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Hi!

As an Aspie, I feel I would like a back-room technical job working from home with no interuptions and no customer contact.

But I'm not sure that would realy be good for me. There is a danger that I would turn in on myself and miss out on many of the experiences that make life worth living.

As Stevie Nicks sings, you get what you want but it's not what you need.

What does everyone think?

I have what is essentially a back-room engineering job, in that most of my work is actual engineering, and very little customer hand-holding.

The other engineers are only too glad to meet with customers and try to take credit for my work. This always backfires on them when the customer eventually finds out that I am the only one who really understands what has been engineered.

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Last edited by nat4200 on 19 Apr 2012, 5:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

I've done tech support...all the stories are true. I kind of liked it.
I wish I could do forensic accounting, which is figuring out how the accounting got screwed up and where it all belongs. Somebody else can keep it from getting screwed up again. That would be cool, but I'd hate to have to do the marketing part of the business.

Or, I get to make soap and somebody else actually gets to help make it and sell it. I like coming up with the formulas.

I have been complaining for years: "I wish I could find a job where I don't have to talk to people." I don't know that I would be missing out on anything in life if I could find that (other than all the stress that comes from dealing with people).

Pretty much every job I've had, has been in retail, sales, or food service, always working with customers or working with the public in some way. I've definitely learned a lot from it so maybe I did "need" it in some ways but I'm really tired of it. I like what I do now for the most part but I just get tired of having to talk to people. I'm really burned out. I have days when I feel like I have to just force myself to do it. It takes a lot out of me.

One time I had a job that involved sales and lab work. I enjoyed the lab work and I was really good at it, but they kept pushing me back out to the salesfloor. I tried to get hired somewhere else doing the lab work and again, they only wanted me to do sales. I think there is a bias against women doing technical work, especially if you look a certain way, they think you should be out there selling product not hiding in a backroom.

Another job involved mostly administrative work, and I was alone in an office a lot of the time, but again they were always pushing me to come out and work on the salesfloor. That, and the politics of the place (too much gossip) finally ran me off.

So from these little tastes I've had of doing work alone, having less contact with people, I know what it could be like. I know I am going to turn in on myself regardless of the kind of work I do, and I just turn in on myself even more when I am burned out from dealing with too many people. Considering all the "social" work experience I've had, while it has taught me some interesting things about how to deal with people, it has also NOT brought me any friends or any great experiences I might have missed out on otherwise. To the contrary, it has gotten me in some really bad situations I did not know how to handle, subjected me to the abuse of supervisors and co-workers who did not understand me, worn down my self esteem and in general has made me a nervous wreck.

If you can find work where you have little contact with people, and you enjoy it and it is a good fit for you, do it! Why not? If I could find that, I'd go for it.

Do you feel lonely or isolated?

My current job involves both back room work and front line support. Sometimes I really resent the interruptions. But on the other hand, the customers are generally grateful that I can help them, and that is good, prompt feedback that boost my self-worth straight away. My backroom work won't yield any results for a few months yet, and I sometimes I get a paranoid feeling that no one cares about it.

The work that suits me best feels useless while the work I like the least feels useful.

I have a friend who does computer programming from home. His wife is worried about him.
When he had to travel or go into the office, he was more outgoing generally and she found him much more pleasant at home.
I don't know how he feels about it because he never talks about his feelings.

That's important...how his wife feels about it vs. how he feels himself.

I know when I am putting on my "public" personality, other people feel better being around me because I'm being pleasant and being more accomodating to them. But that doesn't mean I feel good about it. Sometimes I just feel miserable about it, and they have no idea how I feel.

I think most people, and I guess I mean NTs here, project their own feelings on to the other person, so if someone is being pleasant to them and they feel good being around that person, they think that person is happy and feels good too. It doesn't occur to them how much work it can be, to be pleasant. Vice versa if I am rude to someone, and they feel bad, they assume I am acting that way because I feel bad or because something is wrong.