Aspies are hard workers

Page 3 of 3 [ 47 posts ] Go to page Previous 1, 2, 3

Previous topic | Next topic

Aimless
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 1 Apr 2009
Age: 68
Gender: Female
Posts: 8,187

23 Jun 2010, 5:58 pm

Sparrowrose wrote:

Aimless wrote:

Thanks for answering. I hope you didn't think I was coming from a judgmental stance.

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.

Quote:

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

)

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.

Quote:

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".

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.

Yes, pretty much all my jobs have been menial or low skilled so to judge would just kick my own ass. I do have to justify my choices sometimes, because I've never really tried for even a sucky office job. Once years ago, I was in an interview with an insurance office that a job finding place sent me. I just felt so weird there that I stopped the interview and said I didn't think I was right for the job. I guess that's what I'm trying to figure out. Am I justified in saying I can't work at a certain level if I've never tried? If I said that to a disability person, would they accept that? That is a better way of posing my original question, I think.
As far as academics, my experience is an uncle that is a professor of physics and a friendship with one of my painting and printmaking profs years ago. For my uncle it is more a matter of publish or perish but he already has published quite a bit and "gives papers" all over the world. Yet he is awkward socially. He manages but you can tell his manner is stilted. Once I was offended when he asked me a question in what I perceived as a condescending tone, but later I heard him use the same tone with a doctoral candidate and I realized he was just not very good at the easy breezy social stuff. The professor friend was an example of academic social politics. He was dating a friend of mine and he was 42 and she was 25. The rest of the faculty group, who got together for drinking every weekend, decided to shun him. I was close to the situation because I also had an older friend that was friendly with the faculty group. So, in short I saw these people at parties. I saw how the good old boy network worked. I even benefited from from time to time, as being invited to put work in a show etc. Departmental politics are very real, I think, so I understand where you are coming from. It shouldn't always be that way, I think it depends on a number of things. Unfortunately, I hear that schools are particularly interested in your schmoozy fund raising abilities these days.

Sparrowrose
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 11 Oct 2009
Age: 58
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,682
Location: Idaho, USA

23 Jun 2010, 6:24 pm

Aimless wrote:

Once years ago, I was in an interview with an insurance office that a job finding place sent me. I just felt so weird there that I stopped the interview and said I didn't think I was right for the job.

I'll bet that just blew the interviewer's mind!

Quote:

I guess that's what I'm trying to figure out. Am I justified in saying I can't work at a certain level if I've never tried? If I said that to a disability person, would they accept that? That is a better way of posing my original question, I think.

If you said it to a case worker at the social security office, they'd say they couldn't help you (unless you consistently work for less than minimum wage.) If you said it to a worker at vocational rehabilitation, they'd either accept it and leave it be or tenatively not accept it and see what could be done (within their limited power) to help you be able to take on a higher paying job. But their power is very limited so there's not much chance they could help out, either.

What crossed my mind was whether there might not be some opportunity for you to do some kind of artwork as a telecommuter. I don't know how you'd feel about doing commercial art or graphic art, but it seems like there must be some way to be able to do art at home and fax/e-mail it to someone else who'd use it in advertising, book illustrations/book covers, etc. For example, I know that the guy who designed the cover for my book works at home. The publisher sent him a proof of my book and a photo of me and the text they wanted on the cover. He looked at the book long enough to vaguely know the content and then designed the cover and sent it back to the publisher.

But I'm not trying to be pushy or tell you what to do or anything like that. It just crossed my mind that maybe there's a job using your art but not going in to an office.

Quote:

Departmental politics are very real, I think, so I understand where you are coming from. It shouldn't always be that way, I think it depends on a number of things. Unfortunately, I hear that schools are particularly interested in your schmoozy fund raising abilities these days.

I've been debating about disclosure. I'm planning to get a couple of books about disclosure, like Stephen Shore's, and read more and think more about it. I say this because I know that some employers get financial incentives for hiring the disabled and I read once that Dr. Lars Perner (professor of marketing) interviewed again and again and didn't get hired anywhere but then started explaining why he was so "strange and wooden" in interviews by disclosing his asperger's diagnosis and was hired almost immediately.

So I think I need to spend some time studying the pros and cons of disclosure -- as well as the best ways to go about it -- because there's a chance that my asperger's might make me more appealing to a university if I "sold" it properly. Not just the federal financial incentive, but explaining asperger's strengths and also universities like being more "diverse" in their hiring. I might just try to get a position "the regular way" at first and then start disclosing if that's not working for me, like I read about Dr. Perner doing.

I don't know. I've got a lot of thinking and deciding to do.

_________________
"In the end, we decide if we're remembered for what happened to us or for what we did with it."
-- Randy K. Milholland

Avatar=WWI propaganda poster promoting victory gardens.

