What makes you unemployable?

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reminds me of a funny story bhetti- I have a friend who has worked for one of the major insurance companies for many years. She doesn't have a college education so she is not eligible for promotion. She has lost track of all the times she has trained a supervisor. She told me once that morale was low so they had a meeting to iron out the problem. The supervisor asked each person to describe how they felt in one word. So it went like this:

person A-Angry
person B-Frustrated
person C- Pissed-off
supervisor-That's 2 words!
person D-Hyphenated
supervisor-What's your word person E?
person D- What about me?
supervisor-You already said how you felt.You said hyphenated!

Someone I'm friendly with that works at one of the offices I clean said upper management spoke entirely in cliches and another said in order to survive you had to pretend you really bought into the B.S. (I guess some of us just can't manage that)

I have had no trouble holding onto jobs. Changing from my current one has been impossible: I've been typecast by other hirers and oppressed in my current position, thinning my resume. To make things more interesting, my AS seems to mess up my interviews. I recently had what I thought was a good interview, but I think the nonverbal stuff messed it up.

At least, I have a secure, high-paying, if boring, job.

I guess its my personality of only getting motivated in what interests me.

In the UK, there is a Disability Living Allowance , but Im not "disabled" to be eligible

Deplorably unemployed topic

I have had to apply for ODSP (a disability payment system) as i have been informed that due to having had 40 different jobs in 12 years (applied for at least 200) i need help to become self sufficient once again (if possible). Once I receive this allowance I will be able to get employment supports (an employment specialist) so that any job I get will be partially subsidized by the provincial government. I will be able to work at a job that will not involve teamwork and multitasking but will mean I am responsible for my own tasks (good) and will ideally be an asset for the company. This is a sort of "sheltered on the job supervision" but at least the work will be genuine and useful (ideally).

Dyspraxia, CAPD and some supervisory problems have made it difficult for me to maintain regular and ordinary employment.

A.What makes me unemployable is:
1.my sensory issues and not being able to be in crowded and/or busy environments 2.not being able to work and/or be around people and/or co-workers(need to be completely alone) 3.not being able to multitask 4.have medical health issues 5.get stressed out to easy and have periods of shutting down where I need to be absent from work constantly for both short and long term periods.

B.what I am doing about it?
I have figured out I need and do better working in a laboratory, but I have to go to school. So, since I am highly intelligent and went to college before and did very well, I am going back in September. I have some medical health issues that are permanent, so this job is perfect. My plan is to graduate in 2012, get a job right away, and mortgage a 1 or 2 bedroom house.

-Something about going crazy and beating people when they tell me to do things that I'm not ready to do at their time and whim (which is usually always), then order me, and then hurting me by touching me or raising their voice, which hurts a lot (I'm a sensitive person)
-needing to communicate; people just expect you to talk to them for some silly reason
-not conforming to standards in all ways; walks his own path, so to speak

Safer for everyone involved for me to work by myself when I can, get a pension when I can't.

- interview (I can't do an interview)
- lack of understanding [on their part] (They see me as rude emotionless unlikeable etc they told me)
- instructions (i can't follow verbal instructions and when I can't they think I want to do everything my way)
- sensory (couldn't work anywhere with people around me, fear touch, scared to go places cause of it)
- anxiety (sometimes can't leave house, panic if a min late and refuse to go)
- communication (couldn't solve problems/arguments or explain things or do chit chat properly)

Oh.....rawwwrrr.....I take it for granted..but I am so lucky that I am unconventionally self-employed....it will be a sad day when my house of cards comes tumbling down and I have to find a real job again....

My last job i held for a week and a half and I left it in tears. My boss said in not so many words that I did well for someone who obviously had "issues"...thinking about it makes me burst into tears...

I used to have problems where I would burst into tears at job interviews...

My main problem is that I can't conform...even when I try, it doesn't work out...i have severe distraction problems....it takes me several times longer to complete certain tasks than it does anyone else for some reason....Oh my goodness...so many little things make it hard.

i have had some jobs where I was given leeway...

When I was young I worked at Whole Foods...I didn't know I was an aspie...was somewhat unaware of my complete oblivion regarding interpersonal dynamics and whatnot...and I made a lot of people angry..and i was "set aside" and occasionally referred to as "special"..there were things constantly said about me behind my back..I worked very hard..but I was also very inefficient and often did things that were unacceptable because I didn't know any better. I left that job after sorta being sexually harassed by my new team leader...who in retrospect, seemed very very ASish...and I guess that is why he was attracted to me and behaved inappropriately in the first place....but after that I was never able to get a job at Whole Foods ever again....not for lack of trying.

I had an office job for two years after that that was very very routine and organized..which made it easy for me to work...that was at a large musical instrument store....I was a switchboard operator and people liked me for my unusual voice...but I was sorta ostracized by the rest of the office...except for one very nice South American woman who was also ostracized and eventually stormed off one day and never returned. My office manager constantly reminded me that the only reason I was hired was because my dad and boyfriend at the time worked for the company...

That was many years ago...and it has been a string of low-paying part time jobs...and long periods of unemployment....and then I was hired by dysfunctional hippies...and that got me where I am today.

sorry to ramble.....

By the way, for those that have trouble keeping a job longer than a year or so and live in America: Have you tried working for the government? As I understand it, it's very difficult for a government supervisor to fire an employee.

Edit: Additionally, if you're well-qualified for the position, they cannot reject you because you're strange.

I'm not "unemployable" but what's held me back is basically two things.

1. Inability to "connect" with interviewers. I know what to say and how to say it (in theory), but how I come across never really gets me to the top of the hire list...so I'm significantly underemployed.

2. If I get a job, my issues with connecting with others well often produces problems that sooner or later results in my having to leave the place I'm at.

I also have the same issue, except I do not beat people up and go crazy. I just "shut down", cry, withdraw. Pretty much that is what causes me to withdraw and why i am on disability in the first place. That is why I am going to school to work in a laboratory. I do not have to deal with people and the only verbal communication i will have is related to the job, not any "social" and/or difficult communication. Pretty much basic instructions, rather than complicated social interactions.

I have problems with verbal instructions, but I am going to school to work in a laboratory, i am going to be a Histology Technician. I am also getting Vocational resources, so that when i do get employed, I can have written instructions, instead of verbal.
Sensory, I have problems with noisy and/or crowded environments, so working in a Laboratory will work for me. That is also why i did not do well going to a day program for autistic people because of the crowded noisy classrooms that i had to sit in all day. the only jobs they give are jobs like factories and other jobs that require social interactions, so that did not work. it was all horrible jobs anyway. that is why I am going to college because I rather work in a laboratory and the day program does not set up jobs like that.
I have major problems with the same communication stuff you do. I always withdraw, cry and/or shut down during arguments and it affects my job performance. I do not like chit chat and I have trouble explaining things verbally, even though i do well with written.
Anxiety kills me where I can not be late, as well. I am so afraid that I will be late, that I would schedule the bus an hour early, so I rather be an hour early than a couple seconds late. I also can not get out of bed some days and if I am really stressed, i shut down to where I can not function.But I am trying to work on that. So on the weekends will be my "shut down" time, so that I can be refreshed for the next week. that is how I am working things now.

The last time I had a job was 1997, but my official reason for not getting another job is that I'm a stay-at-home mom, and one of my kids has AS. I need to be there for them, and my husband recognizes that I'm not likely to get a job that pays enough to offset any kind of child care expenses...and we believe in raising our own kids anyway. So, it hasn't been an issue.

But sometimes I wonder how "employable" I am. I spent six years in the military, which I was completely NOT cut out for, but at least it was steady employment, and looks like something on a resume. I have the official document that proves I was in the service, but no record of the fact that all of my performance reports were not so good, and that I was shunted around from office to office because no one wanted me. But that was a quarter century ago. Other than that, it's been mostly a string of jobs at pizza places. For a while, I got a "real job", i.e. something where I didn't have to wear a paper hat. I actually got that job because I wore Mickey Mouse earrings to the interview, and the guy who made the hiring decision (who my husband still works with) is rather obsessed with all things Disney. Once I actually had the job, though, I was never quite sure what I was supposed to be doing or how I was supposed to act. They gave me tasks to do which I didn't understand, and I often humiliated myself on the phone to vendors by not knowing things that I was expected to know. (I was hired to solder components into circuit boards, but ended up being given the extra task as "buyer", without having a clue what that meant, and being terrified of the phone.)

