Aspies are hard workers

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unfortunately, unlike aspies, mentally ret*d people often posses excellent social skills. most of them can put a smile on my face with their kindness, anyway.

i stay home and do nothing because it's they only way i can stay out of trouble

Does "Lack of Motivation" qualify as "Laziness"?

I tried for a Bank Examiner Trainee with the FDIC under the Outstanding Scholar Program, and they couldn't find enough qualified candidates for all the open positions. I met all the qualification requirements, and then some, and the FDIC even missed the time limits to file an objection to my FDIC-OPM qualification assessment rating.

I didn't get the job because they said I displayed a "Lack of Motivation" and they wanted people with a "Bulldog Tenacity". I took my Bulldog Tenacity and exausted administrative remedies and rights to file suit in Federal Court, and had a ten year long Federal Court battle with the FDIC.

My State Rehab Counselor told me that people with my kind of impairments should "fake stupid" to be able to get any job, because of the intense prejudice.

How energetic does a person have to be to fake stupid?

An EEOC ALJ told me I didn't suffer discrimination based on my impairments, as it was based on their jealousy of my academic record, and acts based on jealousy are not based on prohibited discrimination.

Is faking stupid a great Social Skill? I've been told that both "Emotional Intelligence" and "Social Intelligence" are each a bunch of balderdash to hide prejudice behind with the vague concept of "Social Skills". As everybody knows, """those people""" don't have any social skills.

Has anybody read "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller?

Tadzio

I probably could not get ssi even if I wanted too. I worked two jobs for 9 years each, I guess that proves i am able to work. Each of the two jobs I was tormented to the point of melt downs at one. Both jobs I worked I was really good at what I did with the exception I was slow, had a hard time learning new things, and was hated by everybody on the job except the bosses. I always made less than people that worked for the company with fewer years senority and was expected to do as much or more work than them. I have been laid off since Oct. 09 after putting out over 50 resumes I am still without a job. In this new modified job market employers do not want someone who cannot look them in the eye, or someone who breaks out into a sweat from just being in a room with them and who is nervous when shaking their hand. They want the biggest bang for their buck and it is not me now I am screwed because I have shown an ability to work making myself ineligeble for ssi.

I don't know, but it's apparently something I'm not capable of doing. I tried to not stand out in several minimum wage jobs and still had co-workers getting mad at me for talking over their head or telling me, "you don't have to act so smart." Even in jail, when I was afraid that standing out might get me killed, I ended up being called "college girl" by the other inmates.

What's ironic is that I also get called ret*d. Not to my face, but there have been several times I've been in the grocery store (or some similar public place I couldn't avoid) and heard someone say, "is that girl/woman over there ret*d?" in situations where it was obvious they could only mean me. (Maybe next time it happens, I should say, "she's not. And she's not deaf, either.")

We can be lazy, of course, but if we're doing work related to our obsessions we're usually highly motivated.

This is something I've been wondering about. Those on disability who can't work; are they automatically dismissing "menial" jobs? I have never had a "real" job and I can only say I don't think I could manage it, because of my significant deficits in executive dysfunction and because the idea of being able to negotiate office politics is laughable. I have big self esteem issues from my life long feelings of inertia so if I don't work I tend to get depressed. So my happy medium is working the kind of job that others consider beneath them. I scrub toilets (among other things). When I first started I felt very self conscious but gradually I discovered if I don't walk around with an attitude of subservience, I don't get treated badly. My question is, if I were to apply for disability (hypothetically-I'm not AS diagnosed) would the fact that I have college degree mean they would automatically assume that a menial jobnot be considered? I can understand those on disability who can't work a high pressure office job, but did anybody tell you that you couldn't have disability because you could sweep a floor instead?

I have a strange relationship with laziness. I detest the work ethic that politicians and business people are always banging on about, I think it's just a con trick to screw more work out of us for less pay, so the elite can accumulate more capital. I think that hard work breeds hard people.

Personally I never set out to "work hard." I believe in never taking on more work than I feel I can comfortably do. It's quite important to take that line in my research job, because it's pretty well known here that what looks like it will take 10 minutes is likely to take an hour.

Yet I often find I'm working hard in spite of myself......obsession. And when I'm obsessed with getting a result, I don't realise how hard I'm working. I just can't help it. So I often work very hard but I don't see it as much of a virtue. I'm not doing it because I feel I should, or because of any conscious will to be industrious, I'm doing it because I don't know any other way to go.

When people rant about hard work being paramount, I like to throw a spanner into their works by ranting about due diligence - seems to me that most of the people who crow about working hard are wasting a lot of of their efforts because generally speaking they're making loads of mistakes and fudging their remit, and deserting their loved ones. Work ethic = last refuge of the scoundrel.

I hate to have to use my parent's money for tuition for school. I tried looking for a job but I think I mess up at interviews. Its weird how your parents will only let you get a job if they can't seem to pay for your meds.

I am proof that Aspies can hold a job for more than a year!! ! I have had the same job for four years (tomorrow is the anniversary of my starting date). I am in a key position as well. I can say that I work very, very hard at my job. I am very happy at work but that doesn't mean I don't get stressed (I do!!). But, I am fortunate to be working with a great bunch of people and I have had very good, nice bosses. Having this job has been the best thing for my social skills. This proves that Aspies are not limited in what they can do!! But, as many of you have said, we Aspies are all built differently. I have a neighbour who is an Aspie and has it worse than I do and has had at least 10 jobs in the last several years. I depends as much on the person and their upbringing and not necessarily on Asperger's. Also, it depends on how severe your Asperger's is. My advise is to keep working hard. It feels good and also proves to the NT's that you can do the job better than them.

I aways got from the fulltime resteraunt employees if your so smart why aren't you in college, this was coming from men/women who were in their 20's with like 3 kids with more on the way and only working a 7.70/hr job. Then I had the guys that were going to college who worked at the resteraunt part time ask me why are you wasting your time here and not in college. I also get do you think your better than me? So now when I am asked that I always say yes to provoke an attack so they can be arrested for assault.

I'm lazy but I also work now. I work for four hours but yesterday I had to work longer because someone called in sick so I had to go to the other building and do some her of work. All the workers there covered for her and I only did the trashing and the restrooms. I go to my regular job and work and I get done a half hour early, I clock out and I go to the other building and I clock in and work and I got done in an hour and half and clocked out. I'm a fast worker. Normally if I get done early, I try and find work to do to keep busy until my shift ends but because I had to cover for someone, I clocked out early.

I've also worked full time and I was lucky to have that job until the economy caught up to me so my hours were cut way back and I was hardly working now. I would try and find other work but I didn't try as hard as last time and no one would hire me. I mostly blamed it on the economy but finding work had always been hard for me. Then I decided to go to the PHC for people with disabilities where they are given jobs so I can work. I had to take classes for a week to learn how to do the job and then I was put on training and then they graduated me and it took them four months to get me a job and then I was laid off again because I had to get a badge to work in the government buildings and then after I got one, I was put to work again.

When I lived in Montana, I had a job where I worked close to full time but back then I get overwhelmed when I work long hours and flexibility was hard for me and lot of guests complained about my "rude behavior" and it be worse if I had conflicts with other workers. My boss could have ended up firing me but she didn't. But I had to work through all that and mom told me about personal space and told me to stand at least an arm length away from everyone, that's about everyone's average personal space. I also had to learn to be flexible and I learned to control my anxiety better. How many aspies are lucky to have a boss to keep them? I think them getting fired never gives them a chance to work on it and I can't really blame the bosses because it's reputation they need and if it goes down because of the aspie, then their business suffers. So the only solution to that problem be firing the aspie.

Before that, I worked at a thrift store for less than five hours a week and when I was in high school, I worked in the high school library for an hour dusting bookshelves and making bookmarks and it was one hour a week once a day.

I can never get a professional job or get a real one because of my learning disabilities. Plus the fact lot of places want experience and college degrees. The hardest part about applications is they want references and I hate cover letters so I skip anything that asks for them. Same as written references. When things cause me too much stress, I avoid it and go "forget it" because I can't deal with it.

IdahoRose, you can still work when you are on SSI but you can only work certain amount of hours to keep getting money from them. And you aren't using your parents money if you're on it.

Some of the jobs I tried (and failed) at include:

working at McDonald's,
putting awards for girls scouts who sold lots of cookies into cardboard boxes and labelling them for shipping
breaking the plastic sprue off molded parts in a factory
cutting cables and electrical cords to the proper length so that someone else could put plugs on them
"hot walking" horses at Churchhill Downs after they exercised (paid less than minimum wage)
shelving books at a used book store (paid less than minimum wage)
bevelling pieces of glass for leaded glass windows (holding glass against various grinding wheels)
checking hand stamps of people returning through the back door of a bar
bathroom attendant in a bar (wiping up vomit, helping passed out people, generally keeping things clean and supervised)
washing dishes in various different restaurants
cooking / food prep in various restaurants
waitress in a fast-food style chili restaurant
writing html and creating graphics for a small start-up
playing piano in a Baptist church
entering data (this one I did not get fired from - it was a short-term project that hired me through a temp agency. I wish I could have kept doing it)
working the cash register at a gas station/convenience store
shelving foods at a health food store

Some of them were "menial jobs" as you put it. Some were minimum wage jobs, some were less than minimum wage jobs. None were specifically sweeping the floor, but some were not much different from or more complex than sweeping the floor. All, except the data entry job, ended with me getting fired with no reason given. I resolved that I would not lie or exaggerate to the social security workers and if they decided that I was disabled, I would accept the benefits with no guilt. I was accepted almost immediately.



