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yellowtamarin
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09 Apr 2018, 7:06 am

For those who can work, but only part-time: What is the reason(s) that you struggle to or are unable to sustain a full-time job?

I think it might be the case for me that I just can't work full-time without suffering, but I'm struggling to pinpoint the reason why. Thought I'd throw the broad question out there and see if any responses resonate.



fluffysaurus
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09 Apr 2018, 7:24 am

I can do the whole 'normal' thing but it takes masses of effort and concentration. Too many hours and I'm left like a zombie. I am doing 16 at the moment in a busy environment but interaction is within barriers, I am serving in a shop. My coworkers are friendly but they get on with their work so it is going well. When I've done jobs with more hours (most of my past) that's all I did. I worked 25-35 hours and had no life because I can't deal with people outside of work on top of that. It was work, recover, work, recover, over and over.

I can't get less sociable jobs, people take one look at me and immediately decide that I would be happiest in an office with lots of other women to chat too :evil:

I do work on my writing on top of my 16 hour job and that's where my hopes are.



Kiriae
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09 Apr 2018, 11:26 am

If I socialize longer than 7 hours I get tired and I am prone to sensory overload/shutdowns for another 2 days.
Also - it would be difficult to see doctors or go shopping if I were working 8h a day 5 days a week. The doctors office/shop open hours are teh same as most full time jobs are. I can't comprehend how people can deal with it.
I also can't cook and the dinner cafeterias are only open during the hours I would work - therefore I wouldn't have a chance to eat dinners.
And I need some alone time for resting/cleaning (I hate cleaning when I am not home alone because I am afraid of doing something wrong and I hate it when someone walks on wet floor and such) and my flatmate works full time - our schedules would overlap and I would have no alone time.
I also struggle waking up at "proper" hour. I managed to set my waking up hours at a bout 8:30AM but I still can't imagine myself waking up at 6AM in order to get to jobplace at 7:30 - my evening schedule is one thing I struggle changing, I cant fall asleep before midnight even if I am tired and I fall asleep easily if I go to sleep at 1AM.
If I wake up early I am prone to sensory overload and meltdowns all day long.

I would probably able to work full time if it was 10-18 in a room without many coworkers. But the jobplaces here only accept schedules as: 7:30-15:30, 8-16, 9-17 and shifts 6-14, 14-22, 22-6. I given my wake up and fall asleep hours I could probably work 14-22 if they let me (they rarely let you choose your shift, most of the time you take them one after one) but my flatmate has the shift all the time so I want to be at home at least 20-22, so there is no bathroom fight. I could probably manage 9-17 too, but they are mostly not the type of jobs I am good for.



Sweetleaf
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09 Apr 2018, 7:13 pm

fluffysaurus wrote:
I can do the whole 'normal' thing but it takes masses of effort and concentration. Too many hours and I'm left like a zombie. I am doing 16 at the moment in a busy environment but interaction is within barriers, I am serving in a shop. My coworkers are friendly but they get on with their work so it is going well. When I've done jobs with more hours (most of my past) that's all I did. I worked 25-35 hours and had no life because I can't deal with people outside of work on top of that. It was work, recover, work, recover, over and over.

I can't get less sociable jobs, people take one look at me and immediately decide that I would be happiest in an office with lots of other women to chat too :evil:

I do work on my writing on top of my 16 hour job and that's where my hopes are.


Have you tried letting them know that its not what you'd be happiest with? Or just applying for jobs that are less social.


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WAautisticguy
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09 Apr 2018, 10:39 pm

Because I'm in college. In fact I'm taking a nighttime math class just in case I end up getting a part-time DAYTIME job. If I went back to full-time college in the daytime, I wouldn't be able to substitute anywhere (not that I'm able to find school district jobs anyways...) nor any other daytime-only jobs. I'd be stuck with minimum wage fast-food or grocery on night or weekend shifts.
Having a YMCA summer camp reject me yesterday absolutely sucked. Would have been 6 weeks at $1,700 in pay. What's that now...reject #19? #20? God I can't remember...$#@&!



fluffysaurus
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10 Apr 2018, 2:09 am

Sweetleaf wrote:
fluffysaurus wrote:
I can do the whole 'normal' thing but it takes masses of effort and concentration. Too many hours and I'm left like a zombie. I am doing 16 at the moment in a busy environment but interaction is within barriers, I am serving in a shop. My coworkers are friendly but they get on with their work so it is going well. When I've done jobs with more hours (most of my past) that's all I did. I worked 25-35 hours and had no life because I can't deal with people outside of work on top of that. It was work, recover, work, recover, over and over.

