Does anyone else do part-time work due to anxiety issues?

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This is aimed at people who have no children, and also have the choice to do either part-time or full-time.

Since I left school I've been in part-time education (college), then part-time work, which I am currently in now. But when I stop and look at other people my age, they are all working full-time, even if they still live at home and aren't struggling with money or anything. They seem to be able to cope with it. But the thought of full-time work panics me. I get overwhelmed in my part-time job, and I value the days off I have in the week. It gives me time to ''recharge''. But at the same time I feel like the only young, childless person in the whole world who won't cope with full-time work.

To make me feel a little better, does anyone else here only work part-time?

I have a very dynamic work schedule. I may work part,full and even double time. It's not so much the amount of time I work as it is the work environment that can dictate how long I can work more then anything. Sensory overload is a big issue with me and I need to take stim breaks in a dark and quiet room frequently.

BTW: I have no kids.

I work part-time, but it's not primarily due to anxiety, although I would certainly suffer anxiety if I had to work full-time hours. I feel anxious just thinking about it, but the real reason is because I physically and mentally can't endure that long at a job. When I have worked full-time in the past, I had a lot of back problems (to the point of getting so hobbled over I couldn't walk upright). And I can't interact with other people continuously for that long without nutting up.

Some people act really judgmental about it if I happen to mention that I only work part-time. They actually start questioning me about it and wanting to know why, and I have to politely evade the subject. I guess they think if you look young and healthy you should just work work work until you drop in exhaustion at the end of the day.

If I had a job where I didn't have to interact that much with other people, and didn't have to be on my feet very much, or do much bending and lifting, I might be able to work full-time. In the US it's actually not that easy to find a full-time hourly job anymore. Most companies, especially in retail, only want to part-time workers for hourly jobs. My current job is strictly part-time only. I wish I could figure out something else to do to earn more money.

I went the whole hog, and simply quit working (for money) completely. They wouldn't give me the option of working part time, which I'd have been interested in. I could theoretically get a different job part time but I don't know if one exists that wouldn't make me miserable. Stress was I think the biggest issue, and I'm glad to say that my anxiety levels have come down pretty well since I left. Last time I measured my blood pressure it was normal, whilst when I was working it was always at least high normal with occasional full-blown hypertension. Naturally I've "lost" a lot of salary that way, but I saved up enough to survive on until I get my pension. In that sense I'm glad I'm not young. Also I don't get stigmatised because I tell people I'm retired rather than voluntarily unemployed. I guess they think I must have done well for myself, being able to afford to quit early.

I think it's a great shame if there are still people out there who disapprove of anybody not wanting to do paid work full-time. I know there's a lot of animosity towards people who don't want to do paid work at all, but I thought that was mostly about unemployment benefits. I think they're wrong to disapprove, but I can just about see why they do. But I find it hard to believe that part-time workers would often get the same treatment. It shouldn't come up very often. People sometimes ask me "what do you do for a living?" but nobody ever asked me how many hours I worked.

It all seems rather strange to me, as my friends are mostly quite left-wing politically, so if somebody doesn't work, it's more a cause for congratulations, as if they'd escaped from a concentration camp, which is roughly how we tend to see the world of work. Most of the employed ones hate their jobs and although they may envy me, they don't show any signs of resenting me for it.

I hope you won't continue to feel guilty or anxious about being disliked for opting for part time. I'm sure it's not an appropriate response, and if anybody does get on your case about it and doesn't accept your reasons, I suspect you may be better off without them. Though I must confess, even after a whole year out of work, I still harbour a stupid feeling that I've ducked out of the challenge and taken the easy way out. But I was working full time for over 35 years, and the quitting was very abrupt, not tapered at all, so I expect I'll feel a little strange for some time yet.

As I was writing this thread I was starting to realise another thing that could possibly be related to AS and ADHD, and that is finding endurance hard. Most people have to endure their jobs, and they do get fed up too. But as an Aspie I find endurance really impossible, and I start feeling so bored because of being disinterested in what I'm there to do, that I feel like shutting down. Maybe it's that dysfunction disorder or whatever it's called what a lot of people with AS/ADHD have too. I just feel like the only young person who won't do full-time, or overtime. Or maybe I'm just lazy, which isn't good. But I doubt it is laziness, because I believe that if I was in a job that I enjoyed, I probably would be more enthusiastic and able to handle overtime or full-time work. But I don't really know exactly what I want to do.