No. The motto I've come upon when I've engaged the U.S. government's work programs is "no legal job is without dignity." The social security office does not base disability on specific diagnoses (though they will want to know what your diagnosis/diagnoses is/are) but rather on ability to engage in substantial gainful activity. In other words, can you work, can you dress yourself, can you feed yourself, etc. Disability is awarded based on functioning level, not on diagnosis.

If you have maintained any kind of employment for sustained periods of time and nothing in your life or functioning level has changed between then and now, you will not be awarded disability. What you describe is officially called "underemployment," not "disability."

Thanks for answering. I hope you didn't think I was coming from a judgmental stance. I know I couldn't work an office job that required a lot of attention to detail (presuming it not be a special interest) or be socially adept. I know I'm smarter than my job and for years I have been asked why I don't try for something better.I have a college degree so presumably I could ( it's an art degree so not really ) As far as menial jobs, pushing a broom and working at McDonald's might both be considered menial, but one I can do and one I can't. When I ended my shift as a bartender, I would drink to keep from melting down. I was an employee in good standing but it took it's toll and I know it's best that I avoid restaurant jobs. I am a single parent and my AS son's SSDI allows me to work reduced hours, which also allows me more time to parent him, which I think is more important than money. We are still poor but we live simply and try to enjoy simple things. He doesn't need more toys. He needs a parent that isn't barely functioning because of stress overload. I really don't think I could work a 40 hour a week job and still be a good parent. I am not diagnosed but whatever I am, I know what my struggles are. I think I am better off working my little janitorial job, which is non taxing mentally and has very flexible hours. My job history is pretty consistent. I get a low level job and hang on like Grim Death. Two of my longest stints were doable because they were kind of offbeat places and I wasn't required to act a certain way. One job as a hotel desk clerk, they attempted to "freeze me out". Well, I'm rambling, I'll shut up now.

It depends on the person, some Aspies won't be lazy, while some will be. I'm one of the lazy ones!

I wasn't sure at first but I read what you wrote a couple more times and then I could see clearly that you weren't coming from a judgmental place. Whenever I'm not sure how to take something, I read it again until I either feel I'm clear or know what I need to ask for clarification. That's one reason I like written communication so much better than spoken: I can't re-wind what a person said and examine it over and over until I feel that I understand the way I can do with written communication.



Yes and no. There are an awful lot of jobs out there that want employees to have a bachelor's degree in anything, they don't care what. That's because they view the act of getting a bachelor's degree itself as a sort of "winnower" that tells them that a person has stick-to-it-ive-ness and a certain level of intelligence and a basic level of written communication skills, etc. For example, a friend of mine got a job designing web pages with her bachelor's degrees in German and Music. My sister got a job for a non-profit that restores historic buildings because she had a bachelor's degree in Art History (okay, that one's a little more connected, but her co-workers had all kinds of other degrees that weren't related.)

So with an art degree, you would be eligible for all kinds of jobs that don't care what your degree is in. But they're all pretty much sucky office jobs that have a lot of stupid office politics and conditions that folks like you and me don't really work well under.



I'm praying that I'm not "biting off more than I can chew" with my aspirations of being a professor. I know I can teach a class because I've already taught individual class sessions (50 to 90 minutes) many times. I'm working on showing up every day -- I have had a lot of absences due to stress overload but I know that I need to be able to show up every day before I can do this as a job. What worries me are the social politics that go along with being a professor. The parties that are "secretly" mandatory for career success (and no one ever tells you which ones you can safely skip and which you'd better not.) The faculty meetings. The jockeying for position. The unwritten rules of the tenure track. The extra responsibilities that professors are expected to take on (the math club advisor is always complaining about how much stuff she has to say "no" to. I always wonder how she knows which ones are "safe" to turn down.)

What I really need is a mentor. My university started a new program a year or two ago where the female professors mentor new female professors as they get hired. But I need a mentor now, as a grad student. Something more than just an advisor. *And* I'll need a mentor when/if I get hired after graduation (and there's no guarantee that the university I end up at will have a mentor program like the one at my current university.)

I *think* I can do this (this = be a professor) but I'm pretty shaky about the whole thing and hoping I haven't just wasted lots of money and seven years (and counting) of my life on something that I should have known from the beginning wasn't going to work out.

ah something else that adds to my list of connections now only if i was able to get checked out to see if i do have aspies for me i am not lazy by choice i had two jobs one i worked 3-4 times each and every job i would work hard and do my job as best i could even better than those in the same position i would even be expected to do more than what i was normally doing paid below average for my work but i only lasted half a year every time
all i can tell why i am unable to hold a job more than half a year is that work of any kind stimulates my mind i think and end up getting to the point i have a melt down form not being able to concentrate properly on my job i have been fired once from both jobs and quit the rest.

so if i do have aspies from what i have heard and seen lazy i think not at least we don't mean to be.