German news article on jobs placement for Aspies

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http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... 66,00.html

A guy with a Ph.D. in particle physics ends up driving a cab. Sounds like he has Asperger's alright.

Well, he could not find anything in his field because Denmark is a small country. But you are describing a scenario that hits close to home. Part of this is the wrong approach towards Aspies by government agencies. At the last meeting of the RI Chapter of the AANE there were people from ORS (Office of Rehabilitation Services) that came down to talk to us. http://www.ors.ri.gov

The organizations they work with that offer social services to the disability community are all non-profit agencies that tend to be slanted towards providing services for people who are mentally ret*d or have lower-functioning Kanners Autism. We broke into small groups and talked with a spokesperson from ORS and I told her that what I needed in terms of employment was specific targeted networking with employment agencies who had to right connections in my field. Her answer was that working with regular employment agencies such as Manpower was not their policy.

There was one incident of someone that used to be in my group who had graduated from Worcester Polytech in Massachusetts with a Bachelor's degree in Engineering and came to ORS for help in trying to get an entry-level position in engineering. After he went through all the red-tape that you go through with a government agency to get assistance, they stuck him in a sheltered workshop stuffing envelopes. Now the people in ORS didn't stick him in a sheltered workshop to be mean, it was simply the system and the bureaucracy.

Yes I am sure that for a lot of people a residental day program or a sheltered workshop is a suitable alternative but someone with a Bachelor's degree in engineering? Give me a break. There was another Aspie by the name of Gordon who attended the chapter meeting and he simply walked out shortly after the meeting started.

If you want to do it right you have to start from the grass roots level with other Aspies who have made it and simply cut out the red tape.

Funny article.

I myself lost my job due to personality in December.

I was unlawfully dismissed in 2010 when diagnosed with aspergers syndrome and dyspraxia ! Infuriated me as I scored highest ever exam result with this company and I made the particular brand of dealership number one in England out of then 243 dealerships in "CSI" customer service rankings. I think because I lip read my customers felt I gave them full attention. I upset my poor non disalbed colleagues by doing well, had the most thank you cards from customers, of which got burnt by my colleagues as a "joke" ffs ! ! I didn't find it funny !

Stick around long enough and you will find that almost everyone on the spectrum who is old enough has had some really bad experience in the workplace, often involving a humiliating termination. NT co-workers will actually rub it into the face of the fired Aspie and make it very clear they are glad that he or she is gone. Ever since autism became a cause célèbre, there has been an effort to help the kids who were diagnosed from 1990s onwards. Now that these kids have grown up, there is a push to help them get jobs and stay employed. For those of us who missed the bandwagon by being born too early, I guess it is our fault for crawling out too soon.