Aimless
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 1 Apr 2009
Age: 68
Gender: Female
Posts: 8,187

23 Jun 2010, 7:40 pm

I have always been off and on with the art work, Sparrowrose. I have some ability, but I never had the driving passion you're supposed to have. I'm not sure why. Once I get started (which is it's own problem) I get lost in the process and usually I am sick to death of the idea before I finish. It's ironic that I have such a hard time starting but once I've started I exhaust myself with hyper focus. It's been a long time since I've done anything, but I'm feeling the itch lately. Any kind of painting I would want to do is so intensely personal I wonder if anyone else could relate. There's something about pouring so much time and money into something that people will judge in a heartbeat that makes me feel defeated before I start. Anyway, that's my demon.
I'm curious, what is your field?

Oh and btw, the interviewer was stunned and later on the jobs placer called and yelled at me and said anyone with 1/2 a brain could have done that job. :lol:

Sparrowrose
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 11 Oct 2009
Age: 58
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,682
Location: Idaho, USA

23 Jun 2010, 7:55 pm

Aimless wrote:

I can relate to what you say. My art is mainly textile art, but I have the same issues with inertia and hyperfocus. And so frustrating to spend 200 hours on a piece and then show it to someone only to hear, "wow, you should sell that! You could get $15 or $20 for it!" as if I'm some kind of mass-production machine that can happily grind out the same thing over and over for a penny an hour.

Quote:

I'm curious, what is your field?

Political science. It was mainly a process of elimination.

I knew I couldn't move someplace else - I was limited to the school here in town. I knew I wanted to become a professor because it seems to be one of the very few decent-paying jobs that I had a shot at being able to handle so I was limited to the programs that offered a doctorate. I eliminated English for two reasons: I hate postmodernism and the reality behind the joke that the English major says, "do you want fries with that?" I started out as a math major but fell apart the second year for two reasons: too many conflicts with math professors led me to believe that I don't mesh well with the math professor personality type (and thus shouldn't put myself in a math department) and difficulties with the abstract nature of many types of higher math; my brain just doesn't easily bend that way.

Pretty much that left political science. I do well with it (although I've had problems with some of the highly abstract stuff at the grad level that doesn't correlate to the real world at all) and I like that I get to dig into economics, history, science (for policy issues), religious issues (culture clashes), psychology, sociology, etc. along the way. I did a double bachelor's degree in political science and applied economics. And I'm working on a third bachelor's degree in Spanish as I work toward the doctorate both because I love the language and because I like working with Latin American issues. (Though if things get sticky, the Spanish classes will be the first to get dropped.)

So I'm not really in a field related to my obsessions, but my options were limited. My life-long obsession area has been language and I love the process of research, so researching and writing keep me really happy and I'm hoping that's enough to carry me through a field that is interesting to me but not my burning passion.

_________________
"In the end, we decide if we're remembered for what happened to us or for what we did with it."
-- Randy K. Milholland

Avatar=WWI propaganda poster promoting victory gardens.

thechadmaster
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 13 Feb 2005
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,126
Location: On The Road...Somewhere

23 Jun 2010, 10:33 pm

i hope i can be considered a hard worker, or at least a dedicated one. yesterday i worked the 3-11 evening shift. got home about 1130, got a phone call at 530 this morning saying the 7-3 day person called out, i agreed to it knowing that i was already scheduled the 3-11 today, combined with my penchant for arriving at work early, my shift today was 615 am until 1115 pm, and being in a convenience store and the only clerk on duty, there are NO BREAKS.

_________________
I don't know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future.

persian85033
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 1 Jul 2009
Age: 38
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,869
Location: Phoenix

24 Jun 2010, 1:17 pm

I am a good and hard worker in things I like. If it's something like say, working in a clothing store, I'd be fired in no time. If it was something like what I do now, or working in a library, or book store, I would be quite efficient. I used to help out at the library during my lunch hour in high school. The alternative was to sit there alone in the hot sun, or in the cafeteria, getting headaches due to all the noise around me while trying to read, so I couldn't even think right. The librarian and the assistants always said I did a great job of putting the books back on the shelves. I'd finish the entire stack in no time. Same here, I always finish what I'm working on quickly, and I have time left over to organize and re organize my desk. My cubicle is the one with most space. The only things on my desk, apart from my computer are my Sorting Hat pen holder, my Gryffindor letter opener, my many kitty figurines, the scanner(I'm the only one who knows how to use a scanner), the printer, the phone, and many pieces of scrap paper I keep in the corner for reminder notes.

_________________
"Of all God's creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the leash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat." - Mark Twain

Sparrowrose
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 11 Oct 2009
Age: 58
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,682
Location: Idaho, USA

24 Jun 2010, 1:57 pm

persian85033 wrote:

I really enjoyed the data entry job I had. The project was to enter the information people had written on their forms for the Businessmen's Breakfasts at the Chamber of Commerce. I like typing and I like organizing information so I developed a flow and went through the huge stack of forms in just a couple of days. Everyone said they were amazed and had thought the project would last at least two weeks. I was pround of the work I had done, but at the same time a little regretful that being efficient and enjoying the work meant that I had just cut myself out of as many as eleven more days of getting paid for work I enjoyed.

