Job Requirement: Don't be Autistic!

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Thank you for this good advice, but unfortunately, as I don't drive and have to rely on public transportation and my own two feet to get to work, I am only able to work normal day hours.

Also, my computer skills and and other experience lend themselves to office work, and those jobs tend to state those types of requirements

Bicycle?

I'm afraid to ride my bicycle on roads where there are cars.

This is also a good idea, and I COULD probably find a bike I can afford, but there aren't many safe bike routes around here and it's against a city ordinance to ride on the sidewalk (I checked). I have visual and spacial processing issues that make driving even a bike on the street unsafe. Also, I live in a low income neighborhood with lots of drug use, and would probably be unsafe biking or walking during those times when buses don't run.

Oy. I'm starting to get that feeling I get just before whoever is trying to help snaps at me to stop making up excuses lol

EDIT: I should add that when I was about 7, my mom hit a teen who was biking next to traffic. He apparently swerved in front her, which I believe. Mom was driving alone when it happened. His head went through her windshield. I saw the damage his helmet did, and she told me how it happened. The boy lived, but he got lucky. I've been scared to ride a bike on the road ever since.

Last edited by AmethystRose on 26 Aug 2014, 10:39 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Yeah stop making excuses! You could fly or teleport to work!
I'm not going to snap at you.

LoL thanks.

The notion that you do not have to like the people you work with just have the ability act professionally towered them has wrongly gone out of fashion. Damm Baby boomers now in high management (and psychology) . The generation that produced Woodstock in general is very group and fake touchy-feely oriented.

I also wonder if in the near future some employers might make being neurotypical a Bona Fide Job Qualification. I will explain.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act generally prohibits discrimination in jobs but there are a few exceptions, BFOQ Bona Fide Occupational Qualification. For example, an old lady can ask for another lady to take care of her personal hygiene because there are personal activities where she would not want a man there. A director can ask that an actress play a female role. Or for example, the NASA can ask for astronauts to be a certain height because they have to fit in the spacecraft. In something like this, things that might be considered discrimination can occur but there must be a good explanation that can hold up in court.

I think for some jobs like for example air traffic control, the employer could ask for a candidate be neurotypical and not have an ASD, citing safety reasons for doing so. But I don't think the teamwork stuff the employers want can be a BFOQ but they sure want us to think it is.

I'm starting to look at those kinds of requirements like "we don't really know what to write here, so we write some standard, generic stuff to full it up". Luckily, in my business there isn't too job ads like these. But they do exist, unfortunately.

Kinda agree. I'm not good with communicating on the fly. But when I have time to prepare and write what I want to say I can communicate quite well... I think

I laugh at those job descriptions because just look at the NT's with horrible verbal and written communication skills. Maybe don't be so hard on yourself?

~cringe~ That'll leave an impression on you, I'd be worried, too.
A few months ago, I was pulling out of a parking space, which I first had to back up for, and a kid was riding down the sidewalk slowly (without a helmet), and then sped up and rode into the street behind my car. Of course, I use my mirrors anyway, and my new car has a proximity alarm on top of that, so there wasn't a chance of me hitting him, but, I was startled... then mad.
No matter that he'd gone behind me on purpose, someone will blame a grown woman in a car for that accident over a kid on a bike and my son and I would've had to deal with the trauma of helping an injured kid.

Anyway, I digress. Best of luck, I know the transportation thing can be a big hindrance. I was really fortunate when I was in college that a metro train line was opened near my apartment. I was able to walk to the train station and go to school to the east and work to the west across the river.
When my husband and I retire, we want to move to a pedestrian friendly area with good public transport so we don't have to worry about driving.

I've found most of what is in a job description to be highly inaccurate anyways. It's just some HR chaff that gets thrown up there.

You're right on the money there...although I really wish they could. The more these people are "friend-building", the less work they're doing, and then folks like us have to pick up the slack for them. I'm doing that at my job all the time and it's really unfair.

That's so true. I've had occasions where I thought I shouldn't bother going to an interview because there were things in the job description I wasn't happy about. I went anyway and found that that the job wasn't going to be so bad and those things weren't important. Even the job I actually got said I must be fully experience in Sage Line 50. I'm not but I have used Sage Accounts production. I explained that SAP was the software I was used to but I have looked at Sage Line 50. As this is now out of date software I asked if they were still using it or if they were now using the newer version called Sage 50 Accounts. They confirmed they were using the newer version and I think my question impressed them since I got the job. My point is don't worry if you can't do all the job criteria, it doesn't always matter

Read my post, it's hard, but there are jobs for us out there. I got lucky/ or it was a miracle depending on your views...I work in a body shop and sometimes it is a fast paced environment, but you don't feel like it's fast paced. Basically I prep the repaired areas on the car for painting after it comes over from the body shop. It's really detail oriented and I love it. I don't have to deal with customers and am pretty much left alone to do my thing, no managers or supervisors riding my back all day or dealing with customers while trying to get a car done. It really does not feel like work... It's a great job for me personally, but it is labor intensive, not much physically but you do have to plan out your prep work.

It is not impossible for us to get jobs, you just need to know where to look.

I have two jobs actually. My primary job is doing the grunt work around a flower nursery. Luckily for me, the owner goes to my church so my parents knew him before hand. I wasn't given the job, I still had to apply, but I was one of the lucky one to get one of the job openings. It was a bit hard for me to adjust and adapt to a working environment at first, but I eventually got the hang of it. For the most part I really don't interact with customers since I mainly worked in the area that customers aren't allowed. Sometimes they may have a question while I'm working and I'll answer it to the best of my ability with a degree of comfort. I've never been put on the register. That I don't think I could handle.

My second job is actually selling on ebay. I would buy things to resell and make great profits on small investments. The best part about it is there is only one person working at this job, me. Granted it takes a lot more work than people may realize, but it has put roughly an extra $1800-$2000 extra dollars in my savings. The only times I have to interact with people are if they ask a question which is online and doesn't require direct communication, when I'm buying inventory at my sources, or when I have to call ebay CS because of a problem, which doesn't happen to often but it does every once in a while.

So my point is that you just need to know where to look, know what kind of position would be best suited, and look for the right working environment. So maybe something like a stocking position or something like that. I hope I've been able to help in some way.