and keep jobs. My last full time job was as a help desk representative in 2007, that job lasted all but 12 weeks. Shortly after that job I enrolled in college full-time, and I was in college until spring 2013, I am one 3 hour course short of my Bachelor's, but the class I need required we perform an experiment and write a 20 page paper on the experiment. In October 2014, I got a gob working part-time at State Farm as a Claims Representative, that job was very difficult because there was a lot to learn and things were always process were always changing. I lasted 10 months, I received an ADA accommodation to move to another equal position, once one became available, but after 1 month of waiting I resigned. While working at State Farm I decided to go to the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services for my problems; I was officially diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in August 2015. I don't know how I will ever be able to support myself if I can't find a job, and earn enough to pay for an apartment and other essentials. My parents still think I am lazy, and worthless person who won't get off his butt. They don't understand why I am not finding a full-time job. I am hoping to hear back from a couple of school districts I applied to; I applied for Inclusion, and pre-k aide positions.