Now I'm almost 42, I haven't had a job in almost 12 years, I have NO references, and can't even remember the years that I worked at various places, let alone names and dates. I have a debilitating fear of driving in anything but the lightest traffic. I have never been officially "fired" because I always quit when I sensed that that was about to happen. When there have been lay-offs, I've been the first to go.

Several years ago I volunteered in my son's kindergarten class with general classroom stuff, and a teacher asked me to go into the office and make copies. I felt all nervous, and couldn't figure out how to work the copy machine, because it was much fancier than any one I had ever seen before. I felt like the time that I was working at that "vendor" job and someone asked me to page them, but I didn't know how to page anyone, and was too shy and embarrassed to ask, so I spend all day looking at my screen saver, afraid to do anything. This volunteer situation was more of the same. Meanwhile, other volunteer moms are whizzing around getting things done without having to be hand-held through every step.

Oh, but I have a B.A. in Anthropology, and an A.S. in Computer and Electronic Technology (way outdated and obsolete). And I'm articulate, as long as I'm not nervous, and can write well. So that must mean that I'll be able to get a job if I ever want one.

I admit, though, that I don't want a job. The reason is because every job experience I've ever had has been so painful. I don't think I ever woke up in the morning without a sick, fearful feeling about having to go to work, in any job...except the one where I only had to make pizzas and not even talk to customers. But a 40-something woman doesn't belong in a job like that, with a bunch of teenagers. I mean, no offense to teenagers, but that type of job is for them, and I'd been seen as a weirdo outcast in a job like that. AND I'd be expected to take on a supervisory role, which means talking to angry customers on the phone at peak dinner time, which I just can't do.

Usually, sensory exhaustion. All of the jobs I have had seem to be exactly the sort that force me to try to tolerate noise, heat, texture, smell, light, pain, etc. for long periods of time; many of them also required difficult things like "obvious" social interaction, things expected of you; or multi-tasking things; or tasks that couldn't be made concrete; or very disorganized surroundings. Apparently, NTs haven't got too much trouble with those things; they're tired at the end of the day, but not too tired to go out with friends and have fun. For me, I'd get so tired I didn't have enough left over to do anything at all, and spent the evening lying on my bed, with enough energy to eat dinner or shower but not both; and by the end of the week I was dreading going to work so much that I'd start crying at the thought of it. Near the end of the day, I would be in a daze, staring at some small feature of my surroundings, totally zoned out--performance down the toilet, meltdown/shutdown imminent.

On the other hand, I'm pretty good at school; so now that I have a chance to get a proper degree and have a job that's concrete--science-related, hopefully--and quiet and logical; something where I can think and use my strengths; then I think I can be employable--maybe with a few accommodations, almost certainly minor ones like asking people to give me concrete directions instead of being vague about things. I'm almost two weeks into a summer internship working with a professor who is studying diabetes in mice; and so far I haven't had a lot of real exhaustion at all, and have actually been able to sustain effort all day. The lab is quiet and organized and I'm working with long rows of numbers, which are things that I can understand and put into patterns using a computer, spreadsheet, and statistics program. Numbers are predictable--not like people. A lot of the researchers are equally focused on their tasks, and don't socialize very much while they are working. I think I could work in a place like that, and not have too many problems.

I volunteer once a week at the library, and I manage ok at the moment.
But I don't think I could get a real job, because I'm late sometimes to the volunteer work because of sleep issues, I can't deal with people, and I overload with lots of noise, people, or warm heating. Also gastrointestinal issues can sometimes interrupt what I'm doing, and they get worse when I'm anxious. Also there's 'the knack' to things and not knowing what to do with myself, but hating direction.

The library job works in my favour though, because there's a rigid system for pretty much everything. That means I can just go do what I've been told to, and I don't have to deal with people directly. Also not being interrupted is a bonus, because that's something that makes me stressed out, and my singlemindedness gets tedious time consuming jobs done when other librarians don't want to do them.

I have family members in academics and I'm afraid even though the University setting is more accepting of special interests and quirks, there is a definite social dynamic one has to navigate. I had an older friend when I was in college who was buddies with many of my professors so I got to see them in their social element. Not too much different from junior high. Academics are more and more competitive. My cousin has a recent doctorate in Anthropology and is scrambling to find a position. She recently had a 5 hour interview with Smithsonian. It's hard everywhere.