_________________
"In the end, we decide if we're remembered for what happened to us or for what we did with it."
-- Randy K. Milholland

Avatar=WWI propaganda poster promoting victory gardens.

persian85033
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 1 Jul 2009
Age: 38
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,869
Location: Phoenix

24 Jun 2010, 2:02 pm

Sparrowrose wrote:

persian85033 wrote:

That's just what happens to me! They say I have a way with the computer or something, as I enter the data very fast. I just finished a project in a couple of weeks, which was supposed to take at least two and a half months. The truth is, I am not rushing or anything, I'm simply working like anyone else, and somehow I just happen to finish quicker. One of the things I actually fear most when coming to work is running out of work.lolI can possibly get all the week's work done in as little as one or two days. I do try to work a little slower, but the truth is, I just kind of get into it.

Sparrowrose
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 11 Oct 2009
Age: 58
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,682
Location: Idaho, USA

24 Jun 2010, 2:22 pm

persian85033 wrote:

Sparrowrose wrote:

I wish I could have found a permanent position like that. I got the Chamber of Commerce job through a temp agency so when I finished the project, that was it and I got sent out on more ill-fitting jobs that were awful. That was the only job I ever had that I really enjoyed and did well at and didn't get fired from. But I was never able to find a job like that as a permanent position; I never made it past the interview process for any of them. My life would have been a LOT different if I'd had a stable job like that.

But, that's past. Hopefully in a few years when I finish my doctorate I'll be able to find a stable and permanent job that I like and do well at. God willing.

_________________
"In the end, we decide if we're remembered for what happened to us or for what we did with it."
-- Randy K. Milholland

Avatar=WWI propaganda poster promoting victory gardens.

ruveyn
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Age: 88
Gender: Male
Posts: 31,502
Location: New Jersey

24 Jun 2010, 2:33 pm

anyone can be lazy

ProfessorX
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 8 Feb 2007
Age: 51
Gender: Male
Posts: 16,795

24 Jun 2010, 8:19 pm

I'll admit that there has been time where I've been lazy but, for the most part I tend to be a hard trustworthy worker by most accounts..Yes, I might not have acquied the computer occupation I was searching out for due to some troubles of a cognitive nature still, just glad to be able to carry out the tasks of my current occupation which shall we say, is menial in nature which is the straightforward reason I speak not of it..
Sincerely speaking there were opportunities which I had wished to venture into but, some people back then did not wish to give me a chance rather made me feel like was stupid literally!! Anyways, I try to keep my head up and remind myself that I'm still human despite not acquring similar success as my fellow peers and all..

elaraith
Tufted Titmouse

Joined: 23 Jun 2010
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 25
Location: Manitoba, Canada

24 Jun 2010, 10:10 pm

I am a hard worker, I make sure to get the job done. I love my job as a commercial electrician. I work better alone, but still manage to work well enough with others to not raise questions.

My first job I had, I still worked hard most of the time, but hated it. I was a bagger/cashier at a grocery store. Never had a smile on my face. I'm surprised I lasted as long as 14 months there.

SuperTrouper
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 1 Jun 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,117

24 Jun 2010, 11:23 pm

I personally know some people with diagnosed Asperger's who are incredibly lazy. It just depends on the person, just like everything else.

persian85033
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 1 Jul 2009
Age: 38
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,869
Location: Phoenix

25 Jun 2010, 12:53 pm

I also did pretty good as an intern/extern whichever one it is, in a doctor's office. It was an oncology and hematology office, and most of the patients were elderly people. I helped with administrative type work, and always had time to put charts away, and get charts out at the end of the day, something none of the other people managed to do. Some of the other employees insisted that they should fire someone else(she was rather odd, and made many mistakes), and hire me.

In my current job, I also catch any mistakes there might be in the system.

Radiofixr
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 30 May 2010
Age: 60
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,495
Location: PA

25 Jun 2010, 5:39 pm

My boss seems happy with my work but he always wanted to know why I do the things I do and he has never had to schedule me for vacation time because I never take vacations-he knows I am usually the last resort in solving a perplexing problem-though I am the last resort because of my "excentricities-like the premise of the movie "Uncle Buck"-they didnt want to have him watch the kids but they had no other choice and he was fine-thats the way it is where I work-if they could put me in a box and take me out when they need my problem solving talent and not have to treat me with the same respect they treat others in the company with-I think they would be happy-they treat other employees with more consideration on the job than they do me-I guess they feel that I am "damaged goods" and mentally insufficient that they figure I wont protest because I am lucky that they keep me employed.My boss made a mistake one time telling me" I don't think you be able to solve this problem" and guess what-it was solved and then it was like I was put back in my box so to speak and treated like an afterthought again.

Page 3 of 3 [ 47 posts ] Go to page Previous 1, 2, 3

Jump to:

Aspies are hard workers Post Reply New Topic

Aspies are hard workers