Employment

Thank you very much appreciated!

That's a good goal to work towards. Good luck, I really hope you get to do this.

Taltunes said:

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

Very accommodating!

The cafe sounds like a great place to work, you have obviously met lots of other neurodivergent/autistic people there.

Taltunes said:

I also only do half a day with one or two breaks for subsidised coffee and cake so what’s not to like.

Exactly! Seems like it works well for you! What’s your favourite cake from the café?

Taltunes said:

but fortunately the local autism hub now has a new manager and things are looking up again on that front.

That’s great! I suppose you can meet lots of other autistic people at the hub, seems like a nice community atmosphere.

I've never worked properly but I did help out in a library before when I was 18-19, helping to find books and then sort them and keep them organised. I enjoyed it but my MH got too bad for me to continue in the end.

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.)

Do you enjoy your work in the café?

Allie🖤 said:

I ended up starting my own small business. I crochet and create various clothing and art pieces:)

Very cool! I understand why self employment works well for you as you have much more control over everything.

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!

https://ndconnection.co.uk/

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.

I've had various jobs in the past (waitress, bartender, retail worker, etc). But I’m never able to keep them for very long, I’d always get burnt-out so fast and physically couldn’t do it. 
I ended up starting my own small business. I crochet and create various clothing and art pieces:) It definitely feels better working at my own pace. 

I used to work as an actuary and had enough after 6 years (or should that be 6 months?) Soldiered on for about another 8 years before effectively retiring early, not entirely voluntarily, age 37.

I work in logistics. Used to be a teacher, but had enough after 20+ years.

I volunteer in a local community cafe one day a week but it’s been a while since I had paid employment.