I work full time, usually a lot of overtime everyday. The difference, though, my job requires very little social interaction. It also serves as a great distraction for the issues that I have outside work. I get burned out if overtime is a daily thing, or excessive.. but otherwise I get by fine.

Now having said that, 2 hours in a very social job is terrifying, hence why I don't work in such an industry.

I think that's correct. I don't know what it's officially called, but I know that when I was working, I found it very difficult to push myself into doing anything that I wasn't naturally interested in. The same is true in my life outside the workplace too. Sadly, fear is my main motivator for boring tasks.


I've heard that autistic people are often wrongly accused of laziness. But given how hard they typically work on their special interests, I can't believe they are lazy in the usual sense of the word. It's a great shame that interesting jobs are hard to find, though I think they exist. Might be worth listing the kind of tasks you enjoy, and see if they suggest the type of paid work you'd find more bearable.

I think 886's comment about social interaction is also important. I used to get pretty wound up about my work even when I was alone, but when people were around, chatting and distracting me, my stress levels rose, because it shattered my concentration, and the work (science) required painstaking attention to detail.

I don't do paid work at all currently but I did for a long time and certainly full-time is difficult for me. My last job I voluntarily reduced my hours to effectively three days a week because I was becoming more and more exhausted. It was in mental health and so was pretty demanding but just the whole notion of going somewhere for so many hours in a week and having to do a load of stuff is hugely unappealing I have to say. Unfortunately I couldn't manage financially so had to get a second job to replace the hours I'd dropped anyway. I think there were definitely some judgements made when I told people I was working part-time but nothing was said outright (of course) so maybe it was just me.

Social interaction with colleagues (if I get on well with them and they are nice people) doesn't cause me anxiety really. In fact I wouldn't mind being in a place where I'm working with other people, because it might take my mind off of being bored, where as working alone all I keep thinking about is the time and how bored I am, etc. Then when my break is over I delay getting back to work as much as I can, because I want to be with the other workers and chat. Even if I do feel shy, I still like to be in their company.
But working in a public environment, like a shop, is a different thing. That would cause me stress. I get really shy with people I don't know, and if I'm in a position where I've got to be authoritative, that makes me really anxious. I had experience working in retail before, and when I was put on the till I got into a bit of a stress. I felt responsible for the shop, while the manager and the other workers were all upstairs in the sorting room. I did tell the manager that I didn't like being on the till and that I'd rather be in the sorting room upstairs, but they wouldn't listen.

I would love to work in a kitchen, not cooking, but doing the washing-up. It's busy work (if the restaurant is popular enough), so it's something I can get my teeth into (not literally LOL), and I have my colleagues around me so I can feel more connected to them and won't feel too lonely, and washing up is therapeutic to me because I'm in one place and not rushing all around trying to remember different things at once, and I don't have the stress and pressure of dealing with the public. That sort of thing would suit someone like me. I know I might get stressed with it sometimes, or might feel fed up, but I still think I would feel happier doing something like that, especially if I'm working with generally nice people.

But with my issues, I sound like someone who is very choosey, and I'm often told that you can't be too choosey when looking for work. They do have a point, but for me to feel relaxed and be productive in a job, I need it just right. I suppose I can't tick all the boxes. It might be habit, though. I do have a habit of everything being too this and too that. Like when I'm with my friend looking for a film to buy, everything's either ''too romantic'' or ''too violent'' or ''too western-y'' or ''too fantasy'' or ''too complicated'', or it's ''not romantic enough'' or ''not violent enough'', etc etc. It might be due to my lack of attention perhaps. My friend thinks it's hilarious when I'm choosing something to buy, not in a nasty way. She's Aspie too, but is quite different from me. She's not choosey like I am, and she has special interests that will lead her to do something she wants to do. I don't particularly have special interests. I find it too hard to focus on special interests.