Problems with new assignment

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Hi, all -- I was recently (about 1 month ago) assigned to a new position at work that has been causing me some serious stress with issues arising from my AS. Sorry if this is a long post ...

Some background: I worked for many years as a copy editor at newspapers, a great job for me because it's detail-focused and allows me to make use of the areas of information I've always fixated on (geography, governmental units, law and justice, etc.), and because the need for intensive interaction with other people is relatively limited. About a year and a half ago, when the newspaper I was working for started laying people off, I started looking for other work and ended up as an editor in the news division of a financial information company. Although the company focuses on business and finance, which were never my specialties, I was hired specifically to work on a general news team that covers many non-financial topics -- weather, government, pop culture, the war, whatever's making news. The pace was somewhat more intense than at the newspaper because deadlines at the news service are constant, and the office culture is much more corporate -- top-down, high-pressure management style -- but because I was focusing mostly on issues within the scope of my experience and not dealing with the business news that the bosses pay the most attention to, it was manageable for me.

About a month ago, the general news team was broken up into a "world news" team that is still focusing on the general topics and a second team that essentially is a general company news team -- covering any company that the other industry-specific teams either don't cover or are too busy to deal with. I was assigned to this new team. In addition to being assigned to an area of coverage that I have little experience of or knowledge about, the team is very small but has a huge task. There is a great deal of pressure to stay on top of news affecting these companies and beat the competition.

There are several aspects to this that are causing difficulties for me, besides the general intensity and pressure:

-- In order to try to meet the mandate to break news and beat the competition, we're expected to stay on top of various information feeds that show things like stock trading activity, reader interest in particular companies and incoming press releases. Trying to do so is not only a distraction from editing stories -- the thing I'm best at -- but also a serious information overload that I have trouble filtering.
-- Because the team doesn't cover companies in a specified field, as other teams do, it's extremely open-ended and there is no way for me to effectively anticipate and select which companies to focus on.
-- With the focus on competition and speed, I'm expected to ride herd on the reporters on our team and push them to work faster, whereas my experience in working with reporters or others whom I've been "supervising" has normally involved more of a coaching role, helping them understand how to write better.

I'd like to ask my bosses to reassign me to the world news team, but because these changes were implemented fairly recently and because the team I've been assigned to represents a high priority for the company, I think they're likely to resist that. I was only recently diagnosed with AS and haven't told my bosses about it, but I think doing so might help my case -- if I can show them that the difficulties I'm having are due to aspects of my condition and not simply personal dissatisfaction, maybe they'd be more inclined to accommodate my request. But I'm also worried that in this sort of macho top-down corporate culture, it might be seen as weakness or an excuse for not being able to handle the workload. But it's really causing me serious stress (which is affecting me physically and mentally), and it seems to me it's in the company's interest not only to reduce my stress level to make me more productive but also to have me in a position that makes the best use of my strengths.

Has anyone had experience in negotiating a change of position or responsibilities in a corporate setting like this? Any ideas what the best way to approach the matter might be?

Thanks in advance for any help ...

Throwing AS in to get something done would seem weak to me.

But telling about your preferences for the 'world news' team would be a first step. Telling them the work better fits you, you would feel more happy about the work, etc. Or you could ask why they put you in the new team, maybe because they think you could learn something new?

Most NTs would see your team as a promotion, a team with interest from the bosses. Some NTs would kill for such a chance.

Thanks for the response. Those are all valid points.

I think it is in fact a sort of promotion -- my supervisors on the old general news team were happy with my work and I was told they had made the bosses aware that I was one of the better editors there. I'm definitely appreciative of that confidence, and I would make that clear in any request for a change. I just don't think anyone (including me) was aware of how the non-editing aspects of the new job would affect me.

If I were to bring up AS, it would be mainly as a way of making clear that it's not just personal dissatisfaction, that there's an objective reason why I'm particularly ill-suited to the job and would be a better fit elsewhere.

I think you need to deal with this situation urgently becasue - if you don't - it can only get worse and your personal position will deteriorate further.

My intuition tells me that you should divulge your condition, though only you can make that decision. It is difficult to say for sure without knowing more facts: corporate culture (though you allude to this) and company policy with regard to disability.

The key I have found is the relationship you have with the person you report to. If you feel that you can trust him/her then I would speak to them confidentially in the first instance.

You say that the work is different? This implies to me that you have not had sufficient time/support/training to adequately adjust; especially given your condition.

I would explain the situation to your superior and seek support: a more manageable workload in the short term, assistance with specific tasks from fellow workers to ease the burden before you can get up to speed.

If the support is not forthcoming then I would seriously consider speaking to HR.

Finally try to "accept" internally that there will be some understandable extra pressure as you seek to learn a new role to reduce self-demands.

Good luck. I suspect that it is a job - and role - that you are capable of fulfilling very effectively given the right support and working conditions.

Kornik

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Thanks -- You're right, I'm definitely feeling a sense of urgency over this, and I think you're right that my immediate supervisor is the place to start -- if for no other reason then because she deserves to know that I intend to seek reassignment.

Having support to deal with the workload would be great, but that's a big part of the problem with the corporate culture. We have three editors on the team, one of whom is the team leader (my immediate supervisor), who has to spend much of her time on the loads of administrative BS and busy work that anyone in that position is saddled with. She says it's been made clear that we're not going to get any more help anytime soon, despite the broad mandate we've been given. The other problem is that I've been sort of anointed as the one to take over her job when she's out (as she was for a couple of days due to a death in her family) -- which I guess makes it all the more urgent to bring up my concerns. Really, the whole team would benefit from having more people to carry the load; it's just a matter of convincing the bosses of that.

Today, I talked to a co-worker who's been there for several years and whom I trust, and asked him how he thought I should approach the situation. He wasn't able to offer too much insight into the how, but he did at least reassure me regarding the positive opinions people there have of me and the amount of time, money and effort that's been invested in recruiting and training me, which he thinks would make them more inclined to make some effort to keep me around.

So thanks for the encouraging words. Now I just have to overcome the huge social issues I have that will make it hard for me to approach my supervisor with this.

Hi,

Your position is very similar to mine.

I've recently self diagnosed myself with as, and I'm currently awaiting for an official diagnosis.

I started a new job about 6 months ago and it's been a very stressful experience due to the change of focus in the work not working to my strengths, the tighter deadlines, working in a bigger team, not reading situations correctly etc..

I'm currently off work now with stress and I am contemplating the pros and cons of telling my boss that I wish to change roles due to my as.

It's definately a toughy, and you have my sympathies.

That is a tough situation. But why not look at it as a challenge? It sounds like you have a lot going for you to get as far as you have in such a tough field. You never know, right now you are out of your comfort zone and it feels scary, but give it a try.

On paper my job would be an Aspy nightmare. Tight, constantly changing deadlines, multitasking, being the support person for at least 50 people (no, I am not exaggerating!), being the point person when others are off (sometimes I am the only one available). To top it off, they are changing over the computer system and guess who was volunteered to be part of the testing for the new system? No, you can't get out of it, we need you because you have so much more experience and knowledge of the data, so here I am struggling with a new system nobody really understands yet trying to figure out which is a bug and which is just my ignorance of the system. Then I was informed that starting next month I am going to cross-train in another discipline. So it is always learning, learning, learning, change, change, change. And yes there are days when I am totally stressed out and frustrated. But my supervisors, who haven't a clue that I am ASD, think very highly of me, and encourage me to grow. Did I mention I also have to train and mentor people?

I guess I look at it this way, if you don't know you "can't" do something, it's amazing what you "can" do when given no choice. I consider myself to be very lucky to have the job I have in an industry that is growing while everyone else is cutting back.