Is the modern professional world intolerant of Aspergers?

Page 1 of 1 [ 9 posts ] 

lucious
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse

User avatar

Joined: 9 May 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 44

17 Mar 2014, 7:21 am

I have worked at approximately 20 jobs over the period of several years. Have never been in a job longer than 4 weeks.

At every job, the major reason for my seeming inability to be a productive, model employee was always the other people around me. I always seemed to rub someone the wrong way, upset someone, annoy someone, not doing something to someone elses satisfaction etc. Another thing that others always seemed to notice was "being slow". As in, getting work done far too slowly. I was never fast enough for anyones liking, along with other deprecatory remarks like 'dumb' 'incompetent' 'nightmare to work with' 'unreliable' etc.

Can someone help me fill in the blank here? Maybe someone else has been in my position. I am wondering what it is specific to Aspergers which always seems to rub someone else the wrong way in a work/social environment. Is there something about autism which makes one appear "dumb", or perhaps inattentive, or makes one slow to perform tasks, incompetent etc which 'perfectionists' or the typical, excessively fastidious worker will draw attention to and complain about?



DukeJanTheGrey
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 15 Mar 2014
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 489
Location: Yorkshire

17 Mar 2014, 9:09 am

Intolerance of aspergers is tolerated by society and i do not see that changing any time soon. Look at all the media coverage and education when it comes to black and gay rights and then sadly look at how prevalent racism and homophobia still are in a society that is supposed to be tolerant of blacks and homosexuals. We will never have a high profile campaign asking for awareness and fairness in society, we wont ever have our own little Malcolm X or Peter Thatchall fighting our corner (yes we have people standing up for us but they know there voice does not travel far). People will treat us like turds and get away it for the rest of our lives, we just have to deal with it.



Venger
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,519

17 Mar 2014, 9:19 am

For some reason at many jobs you're supposed to pretend to be keeping busy even if there's no immediate work that needs doing. That's one phony aspect of employment that NTs would obviously be better at.



NotThatClever13
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 26 Feb 2014
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Posts: 201
Location: Daydream

17 Mar 2014, 11:25 am

Venger wrote:
For some reason at many jobs you're supposed to pretend to be keeping busy even if there's no immediate work that needs doing. That's one phony aspect of employment that NTs would obviously be better at.


This! I am absolutely terrible at looking busy not matter how hard I try. I need instructions to follow. Once given those It becomes obvious what to do. Instructions are really important in a new place because I don't know what all the rules are yet. Am I allowed to touch this or move that? etc. I don't understand the need to look busy anyway. It's wholly unproductive and meaningless. It's like running on a treadmill. You do a lot of running but you never get anywhere.


_________________
A FireWire connector in a USB world.


Dantac
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Jan 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,672
Location: Florida

17 Mar 2014, 12:26 pm

lucious wrote:
I have worked at approximately 20 jobs over the period of several years. Have never been in a job longer than 4 weeks.

At every job, the major reason for my seeming inability to be a productive, model employee was always the other people around me. I always seemed to rub someone the wrong way, upset someone, annoy someone, not doing something to someone elses satisfaction etc. Another thing that others always seemed to notice was "being slow". As in, getting work done far too slowly. I was never fast enough for anyones liking, along with other deprecatory remarks like 'dumb' 'incompetent' 'nightmare to work with' 'unreliable' etc.

Can someone help me fill in the blank here? Maybe someone else has been in my position. I am wondering what it is specific to Aspergers which always seems to rub someone else the wrong way in a work/social environment. Is there something about autism which makes one appear "dumb", or perhaps inattentive, or makes one slow to perform tasks, incompetent etc which 'perfectionists' or the typical, excessively fastidious worker will draw attention to and complain about?


It may be helpful to you to ask directly the reasons why your are being let go/dismissed from work. If you are unable to hold a job for more than 4 weeks at a time then there will be a pattern to it.

The 'slow' in the job... I have to ask: is it related to multi-tasking? As in, you have multiple duties and you're in the middle of doing one when you're interrupted and forced to take care of another one (repeat this all day) and in the end most do not get done... or is it literally that you take longer to do one task than others around you for any X or Y reason?



Sweetleaf
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Jan 2011
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Posts: 35,155
Location: Somewhere in Colorado

17 Mar 2014, 12:41 pm

Main problems seem to come down to I am slow at getting work done and awkward around people...at the college work study job i had they also felt I wasn't enthusiastic enough didn't have enough energy/personality or whatever. Also if i start getting overwhelmed its harder to function and I might start making all kinds of mistakes just out of not being able to focus. But yeah i certianly need to know what needs to be done because things wont nessisarily occur to me and I have a bad short term memory so following verbal instructions is hard. I have ran into 'why aren't you doing anything there is this and that to do' with things that were just supposed to occur to me without being told. There are other issues like not being able to handle normal job stress, I'd end up missing days due to my co-morbid disorders giving me hell, ect....so as of now I am on SSI but maybe eventually I might find something I can do.


_________________
Metal never dies. \m/


alwaysnow
Blue Jay
Blue Jay

User avatar

Joined: 29 Dec 2013
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 90

17 Mar 2014, 1:05 pm

Venger wrote:
For some reason at many jobs you're supposed to pretend to be keeping busy even if there's no immediate work that needs doing. That's one phony aspect of employment that NTs would obviously be better at.


That's one very important aspect to consider when trying to find the right job. I am currently lucky enough to have a job where there's ALWAYS clear-cut work to do, and this has been radically different for me than the few jobs I've tried in the past where there was much downtime which just resulted in me standing around feeling like an idiot not knowing what I'd do. I suspect the same would be true for most others on the spectrum.



AardvarkGoodSwimmer
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Apr 2009
Age: 62
Gender: Male
Posts: 7,665
Location: Houston, Texas

17 Mar 2014, 3:22 pm

One thing, maybe think in terms of temporary jobs say like working at H&R Block (typically only five weeks, sometimes more) so when the season's over, you can book it as a victory. (*and please experiment with different ways of sincerely broaching the negatives of the bank and loan products.)

And then, NTs can be mistaken, too. There really is a trait, and I don't want to call it a neurotypical trait, I think it's more of a human trait, of looking for "the other," the person we can blame, the scapegoat.

And for those of us on the spectrum, I really think in many ways there is an inverse relationship between quote "easy" jobs and "hard" jobs.



ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 67
Gender: Male
Posts: 38,084
Location: Long Island, New York

18 Mar 2014, 1:37 am

I would say more that Autistic traits not Autism itself is what employers do not like. As the OP has noticed "don't think just do", "Get it done yesterday" and figure out what we really want not what we said is what employers want.


_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity.

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman