seeing a lot of autistic people lately

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Probably just because I'm far more aware of autism now, so I tend to notice it more when it's there. Sort of like how you may suddenly see things related to a tv show everywhere, but only after becoming a fan of it.

Several people at my workplace are autistic. A couple of the baggers are autistic, one very visibly so, and at least three other coworkers who are currently working there or used to are autistic as well. One of them has three autistic children, but recently told me that she is also on the spectrum. There's also my sister, who also works the front end with me, who is probably autistic and definitely some flavor of neurodivergent.

We are everywhere

It may be that management had decided that folks on the spectrum make good employees!
As folks on spectrum have difficulty finding jobs they get hired where you work!

When I was working I brought up the idea of hiring folks on the spectrum as we had a lot of work they could do.
But, my boss wasn't interested.

Well, the hiring manager did tell me I was autistic before I was diagnosed with it! (She has a psychology degree.) So I think that's likely. She's willing to give people a chance to prove themselves, and most of the official accommodations I have were already being done by her... was just a formality really. Heck, it even seems like she may be grooming me for a higher role eventually.

Wow! I actually had a manager in the past who kept saying that he didn't get how I think. He was areal expert at managing people and pushing/encouraging them further in whatever role they did. For months he kept saying he didn't get me. He was pleased with me, but he wanted to understand me.
Then one day he was excited and approached me and told me I was on the autism spectrum. I didn't know anything about autism in those days so I told him I wasn't, but he gave me a brief analysis based on what he had learned.
Haha! I still don't know if I am on the spectrum yet as I am over half way into the assessment process and I dare not ask if they think I am or not! Though I expect I am.
Actually, I have always felt in a catagory of my own, where I don't fit into one catagory or another, so I would be surprized to be catagorized into a group. I am (If I am going by my experiences) half expecting to be told that there is no catagory they can put me in! But time will tell!
They said they will be able to finish the assessment before Christmas or there abouts. Is strange as to be honest, I have been waiting years... Am kinda used to being left out. Even feel it sometimes on this site. So have expecting to be told "Yes. You have this and this, and are entitled to this (The gentleman asked why I was getting no PIP help and I told him that the benefits office where I had been had me apply but the PIP people assessed me and rejected me)... But I am sort of expecting to get the help and then have the system withdrawn or something like that, as that has been my lifes experiences.
On the one hand I don't think I need help as Mum and I are a team where I help her and she helps me (She doesn't drive), but if I was on my own, I very much I know I need help in certain ways. Form filling and in other things. Is not that I lack intelligence as I am intelligent enough. The assessment people even told me that! (I didn't expect them to tell me that. Wonder what they picked up on?) I did mention when I was a child that I prevented myself from being sent to a special school which I didn't want to go to because it was a few miles into the big town which I didn't want to go without my parents, so I worked out where every question was leading and replied accordingly... Something I didn't do with this assessment other than to give an overload of details. I guess I had been waiting so long and was so nurvous I just wanted to do it without analizing it as I do it? (Unusual for me!)
Soo... I am waiting for them to send me write-ups so I can check what they have put is accurate, and then send them it back, and then they will tell me the results. (Scary!)
They did say the length of the assessment varies from individual to individual, and for me so far it seems quick (The process for me to do seems quick... Was expecting other things from what others had said... Things I had been dreading because at the moment and since the last burnout/breakdown I dont think I could do mental intelligence exams! So I am glad they didn't think they needed to do it. Am wondering if it is because of my age or do they already have me sussed out?)
I do not know what the results will be!
Half excited and half scared to find out! Am nurvous!

Sorry. Need to keep to the topic!

The jobs I have done in the past all involved either one special interest or the other apart from one which lasted around 8 months and one which lasted a few weeks. (But the fee weeks one was a day a week and I was paid a "Pocket money" salary which covered expenses as was for a charity. I was greatful... Though I did it because my Mum worked for the charity. I would not have done it normally as I was stressed).
But the jobs I did... Especially the trade I was in and out of for the most years. This job I was once asked by a worker who did the same thing as me from another similar store if I was autistic as he was diagnosed as being on the spectrum, and he said that those who preferred doing the behind the scenes role that we did (Which if I had a choice I would stay in the behind the scenes role)... That over 80% who did that job were on the spectrum.

It is wonderful to find a job with a manager that "gets autism."
Most don't. If it pays well enough to "get by" you should stay there.
As well as take advantage of any job training or advancement offered.

Glad to hear you are finally getting your assessment. I think you have been waiting since before I joined WP in 2019. Oddly, no one has ever asked me directly if I was autistic. But several have indicated they think I am in indirect way. I would guess they think I would take offense. My brother came the closest to directly discussing it but did it in a confrontational way. My mother, my brother and I were together, and he say he had seen Rain Man and actually said "you're like Rain Man". I had not seen Rain Man at that time and didn't think the character would be relatable to me. I did know I as Asperger's at that time, have self diagnosed long before that. My mother was dismissive of the idea and I am thinking "wow, he can really see similarities to Rain Man". I felt attacked by the comment and did say anything in response. Oddly all three of us are possibility level 1 autistic, my mother and I likely and my brother maybe just autistic-ish. I have said that his mannerisms reminds me of Jerry Seinfeld and our sister said she sees that too. Seinfeld has said he thinks he might be autistic and I that was after I saw to similarity. I think what I am seeing is they both have an autistic like affect.

Baader Meinhoff, but also because it's retail. Those jobs have lower barriers to entry and a lot of both repetitive activity and disruption to your social life.

Yes. I joined this site after I found myself on a waiting list to be assessed. A few months later I had the biggest burnout/breakdown I had ever had. Prior to the last few burnout/breakdowns, I was more able so if I knew of the dangers of pushing oneself too hard in the past, I would probably have avoided them and be a lot better off.
But actually I am greatful because I can advise others, because I honestly did not know until others warned me while I was going through the last experience so I was able to realize that it was mental... Though that experience hit me so hard it was obvious by then that it was mental. Physically I was soo drained... Past burnouts/breakdowns I felt physically as it just didn't occur to me that they were mental.
Actually 45 years of shutdowns and it was only after joining this site that I realized they were mental events. I just didn't put two and two together! I first noticed them when I was around the tail end of the age of six, or seven. Since that age I have tried and tried and tried to explain to both fwmily and doctors and no one was sympathetic or knew what they were until after I joined this site and someone gave me a link describing them. Since then I have not only discovered what they are, but their triggers and have even found an amazing youtube clip showing what I see/experience while having a shutdown.

It's called, "Confirmation Bias".  Look it up.

*Frequency Illusion

I had a dream of seeing lots of autistic people after reading this thread last night. I've been seeing a lot of autistic people lately as well.