Rant about work from the perspective of a 49/yr old Autistic

Page 1 of 1 [ 5 posts ] 

GaiaGoddess
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

Joined: 22 Jul 2022
Age: 51
Gender: Female
Posts: 8
Location: Minnesota

25 Jul 2022, 9:10 pm

My biggest issue in life has always been work. Literally everything about it. Let me attempt to explain...

:skull: Most of your day is spent getting ready for work, driving to work, working, driving home, recovering from work

:skull: Most of your week you're dealing with work, very little time left over to do basic things like chores, appointments, errands, etc. let alone spending quality time with people, out in nature, or relaxing.

:skull: Most of your year is taken up by work, with most jobs making you work for a year or more in order to get any substantial PTO. Most of my jobs either gave no PTO or you'd get one day after a year of work, sometimes 5 days after a year of work, it just wasn't worth it.

:skull: Most of your life is taken up by work, from age 16/17/18, until age 65 (or probably in the 70's since they keep pushing retirement age further out!) So your only real free time is when you're a kid (but you still have school), and when you retire (when your health is failing so badly you can't enjoy your free time anyway)

:skull: Not only does work take up the vast majority of your days, weeks, and years, but chances are you're going to have to deal with toxic co-workers and bosses, overly stimulating environments, and stressful customers. So most of your life, basically, you are suffering and stressed out.

:skull: If you are lucky enough to find a job you can tolerate, it's still not guaranteed (2 of the only jobs I could tolerate either laid me off or fired me)

:skull: You're devoting most of your life to helping make some rich person richer while you barely scrape by, one paycheck away from homelessness. So you're stressed out AT work then you're also living with the stress of possibly losing everything you worked so hard for.

:skull: Job interviews. You're basically forced to put on an act and judged on your performance like your life depends on it (because technically, it does)

8O

I just can't.

I've had about 14 jobs in my life in various fields doing various things. I'm convinced there is no job that is fit for me, especially when I'm burnt out from decades of struggling, stress, anxiety, depression, sleep problems, panic attacks, and masking to fit in with a world not built for a neurodivergent person.

There's probably no advice that could help me (believe me, I've tried!) so I guess this was just a rant, maybe somebody else can relate! I heard today that 85% of Autistic people are unemployed and I totally understand why.



stratozyck
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

Joined: 28 Jun 2022
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 366
Location: US

26 Jul 2022, 9:38 am

My experience has been opposite.

Prior to Covid, yes I spent way too much time commuting.

But after Covid, I am now permanent WFH.

When you cut out the commute and can do something else during the call in meetings, the time left you actually spend on work is like 2-3 hours a day. I have a backlog of things waiting for management approval so if I continue to work, the backlog will just grow. A lot of times I just sit and play games for most of the day.

The trick is to find a job that is in demand but there is not much supply. We have people who are awful at their jobs but they will never be fired because they have a hard time finding anyone.



GaiaGoddess
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

Joined: 22 Jul 2022
Age: 51
Gender: Female
Posts: 8
Location: Minnesota

26 Jul 2022, 4:39 pm

stratozyck wrote:
When you cut out the commute and can do something else during the call in meetings, the time left you actually spend on work is like 2-3 hours a day. I have a backlog of things waiting for management approval so if I continue to work, the backlog will just grow. A lot of times I just sit and play games for most of the day.


Yeah working from home would be better, and that's why I started my own online business. It just isn't paying the bills. I have been trying to find a work from home job this entire time and still haven't found anything right for me. It either involves numbers, talking on the phone, or customer service.

Quote:
The trick is to find a job that is in demand but there is not much supply. We have people who are awful at their jobs but they will never be fired because they have a hard time finding anyone.


That's another criteria to add to my already-long list...and I wouldn't even know how to go about searching for a job like that, I mean you can't just type in "high demand low supply", lol



shortfatbalduglyman
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 4 Mar 2017
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,709

26 Jul 2022, 9:54 pm

stratozyck wrote:
My experience has been opposite.

Prior to Covid, yes I spent way too much time commuting.

But after Covid, I am now permanent WFH.

When you cut out the commute and can do something else during the call in meetings, the time left you actually spend on work is like 2-3 hours a day. I have a backlog of things waiting for management approval so if I continue to work, the backlog will just grow. A lot of times I just sit and play games for most of the day.

The trick is to find a job that is in demand but there is not much supply. We have people who are awful at their jobs but they will never be fired because they have a hard time finding anyone.



____________


What kind of jobs are in demand but not much supply?

Especially jobs suited for autistics.

Usually companies tell me that:

Not good enough at accounting or computers

Too many jobs had the nerve to make my worthless corpse redundant

Not enough experience

unsuitable personality (only one job told me that, but it was also in writing)

Usually they say something ambiguous like, you were good but another applicant appeared more competent



DoniiMann
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 2 Sep 2010
Age: 56
Gender: Male
Posts: 477
Location: Tasmania

01 Aug 2022, 6:11 pm

It comes down to two main types of jobs.

Survival Jobs: Do whatever you can get to put food on the table. Always at the mercy of the boss. Not much control of the direction things go.

Career: You self-impose limits on your job choices in order to focus on an area that you wish to develop your skills in. In this way you increase your value to some employers and increase your security.

Still got two decades until you can retire? Do some aptitude tests. Find your career interests. Take a careerist approach. It might not improve your job situation or it might. But you have to do the time anyway. Don't drift any more.


_________________
assumption makes an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'mption'.