That sounds cool! Do you get to work outside a lot? I definitely agree, working freelance/self employed is definitely much more comfortable for me, too!
Want something simple, stress free and without early starts, maybe a cafe job or retail
I wish you all the best with that. Moving to a new location has got to be one of the most stressful events on top of seeking suitable employment you feel comfortable with---good luck.
I am a photocopier engineer, mostly working in schools. Always been in a IT repair/build job since I left school. Have never had a career , just bumbled along doing this. No I am 53 I have really had enough, I hate it, would love to retire. It is not just this job but any job really, it is all a massive struggle. However in 18 months we are relocating to a much cheaper area so will have no debts and mortgage and I will just need to work to pay for the basics. Want something simple, stress free and without early starts, maybe a cafe job or retail as have never worked in anything like that.
Like so many people here , I have struggled to find and stay in work. I was forced in to self employment by the job center but was paid less than the minimum wage. I have dyscalculia so it was a disaster trying to keep producing invoices. Now I am happy volunteering litter picking and had a nice day out today in the sun for once. Four bags of litter collected so am happy.
I had electro/mechanical skills allowing me to work on my own. After three redundancies I decided to get out as a hands on engineering fitter. This was/is a dieing sector when compared to the service sector. This was problematic for me lacking in face to face engagement skills necessary to deal with the public or B2B. After some considerable time pondering this I decided to buy a new franchise offering a simple tree stump grinding service to all economic sectors using a diesel powered self propelled tree stump grinder. This was solitary work as a "one man band" owner-operator enabling me to use my skills for any repairs or maintenance to the machine. My exposure to customers was minimal. After one initial four year franchised contract I provided this service over the following 20+ years on my own into my 70's. I had serviced a broad spectrum of customers ranging from HM at Sandringham to council estates. It had been quite an experience. I must emphasise I was always in a fortunate position as an employee to be productive working on my own as a fitter in various industries. Yes, there are always groupies in any organisation, but I didn't mind being the odd one out. My boss was the only one I needed to be concerned with,---and I rarely saw him. Now that I'm retired I busy myself in my shed rarely finding a need to venture out into town or for that matter anywhere else. I am considered the town's pariah but that's ok with me I have nothing to prove to enyone.
After being dismissed from every job I've ever had - from professional (STEM degree related) jobs to lesser ones - I've not worked for 4 years now. Maybe I'll never work again. Autistics are workplace punchbags (for everyone).
I write technical documentation for a medical device company. Basically I sit at a desk in my house and fill out complicated paperwork for 37 hours a week. I quite like it, especially now that I work from home and don't have to sit under fluorescent lights pretending to be normal all day!
i work at a delivery company that tried to model itself like amazons working conditions but became worse lol ranked the worst delivery company in the uk. i work in the warehouse depot sorting and scanning the parcels, open trailer doors all sides so its hell in winter as your basically working outside, and winter is longest hours as its peak time and so you can work anything up to 16 hours per shift, a day shift but yet it starts in the afternoon and carries on all through night into next day. rubbish supervisors that attack you all the time and dont recognise your their best worker and instead treat you like the worst and try and get all their clique supervisor friends to cause trouble for you, aweful place to work. im amazed i managed to stay there, every day i fight against my own urge to just quit or claim 3 months doctors note off with depression.
got the job in 2021 out of the blue when i was 31 with barely any jobs before it but there was no interview or cv judging so i got through by agency that didnt care about who they send for jobs so my lack of work didnt matter to this one, bad company with high staff turnover anyway which is why they take anyone without question, i part wanna hold it despite how bad it is as i dont feel i could ever get another job, it was a fluke i got this one, or it was because its bad and has high turnover that i got it. so ill hold on as long as i can despite really wanting to drop the job. i have a mortgage to pay first before i think of dropping it. and even without mortgage i doubt welfare can really allow me to pay my flats service charge and electric bill and food and so on anyway. although im on my final warning so i guess it doesnt even matter if i hold on and do my best and suffer through it as the supervisors will probably just fire me anyway at this rate lol
im concerned this company is taking over from both the post offices work, and amazon primes deliveries now.... its a really bad company and i dont feel it should be given all of the important jobs its being given. it simply cannot manage it, and it does so by over straining its abused staff.
They have also been quite successful in that a few of the volunteers now work part time elsewhere as well although I don’t know in every case whether this is paid or unpaid.
That’s great, the café has obviously given these people some brilliant opportunities.
A local woman makes the cakes. I say coffee and cake but if I have a normal order it tends to be green tea and a flapjack. Having said that I alternate between coffee and green tea so if I have two breaks I’ll have one of each. It also depends on the cakes - some go better with green tea and some go better with coffee.
The main problem the women who run the cafe normally have is giving everyone who wants a shift a shift. Quite often there are more volunteers (on duty or off duty) or family / carers in the cafe than customers.
They have also been quite successful in that a few of the volunteers now work part time elsewhere as well although I don’t know in every case whether this is paid or unpaid.
Most of the time but I have the freedom e.g. to take a break if it becomes too noisy or not to volunteer if it is too hot The cafe was actually started by two women who both have sons with Down’s Syndrome to provide work experience so a lot of the volunteers have various conditions of one sort or another - I think there are 5 or 6 volunteers with one form of autism or another. I mainly work front of house making sure everything is kept on top of - I tend to leave serving customers to some of the younger volunteers - and put tables etc away at the end of the day. I also only do half a day with one or two breaks for subsidised coffee and cake so what’s not to like.
At one point the cafe was doing a better job of supporting those of us who are autistic than our local autism hub but fortunately the local autism hub now has a new manager and things are looking up again on that front.
(The cafe’s also 5 minutes walk from my flat compared to 45 minutes on the bus to get to my autism hub.)
I am not employed yet, but I would like to get a job in the charity sector soon.
I would love to work for an autistic led charity and eventually become an advocate for my autistic community teaching as many people as possible about autistic experience and supporting newly identified members of our community to understand their profile. I really want to support my fellow neurokin.
I have just started about the importance of our autistic community for the autistic led organisation Neurodiverse Connection. I love it!
With the benefit of hindsight I might have been better going self-employed but paying someone to do the customer liaison side of things. These days it would be less of an issue because there are companies in e.g. London where if you have a valuable enough skill set / knowledge base the company will put a package of support staff round you to enable you to perform to your best.
