Just been fired - next steps?

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Good advice all around.

My parents are saying that I shouldn't file for unemployment because it could hurt the reference with my former employer. Does anyone have experience with this? I was terminated with cause, so I may well be ineligible anyway. I'm thinking it could make me look like something of an ass to apply when there were such obvious reasons to fire me.

My parents are also saying that it's best to keep my disability hidden as I search for a new job because no one wants to make accommodations, regardless of the law. I'm inclined to agree. As I think about it, this job may have had more social requirements than most jobs. I just don't know. Does it help to disclose it up front? My parents are saying it's best to avoid the label.

The disclosure thing also comes into play because I'm wondering if I should use it as an argument for unemployment eligibility if I file. "Misconduct" involves knowingly breaking a rule, but though I was told to arrive at a certain time in the morning, I thought "flex hours" meant I could arrive late if I worked late a previous night (which I did in this case). Is that a strong enough case? I was thinking of calling a lawyer, but I don't have money to fight this right now. I think my parents may have been right about looking for a job first.

Been down that road many times. "Why aren't you smiling?" "You never became one with the team" "Are you feeling ok? You look sad."



Definitly. I'd put THAT on my resume.


Lastly, i'm surprised that it was even possible to write data to a specific database which cause a server crash.

Risk assessment? Penetration testing? Hello?

I would generally go with this.

And, as far as whether or not to disclose during an interview and how much to disclose, how about light touching and under-disclosing, such as, 'And I'm pretty much of a nerd. I mean, I can really get into a topic. But then, can't we all.'

Thanks, guys. That helps a lot.

But yeah, having access to a live production database is something I thought wasn't possible either. I had it open because I needed to use it when the content management system they wrote in-house didn't function properly.

This was my experience more or less.

My opinion is that they had just cause to fire you and it could cause more trouble and stress to you by challenging it. If they are writing to you about lateness and you directly go against that, then it comes across that you are not committed to their job (even if you area). At first it sounded like it was the only incident and normally there are some formal warnings. If you haven't had a warning then it is a bit harsh and there may be a legal challenge. If you didn't understand the situation because of aspergers there could potentially be a challenge. I don't have any legal knowledge just some experience of the workplace.
It can be hard to fire someone following all the regulations, my husband has said at work they try and look for other methods for the person to leave amicably.
Yes you could be expected to work outside your area. The best thing is to ask for help- it is better to get help and do it right. I know of someone who made a mistake in labwork and was stuck in the middle of the night and the manager would rather they had phoned than got it wrong and put the patient at risk. They are now facing competency issues as it is the 2nd incident. Their Mum had just died but they insisted on being at work. If they had phoned someone or asked for allowances then the employer could have helped them.

I would move on and learn from it. It could be that this has snowballed as you needed adjustments in the workplace. You don't have to disclose when applying for jobs. If you can get a job without disclosing then do, and you can then disclose on getting the offer and the disability stuff kicks in offering reasonable adjustments in the workplace. I am disclosing as my AS affects interviews, although get on very well in the workplace. I have got very close to a job a few times e.g. second choice. There are ways of disclosing - you tell them what they need to know succinctly e.g. I need an adjustment for X as I have Y (or leave out that you have aspergers) and stress your positive attributes, don't apologise for it, reassure them that you are very valuable in the workplace but just need one or two minor adjustments which come under the disability act. I am getting advice from a specialist aspergers/autism employment centre and ask them advice on what to do/how to disclose. They are encouraging me to disclose.

My husband (IT industry) interviewed someone recently and because of me suspected he had aspergers. He didn't disclose it and the other person got the job. Some of his skills were stronger but there were some doubts on the communication side and my husband couldn't give him the benefit of the doubt as he didn't disclose. He may not have even known he had AS though.

On a positive note. I always remember when I was temping after university being paid about £5-6ph. Another temp got fired for going on the Internet and not working. He left at lunchtime on Friday and came back with a job for £8-9ph.

If you get help on what to say about reasons for leaving I am sure you will be fine. You are not the only person it has happened to. If you have any good references it may help. I went off work with work stress and then my job disappeared. I made sure that there was someone who could give me a good reference as my previous boss was a workplace bully and not sure what my reference will be like after 2 years in post and doing well up to that point.

They were probably bad people to work for anyway. If they were supportive, you probably wouldn't be in this situation. Some places wouldn't care when you arrived as long as you did your full hours and got the job done well.

Yeah, I was still learning, and the situation had been building for a while, but I didn't know what to say. I was waiting on my therapist to give me literature to share with HR, but I forgot to remind him as he had asked me to do. I think you're right about the discrimination thing. There was a written request to be at work by 10:30, but because the company had flex hours I thought that since I worked late on Friday it wouldn't be an issue. But I was mistaken about what flex hours were. I don't know if that's enough to make a discrimination case. I definitely know to make arrival time a priority in the future.

It was a very extroverted workplace in general, and my superiors were pretty, er, masculine. Not the most supportive type. Yet because they were hands-off it gave me room to take initiative on my own, which I appreciated until it caused me to mess up. In retrospect I should have reached out for help before undertaking the procedure I did, but I didn't feel I was in a place to ask either. My boss left before I did that night, and he even said good night, so I had no reason to think my job was still on the rocks (though clearly that letter was still in effect).

A former coworker of mine is offering me a place to stay while I find a new job, and he's in a part of the country I'm more interested in living in anyway. Probably better to disclose after getting the job in the U.S., given the prejudice that can come with it, unless the interview appears to be going south otherwise, as you said. I did find a flyer on Asperger's that will help if I need to tell HR in the future.

Oh, and thanks for sharing your experience. Definitely a good reference point to have, thanks.

The thing I was expected to learn, by the way, was Javascript. I'm familiar with coding languages in general, but it takes me a while to get "fluent" in a language, and I'm not very good at learning from textbooks. From their perspective I wasn't trying hard enough, and honestly I wasn't trying as hard as I could have, but there was a long way from where I was to the level they were expecting me to perform at, and the timeframe they were giving me to learn (three months) seemed unreasonably short. I don't know.

I found a site called codecademy that lets me learn by doing, which will help going forward. It had been online for a couple months before I lost my job—wish I had found it earlier, but oh well.

How are you doing now?

(Sort of the same thing happened to me today. I'm feeling pretty f****d up at the moment.)

Thanks for checking in!

I've been having trouble getting up in the mornings still. I had some good opportunities come through, and I hope my afternoon tendencies haven't hurt them. I was supposed to meet someone at a company this week for freelance opportunities. I already have one freelance client for an e-commerce site that needs a redesign. I also have a phone interview for a job in Austin that doesn't require coding (a friend of mine offered me his place there).

Freelancing seems cool because I can set my own hours and avoid too much social contact - but I might need a lot more clients to break even on expenses.

However this shakes out, I'm just going to try to take the lessons I learned from my last job and do the neurotypical thing. Wish me luck!