Slowness, Work and Autism

Post Reply New Topic

At my first real job at a grocery store the manager told me to sweep the whole store. It was a big place and I had only 15 minutes left on my shift. I realized that he didn't mean a thorough sweeping but a quick run over. I still did too much, I pushed the broom under the counters to get junk out. It took me a while to just go over.

When I worked at McDonald's briefly I was a terrible hamburger maker. I tried to make each one a masterpiece. I was told to just slap it together. That was hard.

At a job at a retail store the manager showed me how to put a sensor on the clothes. I had a bunch of briefs to do and she had said how it was important not to damage them. I carefully put the pin in the seam then placed then locked the tag onto the pin. The manager came along and told me I was too slow. I couldn't be careful and fast and decided since fast was more important to her I went on not caring if I damaged the item.

Later at another store we'd take clothes out of the box, hang them on a rail and pull the plastic off. I always thoroughly pulled it off and rolled it neatly into a ball. When the ball got too big I'd put it in the plastic bag and start another ball. A manager told me to stop balling it. I'd gather hold the plastic in a clump then put the clump in the bag. I was still slow and often people commented on my slowness. I answered that I didn't know why I was slow I just was. Other people would zip through but miss some of the plastic, which could be messy. I never left a mess.

I have never had too big a problem with being a little slower at work.

Deleted repeat post

Deleted repeat post

Are you sure you don't have sluggish cognitive tempo? Or inattentive ADHD?

I used to feel tired all the time and that anything I did would take a lot of energy.

I have had this problem to some extent. Here are some of my strategies. I tell myself that my preference for perfection is not what I am paid to do. I am not Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel. Instead, I am hired to be a painter to put a coat of paint on the ceiling. When dealing with other people, it is important to find a balance between extremes. Unfortunately, keeping a job often requires making the supervisors happy. If I think of my job as exclusively keeping the supervisors happy, I will maximize my ability to keep my job. One problem with this is figuring out what the supervisors want. I tend to avoid asking for feedback from them. I tend to avoid blowing my own horn. These tendencies are counterproductive to keeping my job. I can usually offer suggestions to the boss, but their job is to decide what is the best strategy for the company. My job is to make my boss satisfied that I am effectively following his strategy for the company.

I know how you feel. You take pride in your work. When your boss says to design a web site, you do as I would tend to do- make the best web site you are capable of. Instead, think of yourself as running a slalom race. You see the Gold medalist racer knocking down the flags, but his skis make the required route around the base of them. The ski racer's job is to do the required task as quickly as possible while missing none of the flags. He is not judged by his gracefulness, but instead by his speed. Other sports are judged for gracefulness. If you think of speed as the goal, you can still take pride in your work. Just be sure not to cut too many corners or you will be disqualified and lose the race. Sorry for the metaphors.

Just copy what the other workers do--that is what you are paid to do. No more and no less. Save your creativity and desire to do the best you can when you get home.

I have been told I needed to speed up so I like to pretend I am in a game show. I try to do things as fast as I can. Then I get told I am going too fast.

I hate it when I go slow so I try and speed up and concentrate on my work and not get distracted by my thoughts. The faster I work, the sooner I get done and the sooner I can leave but because the bus comes at a certain time I don't see the point in speeding if it means I would have to wait 25 minutes for the bus because getting off sure isn't going to make me go home any faster unless I can catch the 7:49 bus or the 7:16 bus. So I just work slower. I speed up and slow down at work. But getting done at 7:20 won't make me get home any faster nor getting done at 8:00 because of the bus schedule. I'd be standing outside waiting for the bus.

I mostly work at home as a caretaker for my mother, but when I work outside the home, I am usually too slow too. I have a limited amount of energy due to my medications (which I am non-functional without so I cant just not take them). I have learned to take calulated short cuts when needed. I do this by deciding is there an easier and more effient way to do this without effecting quality. A guy with a 3rd grade education once told me, "work smarter, not harder."
He has juvenile diabetes and has limited energy as well. That was probably the smarted thing I ever heard about the subject of work efficientcy.

However, if aspies ran the country and corperations, there would not be a major quality control problem that there is in the US.