Does anyone else suffer from job related depression?

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After working retail for 3 years and quitting,

I have suffered from depression real bad.

The job made me feel awful so I had to quit.

Anyone else?

Have you thought about getting an office job? Working retail sucks for everybody.

Yes, I have "job-related depression" sometimes.

I am close to bore-out (opposite to burn-out), because I have a very high blood pressure. It is good to look for a new job.

I suffer under stimulation and boredom. My previous bosses protected me against overstimulation, although I think my workload can be way higher than it is now. My boss refuses more complex tasks. Well... my current job damages me, so I have to quit soon. I am now paying the price.

I want challenges! Stress me positively! Let me THINK, and PLAN and ORGANIZE! Do not lie to me, do be honest!! Or... I will quit! You are chasing away a colleague that could be powerful.

Yes I am completely burned out in my current job. I have been there 12 years (10 years at the same salary band) and while on paper it is the world's best employer (union protections, ample sick time, 5 weeks vacation, etc) reality is somewhat different. Between braindead managers, useless coworkers who make life twice as difficult and an overall backwards culture that is corrupt to the core with nepotism is it hard to be motivated knowing that little of what I do will make a difference and all my great ideas just go to waste. For example, I literally spent thousands of dollars to get enough credentials for a promotion and they just hired someone off the street with no credentials for the job (and I strongly suspect they are trying to leave as well). It is frustrating beyond belief to have that same manager regularly come to me for help and tell me that I could "easily" do their job and should be making a lot more.

What was a real wake up call was a colleague who retired a few years ago: I watched them slowly turn into a very bitter and jaded person and after retiring had a massive stroke and died soon after. I have been aggressively trying to find a job elsewhere to no avail since then and I would have never imagined in my wildest dreams with all my credentials and experience that nobody wants m but here I am.

Imagine that, a guy with 20 years experience, three post secondary credentials (one from one of the world's top business schools), too many certificates to mention and have had a whopping 3 interviews in 7 years. That would make ANYONE depressed. At least if I was a High School dropout I could accept my fate.

Yes, it stresses me out too much. I'm not sure how much more i can continue working. I wish didn't have to work.

I think it is a bad job in general for most people. Retail requires skills that innately go against what I think the natural aspersion would think; i.e., im here to actually be effective. Retail for the most part is a simple job so the people who go there are usually looking to make the most of an extremely cruisy and easy going job and do what they need to bore their way through the day in any other way whatever. It is also inordinately stressful during peak hours or seasons and that is stressful to most but if you are overwhelmed by social interaction its extremely difficult.

I have come from this exact place. when I was 24 I was stuck in a retail job and though my social skills were improving, they didn't quite work enough for that environment and I was alienated from all the staff. What I decided after that job, after leaving was that I would not work another job in my life if I did not get along with the staff or the manager. It is worth literally burning every single interview that you have in order to find a team of people you work with or can 'understand' or connect with.

If you need a job that you think will find you some more fulfilment I would suggest going old school:

1) Find a company that isn't just the garbage who have been hired to run the consumer end of the well established infrastructure: i.e. a company full of people who aren't useless people.

2) Start communicating via email with members of that company while becoming very interested in their company. You need to do this legitimately. Find a company that you care about, and I mean care about a lol, and then look at them, what they are doing etc etc. if you don't find one just get on welfare and or find odd jobs to keep you going until you want do something else.

3) when you start contacting people at these companies, tell them you want to work for them, tell them your Aspergers situation, tell them about how you have struggled with work and tell them how you are trying to find a company that you can marry yourself to and you think they could be the one. Offer to work for them for free, to the greatest extent possible, even if that means doing intern work for them online and off site. Even if it means getting coffees for someone.

This is the road to get a job at a company that you care about. Don't think of it as 'looking for a job'. You can do that but it involves a lot of 'working the system', especially in retail. And it becomes about being a 'professional employee' not a 'professional'. I have learned enough social skills to be the former but it took ten years and enormous suffering to be able to come to that kind of finesse to do so, and it is a total waste of the natural talents that someone who general has ASD actually has to bring to the table. You are better off trying to find an employer who you adore and who you are completely honest with. People will understand your plight if you are honest, and tell them your temperaments and your fears and why this ASD makes you vulnerable and if you are passionate about what they do they will not care or be more than supportive. If you follow your heart and do this with companies that 'feel' right while simultaneously being shamelessly honest about who you are and your situation, you will envetually find someone you can work with and god forbid actually 'breath' around.

GL

TW