Are Aspies Unemployable - Who is working studying unemployed

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What is your Employment Status
1. Still Studying at School/Tech/University 29%  29%  [ 39 ]
2. Housewife or House-Husband 5%  5%  [ 6 ]
3. Employed Full Time 38%  38%  [ 51 ]
4. Employed Part Time or Casual 12%  12%  [ 16 ]
5. Unemployed Voluntarily - Not looking for a Job 16%  16%  [ 21 ]
Total votes : 133

Mudboy
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26 Feb 2008, 6:48 pm

I have a great job as an engineer. If only the other parts of my life were as nice as my job...


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viska
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26 Feb 2008, 10:22 pm

Employed full time for over a year as a computer programmer, miserable. Too much forced interaction. It seems like someone is dropping by my cube to ask me some stupid s**t 10-15 times a day and I can never get into the zone.



gbollard
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26 Feb 2008, 10:49 pm

Viska wrote:
It seems like someone is dropping by my cube to ask me some stupid sh** 10-15 times a day and I can never get into the zone.


I was getting that all the time too, so I talked to my boss about my productivity. Now I've got an office. :D



MysteryFan3
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26 Feb 2008, 11:45 pm

I'm voluntarily unemployed but looking for a job, so I don't have a category. I was a computer operator from late 1978 to mid-1980. Then I was a COBOL programmer from 1980-2003. Later, I ran a check sorter and reconciled check sorter runs at a bank. My last job was setting up electronic data transfer jobs at a health insurance company.

We are employable and enjoyable. Not to mention tasty. :twisted:


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Betzalel
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27 Feb 2008, 12:17 am

I'm self employed as a UNIX consultant. I work from home and SSH into customers systems to do my work.
I'm a bit of a jack of all trades. I figured if the guys in india can do it I can live in a rural area and sell myself for a reasonable price. seems to be working out nicely so far except that its a constant battle to stay motivated and
focused and on task. but So far God has done amazing things for me as far as getting customers despite me being socially clueless and no good at all at marketing. I'm listed in a few key places as a consultant and somehow people just find me. I have a few good customers that pay my bills and its been the best job ive ever had.

It's a big challenge though since I loathe paperwork and keeping the books balanced and everything caught up is really really hard. A lot of people think you are your own boss, but in reality you just trade one boss for many bosses.


Still being able to work from home is one of the best things that ever happened to me.



Corvillus
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27 Feb 2008, 4:20 am

Right now a web developer, also currently in school. I find myself working at home more than at work though, for the same reason as others specified before me...I get too distracted at work. (Although at home staying motivated is a bit of a pain as well)



marmotta
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27 Feb 2008, 4:26 am

I work full time as a postal clerk. I had been a carrier for almost ten years before 'going inside', and I am having one heck of a time adjusting. The carriers treated me well, but the clerks...treat me as bad as they treat the custodian that had a severe brain injury from a car accident.



ixochiyo_yohuallan
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27 Feb 2008, 6:43 am

I am doing a degree (English language and literature, "Genre poetics of William Golding's 'The double tongue'") and work as well.

I am not sure whether I would be considered to be working part time or full time, since I have several jobs, but none of them is a traditional nine-to-five one. I work as a translator (I'm employed at a translating agency, and I also take translations a friend sends to me on a regular basis, as well as accepting random requests), I teach students English privately, and I work four hours a day at a local call center. In effect, I usually spend a longer time working than people who work eight hours a day at a single job, though some could have trouble perceiving me as "seriously employed" or whatever.



Mudboy
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27 Feb 2008, 9:15 am

gbollard wrote:
Viska wrote:
It seems like someone is dropping by my cube to ask me some stupid sh** 10-15 times a day and I can never get into the zone.

I was getting that all the time too, so I talked to my boss about my productivity. Now I've got an office. :D
I just have my programmers wear noise canceling headphones. They can hook them up to a radio, CD player, or mp3 player. Just as long as they are not hogging bandwidth by streaming. Much cheaper than an office, and people have been told to leave them alone when they have the big headphones on.


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sartresue
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27 Feb 2008, 4:50 pm

Unemployed, not by choice topic

I have had eleven jobs in the past eleven months due not to Asperger's but because of dyspraxia. I have a physical disability which makes co-ordinating movement difficult. Employers are impatient and unsympathetic. Money is the bottom line. Due to my age I do not qualify for money for retraining. Due to my age I do not qualify for a senior's pension. I have applied for employment insurance benefits and for disability. As I age the dyspraxia is getting worse.

Having Asperger's makes a person creative, not unemployable.


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ignisfatuus
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27 Feb 2008, 11:31 pm

I would probably call BS on that statistic. I don't suppose they provided a source?

I would say it affects standard of living, however, i.e. chronic underachievement.



kit000003
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28 Feb 2008, 12:59 am

I am a student, working part time and loking for a co-op through the school for more money



juliekitty
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28 Feb 2008, 1:12 am

Space wrote:
AS alone will never make anyone unemployable, you just might suck at certain jobs. No big deal.


I'd certainly agree that's true for most of us.



gypsyRN
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29 Feb 2008, 3:15 am

That statistic sounds like BS to me. What is the source?

I can get some anxiety related to the interview process, and I don't fit into the whole "office gang" all that well, but that doesn't really bother me. I've had lots of "jobs," and have just waded into my new career, as I'm finishing my second degree. I've almost always held at least one job, even during college and nursing school. BUT I don't think I could ever work in a field where a lot of social networking is required...unemployable there.

PS--I work with behaviorally challenged Autistic children and adolescents.



gbollard
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02 Mar 2008, 3:56 pm

I never got the source, it was simply mentioned in a comment on my blog.

I want to be in a position to say that it's wrong - As far as I can tell, I already have enough here to feel confident in saying that.



ignisfatuus
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02 Mar 2008, 6:29 pm

The post of the person who supplied that statistic is amazingly articulate for her age (18, as she mentions later in her post). Take this, for example: "I mean, until you're 18, and perhaps even a little beyond, you are not treated as a responsible, worthy person with all due rights. Instead, you are made to feel inferior because "you're not the one who earns" - or at least that is what I felt."

I'm not saying that makes the case for the accuracy of the statistic more solid, but there are definitely some remarkable insights there.

*edit*

I was glancing over some Asperger info and stumbled over this quote by chance:

"The unemployment rate on the spectrum is somewhere around 90 percent, which is unacceptable." Jean-Paul Bovee, MAAP Services

Link: http://www.maapservices.org/Publication ... rticle.asp