Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
I am currently looking for a job, before I intend to start university next year. The thing is, I have not been able to hold a job for more than 6 months and they have all been pretty disastrous. I am highly capable of completing tasks within the job, however I have endured a lot of bullying and I am terrified to go back into employment. I have only recently been diagnosed with autism, and haven’t had a job since then. I want to approach professionals on LinkedIn to perhaps get some work experience in the field I am wanting to go into, but I feel embarrassed in case I get overwhelmed and leave on bad terms. Does anyone have any advice? I have also heard people on here talk about an employment support worker, could anyone give me information on this?
thank you
NAS88738 said: I am highly capable of completing tasks within the job, however I have endured a lot of bullying and I am terrified to go back into employment.
It looks like the bullying is the key issue for you but on the bright side, bullying is something the majority of employers will be able to do something about.
When you get a job then include your autism diagnosis when completing the employee info form that you do in your first day. Since it does not affect your ability to work then my approach would be to ask your boss and HR to give you an option to let them know if you are experiencing the beginnings of bullying as it is something that is anxiety triggering for you.
You need to keep this all in written form for you can keep a paper trail in case the bullying does happen - don't run away from it but remind your boss (and copy HR) that this is something you asked about due to your disability and you need them to take action to stop it.
Because it is typically easy to deal with for them, and they know that having your disability registered and now a paper trail of you notifying them about it happening then if they don't act then you can sue them for it - it typically focusses their response.
If you cannot bring yourself to ask for the "reasonable adjustments" for this then I would recommend speaking to a therapist and work on this - they can probably help you script responses and roleplay situations to get you out of that fear of standing up for yourself.
Once you have passed the probabtion period at work then you can join a union and they are typically good at helping with these things.
That would be my approach.
Thank you so much! This is really helpful information to have to help me move forward.