Most likely losing my job soon. Applying for SSDI.

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My evaluation for Aspergers is coming up soon. I also have the sinking feeling I will be fired from my job, for the same reason I always get fired/hours cut: I can never do anything quickly enough.
If this is the case, I give up. I can't keep a job, so I'll be applying for SSDI. Not sure if people who can drive are eligible for it, but here's hoping...

I know the feeling. I just got into this weird setup with a boss at work, and I seriously have no idea how or why, but I'm being fired. Again.

Oh well, I've got other options lined up.

OP, my buddy Richard is on SSI, they let him drive, work part time, everything. You should be fine.

You can not only drive (I can't imagine why that would ever be considered a factor in SSDI - there are cars with DISABLED license plates and mirror hangars everywhere), you can work part-time and make up to around 70% of your monthly benefit amount. That's providing you can find a job that you can do without constant anxiety attacks and without getting fired after 90 days (at least that's my obstacle).

The problems you might run into are:

having enough work history to establish what the SS folks consider a legitimate disability, in that your AS actually demonstrably keeps you from being able to MAINTAIN gainful employment over the course of your adult life (say, having been fired from literally dozens of jobs), and/or that AS severely limits the number and types of jobs you can do, or adversely affects your physical or mental health when you do work,

and:

that you have managed to remain in the work force long enough to have established a monetary base for your claim. It is considered a type of insurance, and unless you're disabled from childhood, you are expected to have been paying into the system all your adult life. Your monthly benefit amount is based on an average (adjusted for Cost-of-Living) approximating the income level that you generally maintained when you were able to work.

I know, those two things sort of create a Catch-22 of their own, but that's the way bureaucratic systems bungle...


In any case, you'll want to go through an attorney who specializes in Social Security red tape. He or She may tell you that you're chances will be considerably better when you're older. As long as you can GET a job, whether you can keep it very long is kind of beside the point - UNTIL you reach the point in life where your very AGE makes it even more unlikely that a person with your disability can get hired in the first place, then Uncle Sam is willing to show a little more compassion. But a lot depends on the statements from your Mental Health professionals and what's already been established in your case file. I recommend reading up on the Executive (dys)Function issues connected with AS. When it comes time for you to fill out statements on why and how AS keeps you from being able to OBTAIN or MAINTAIN gainful employment, you'll be better equipped to explain why your Autism is such a lifelong challenge.

The low-level jobs, they tend to treat you worse than the high-level jobs, you've probably observed that. Plus, about 30% of bosses tend to be jackasses, across the board, whether the job is high, low, in the middle, and whatever the field.

If I might make a suggestion, Sales! Just like Al Davis of the Raiders was famous for the saying "Just Win, Baby." When I worked for The Mattress Place* (boutique storefronts, not real name) it was a situation of "Just Sell, Baby" and you were allowed to have you own personality and be your own person. The down side, if you go through a dry patch, which can happen to the best sales people, just a luck of the draw aspect, then you can be blamed for specific reasons to you, inappropriately in my view.

But just imagine if you get a reality-oriented boss in a situation where quality matters, and going fast is not the most important thing, imagine that!

There aren't that many jobs for anyone, Aspie or Nonaspie, which brings us to social justice aspects. We as a society should have more good jobs, and we should have genuine safety nets for people without good jobs. We should ponder what 9% unemployment really means, and what constitutes a good job, and why does a modern economy seem to have such a maddeningly difficult time creating such jobs?