I can't get less sociable jobs, people take one look at me and immediately decide that I would be happiest in an office with lots of other women to chat too :evil:

I do work on my writing on top of my 16 hour job and that's where my hopes are.


Have you tried letting them know that its not what you'd be happiest with? Or just applying for jobs that are less social.
In this area either you make yourself fit the job or they get someone who will and they have plenty of choice. I never got responses to less sociable jobs. People have very set ideas on who they think will fit a position and a lot of faith in their abilities to judge others. My problem is I don't look like someone who would be happiest spending 95% of their time on their own. And God knows, nobody listens to me :(

I'm doing ok in the job I'm in now though, my future is in my ability to make a living from my writing.



Fireblossom
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10 Apr 2018, 7:49 am

I can work full time, but only when the job isn't too physical. I can handle more physical work too, but that has to be part time. The reason for this is my disability that I was born with; it has left my body quite fragile and affected my stamina and strenght. I'm stronger now than I was when I started to look for my first job, but I couldn't pass for an average, physically healthy person even if my life depended on it.



kraftiekortie
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10 Apr 2018, 9:54 am

If it was a retail-type job, I'd probably have trouble working full-time. But if I had to pay the bills, I'd just suffer through it.

Fortunately, I work at a full-time job with little socialization requirements. I let my typing do the talking, so to speak.

I work a part-time job at a library, where I have to interact with customers. I just sort of wing it. I make a few faux pas---but nothing major, so far!



RandomFox
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10 Apr 2018, 2:40 pm

I work 25hrs/week in a busy pharmacy (but mostly in the dispensary so customer contact is limited and I can use a kind of a mental script whenever I have to give advice) and honestly I could not survive working 8hrs a day there every day of the week. Two days in the week I work 9-6 with 1hr break and when I come home I'm totally drained from interaction with my team mates and phone queries. Luckily I don't work on a Wednesday so I can recover after a super-intense Tuesday and organize my life a bit, do some chores, cook a nice meal.

Some days, when I'm already drained mentally and need to brave a long day at work, I just can't leave home without my beta-blockers. Without them I start feeling panicky at the bus stop and can't stop stimming (in a very hidden way, I just do all sorts of movements with my toes that nobody can see, but I used to balance on my heels and hum a lot in the past). These meds are life-savers to me (luckily something works for me!) and kind of "numb" my body, so I don't turn into a shaky, stimming, nervous, stuttering mess.

I could maybe add a little 7hrs Saturday job in a charity shop (sorting through stock) or something like that to my working hours when my daughter's older or ideally help out in a library.

I worked full-time in the past as a graphic designer in a team of 2 and my co-worker was quiet and focused. I guess if I could just work on my own, doing something in silence without being interrupted I'd manage full time hours just fine. My little dream is to become a gemmologist one day but I can't afford paying for a course at the moment so that will have to wait.



dragonsanddemons
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10 Apr 2018, 3:38 pm

Presently, it's because I can't get hired full time. I've had a very hard time getting hired even part time - it took me about seven months of trying for any job I could find that I could perform each time. But I suspect that if I did get hired full time, I'd find that I really don't have the mental stamina to work full days - I just can't focus on one thing for so long and retain information about it. Too much stress or strain, and my mental functioning goes downhill very quickly. The cleaning work I do, I could possibly do full time, since it doesn't require much thinking or social interaction (I didn't have trouble on my six-hour shifts I had once a week at my last cleaning job, although I did get a fifteen-minute break every hour and a half to two hours).


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MrsPeel
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11 Apr 2018, 6:55 am

I'm working full-time, but it's a technical job without much demand for social interaction. My bosses are a thousand kilometres away and the work suits me, it's pretty much my ideal job.

It knocks my life out of balance, though, because after work I have no energy left for anything else. I'm actually feeling really bad right now, that my kids don't get much of my attention, and my house is so messy and neglected, I feel like I've completely failed as a mother :(

No way would I give up the job, though, it's feels like a big part of my identity, it defines who I am. Not sure if one is allowed to say this, but I never got that feeling from motherhood, I didn't connect with the role. So I feel horribly guilty for being a terrible mother, but I don't want to change, which I suppose makes me even worse.

Sorry for diverging from the original question, I was feeling a bit down about this issue tonight and needed to let it out.