Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm interested to know how many of the working autistic population (on here at least) work full time. I changed to working part time 4 years ago, pre-diagnosis, because I kept burning out (normal in the job I was doing so didn't attribute it to autism until I was diagnosed and looked back). Now I'm looking at my career prospects post-diagnosis as in many ways I feel more confident in myself since I know I'm not just "lacking resilience" (anyone else had that thrown at them?).
I just don't know if considering working full time again is truly realistic. Interested to know what other people's experiences are.
I'm self-employed so I can choose what work I do and how often.
I've done everything from 6 days a week to 1 day a week. The 6 days was rare, 4-5 was common when I was younger and had the energy, but it eventually burnt me out. I think 3 days a week is best.
For various reasons, I currently work 2 days a week and I like it. An extra day would be nice but my energy and motivation would drain away pretty quickly.
This week I've worked 1 day probably for a total of 3 hours. I won't be back at work for another week. Bliss. But I charge a lot of money, so the minimal amount of work is just enough to get by, but only just.
What industry do you work in?
I'm an artist and tattooist.
Not always easy, but it does give me a lot of flexibility. I realised a long time ago that I didn't really want a regular job.
I did look for jobs a few years ago because I needed a change, but the job market was so confusing. It seemed to be lots of long hours and low pay, jobs requiring a ridiculous list of skills, simple jobs requiring previous experience etc. The largest issue for me was having to be a team player, and performance based work. Not for me, thank you.
I'd actually like to retrain, to be able to help people more, but I'm not really a people person