Work, AS/HFA, and Envirement or modifications?

Post Reply New Topic

For those who work, how does AS/HFA and the job envirement come together?

Lol...badly.

So badly that I'm seriously considering looking into disability.

I take it that your job is not accomadating?

Perhaps talking about it might help me understand?

I just don't tell - people know I'm wierd, of course, and if they knew about HFA/AS they could probably put it together (I actually think one of my supervisors has) - I mean I have to constantly do something with my hands or my brain cuts off, I don't really talk to people unless I have to, and I wear colored glasses for a 'visual perceptual problem' . . . really, can I be any more obvious?

I have to work - I have no real family and I would go crazy at home, so I choose just to hide it . . .

I spent 7 months on my current job. I had poor performance
until 2 weeks ago when my employer decided to talk about AS/HFA.
We have much work to get through, but through considerations on
both parties I am being given tasks that make my job more stronger.
I cannot say this apllies to all employers, but at least consider it.

I have a excellent intelligence and I am not able to show a real income
for it. I have hidden it, and end result is I grow stronger within but
I am always one foot housed and one foot dishoused because of AS/HFA
social and communication deficits.
I hide no longer realizing genuine communication can do improvements,
but no always miracles, and at least that is a good start.

I've been extraordinarily lucky. After more than a decade of easy-come-easy-go employment, I eventually found a place where my job tasks are closely aligned with my perseverative interest and where the environment is reasonably safe for non-NT people. Many of my coworkers are eccentric (although few as much as I am). Some of my coworkers affectionately refer to me as "Mr. Wizard". I've been happier in the last 5 years than at any other time in my life.

What kind of job did you have? I would be stereotypical by saying IT,
or computer related.

I work in a deli/bakery of a small town grocery store. In a way, it's about as ideal a job as I am going to get within the store. I can go into the back room and do dishes or bread chicken for an hour or two at a time. However, the multitasking involved make it absolute HELL for me. There have been times when I've had panic/anxiety attacks ona daily or more basis, and then I can hardly function, and there is so much time pressure in this job!! ! <eeeeek!> I can handle the customers because there is a tall glass case as a barrier between them and myself. Occasionally one of them steps into the bakery and I sort of flip out internally. My coworkers have learned <b>not</b> to touch me, and that I need a wide "bubble" of space around me.

It could definitely be worse.

On the other hand, I feel so lost....none of my coworkers are intellectual. On their breaks, they read the daily shockers with ten headed alien babies and which star is screwing whom, and they talk about the next party or who's dating whom, and who got pregnant, etc etc. <b>BORING</B>! !! I have enough intelligence to be doing far more than I am, and I'm an artist, but the only creative thing I get to do here is to decorate a cake once or twice a week. I look forward to those cakes all week long....and then when I make one, I have to constantly stop in the middle of things to wait on customers or pick up someone else's half of the job that they started and then just left! They boss me around, even the employees who have less seniority than I do, mainly because I don't know how to assert myself without going overboard, and I'm tired of being reprimanded for going overboard, so now I just tune them out and ignore them.

I think what bothers me the most lately is that my hip joints, after five kids, years of heavy manual labor and low nutrition, are shot. They burn and hurt for hours at a time, and I cannot go home even if I am limping around. A buzzer goes off and they want me to trot right over there and pull the basket up out of the fryer, even though they're only a few steps away from it. Other employees call in sick and are caught partying the same day...and don't get fired...but if I'm in a lot of pain, I just have to stay there. There's a lot of lifting of 40 pound boxes and objects. Heavy lifting *kills* my hips, but I have to do it anyway. I don't want to keep abusing my body until I can hardly walk at all. It doesn't pay enough to be worth it.

I’ve had quite a bit of employment trouble. The longest time I have remained employed is eighteen months. In that job, I was somewhat protected. I was a close friend with my primary co-worker and the other employees were hippies. It would have been difficult to be terminated from that position without doing something crazy or destructive. The owner of the business passed away three months after hiring me, but the business remained in operation until it sold. The owner and I were already in disupute and I certainly would have been fired, or left the job voluntarily if the owner had remained among the living.

Over the years I’ve tried many different things, never becoming proficient at anything, or earning a living wage. I do not last long at jobs where there are too many employees. Three or four other people are more than enough for me to handle. The character of my co-workers is also very important. Judgmental, strict, and abusive types cause me undue stress that leads rapidly to overload. Therefore, I prefer to work with individuals of a more mellow temperament.

Sometimes it works rather well (when I'm left alone to work on a computer).

Other times, it is a living nightmare, like having to go to another country for a day (missing all routines that calm me down).

Some periods, I think I won't be able to keep it up, sometimes it works.

My job is good and bad for an aspie. It's good because:

- There are a lot of routine tasks
- Each day is mostly the same
- Depending on the shift, you may not have anyone around to bug you, and you might even have the building to yourself
- It's very detail-oriented
- All the HBO and Cinemax you want!!

But it's bad too, since:

- Some of those routine tasks have to be done at the same time (especially bad at the top and bottom of the hour)
- It's a very teamy environment, and you tend to hear it if you're not an equal member
- We do have lots of tension in short-notice situations
- Not a lot of brainpower involved, aside from keeping details straight

But I've done it for just about 3 years now, so it can't be all that bad.