Yet Another Suitable Job Question!

Ha Ha - yep spotted it after maybe 5 seconds.
Maybe I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't have the two images to compare, but then it has been a long day!

GPK26 said:

We’re at that age where we can be just tossed aside with little hope. My dad was in a similar position around this age. He was made redundant and really struggled to find a job.

Oh yes, ageism is alive and well in the worlplace unfortunately but if you can leverage your experience then consultancy could be an option.

Business Analysis is a very portable skill so I would consider building on it. Starting with the PMI-PBA certification should be straightforward for you and there are a number of others that are relevant:

https://www.datacamp.com/blog/best-business-analyst-certifications

You have a lot of development experience too so consider being the business interface to dev teams - look for roles around this and you may be able to contract doing this for a long time yet - doing shorter term contracts (6-12 months) is good for having a break between them plus the money is quite good and you are always learning new things.

I realise you say you have difficulties in picking up new skills but where did all your current skills come from? You are more than capable and I suspect just need the drive to do it.

I would recommend learning about mindfulness to help you filter out some of the annoyances of the roles and keep a balanced approach to prevent burnout. I found it helps tremendously.

That would be my thoughts if you want to keep using your existing skillset.

As for your interests, photography is not really making people much money any more but you could always develop an interest in video work - learn about professional webcam setup and find a Onlyfans office to provide onsite support.or similar. That really is a big business at the moment (don't ask how I know)

I'm sorry I don't know what to suggest. I have found myself in a very similar situation. Having been long term sick I was in a position where I would have been forced to go through occupational health again. Reading the crystal ball, I felt that this could only result in one outcome: eventual dismissal on health grounds. Possibly I might have been better off financially if I had submitted to that process, but felt that my mental health would have suffered further through stress in the months it would have taken to get there. So, I chucked it in to spare myself. I was in the fortunate position of having a smallish pension to help myself keep my head above water for a while.

I also hate grammatical/syntactic/orthographic/typographic errors. I try not to get distracted, but I can't help it! A little while ago, I bought an album, the cover of which had a (to me) glaring typographic error. I had to edit the JPEG and replace the embedded picture in the digital files, so that I wasn't offended every time I listened. I guess that many people wouldn't spot the problem. You can see the original here: 'round midnight

Good luck!

I have to agree with your argument. All the reading I did before about autism and work had me feeling confident that I would get support but no its been used as an excuse to get rid of me.

I am so angry and also so sad that this situation has arisen due to intolerance and assumptions by NT's.

Yeah, it really sucks!

We’re at that age where we can be just tossed aside with little hope. My dad was in a similar position around this age. He was made redundant and really struggled to find a job.

It’s hard enough for neurotypical people to cope with. It’s even more difficult for us divergents.

When I think about the decades of dedicated hard slog that I did only for the fat cats to get fatter, I wish that I’d done something on my own. Be your own boss and reap the rewards of your hard labour. I fear that it’s probably too late for that now, especially when I take internet health conditions into consideration.

I get you and your position big time. I am / have been forced out of my job of over 30 years due to the fact that I asked my manager for some reasonable adjustments. I am faced with finding a job (or redeployed) into a role that I know nothing about and it terrifies me. I have little imaginative thoughts to think what role I can take on at 55 ish. I was in a pretty niche career and am angry that it is over but also realise that the environment was toxic to my health. My union is unwilling to go down tribunal route. I think I have a strong case of discrimination but am panicking that my union's dithering is going to get me time barred.

I just feel so broken and lost.

Thanks Mark (formerly Spikey). I will take a look into that. Not sure what sort of demand there is out there, what rates of pay are like, or if it WFH.
Having a "job" that I can do as much or as little to suit my energy levels would be great, but would that be practical in terms of paying the bills, making ends meet, etc. 
Maybe I could start doing Only Fans, but then I guess that there wouldn't be much demand for a 50 something bloke with grey hair & beard! Maybe they could pay me NOT to have an OF stream! 

Thanks TheCatWoman.
I took a lot of sick leave at my last place, and that was even when they were being so supportive and I was working reduced hours. I was "persuaded" to leave in March and they did provide a settlement agreement which took a bit of pressure off of finding a new job (not a significant amount, though). I then had more than 4 months "off" before I landed my new job.

The problem is that it looks like I'm going to be stuck with the fatigue for the foreseeable future, if not forever.  I can categorically say that many of my conditions were caused or exasperated by the COVID vaccine. I dont want to go "off topic", so will save the details for another thread.

Anyway, back on topic. Whilst it was "nice" (not the correct word) to have time off which afforded me the opportunity to recharge my batteries, it didn't feel "right" to me. I have always had a string work ethic and being out of work & not earning felt so alien and wrong to me.

I don't begrudge my previous employer for dropping me. I completely understand why they had little other option. I would call in sick one day and my boss wouldn't know whether I'd be off for that one day, several days, one week, one month. He didn't know if I'd end up in the "136 suite" or in a regular hospital. They simply could not continue to operate in that way and that was part of the reason why they decided to out source (read send offshore) my role.

Thanks Iain - I always enjoy watching Homes Under The Hammer and would quite fancy that, but I'm not very good with my hands. Plus being a perfectionist, I imagine that jobs would take far too long to complete and I'd never be satisfied with the end result.

I have (or have had) a few hobbies that could potentially turn into work, but then the enjoyment of the hobby would be diminished. For example, I used to be really into photography (semi-professional), but spent way too much time editing images for it to be a viable full time job. I had a friend who was in similar situation and went for it, becoming a full time pro photographer (weddings, portraits, commercial shoots) but the rewards were very small compared to the effort. I had a run in with a professional photographer several years ago and that just killed my enthusiasm for photography full stop!

I'm not sure that I've got what it takes to get back into IT after a long career which included 21 years with a global IT company where I did well until the company was bought out and I got laid off. As I mentioned in my OP, a lot of companies are now turning to the likes of India/Asia for their IT needs - something that happened at my last place. Learning and keeping up with IT developments takes a lot of energy and I really don't have that any more.

One of my health consultants suggested that I try yoga - I've been doing that for several months now, although I did have a non-epileptic seizure during a class a couple of weeks back! I go the gym several times a week, doing yoga, spin, weights, cardio. I'd say that my physical health isn't too bad (despite my BMI suggesting that I'm obese!)

Unfortunately I always put off thought of or contribution to my pension during the majority of my career, so early retirement isn't an option.

Sorry if I've given a quite negative sounding response to your well intended response. I guess that's very typical of how I think - always have and probably always will.

I am probably the least able to advise but it does bring to mind two friends and one who has recently found a job in a sector he knows well but doesn't love. After a few weeks he's had a chance to evaluate that it's not a keeper, but he's very grateful for the average salary, plus it's not grinding him down like the homeless charity he got dismissed from that was all kinda of shifts messing with his mental health. He's early 60s and no chance getting back into Music journalism. So I think maybe as long as the job remains reliable he's hi holding out.

The other 50 yrs friend started out to be private consultant this year. Years in IT always employed, plus teaching in UK. His last role a couple of years was logically management -  I suppose that means not getting hands dirty.. it suddenly ended short notice. He's in Vienna. But he's been greeted with bad health (physical) soon after embarking on self employed and he's having a tough time.

He also did some training to coach recently and he's run a couple of successful online classes.. he was a bit cheeky that he didn't think the current crop of students were particularly bright.

It's good to have regular income, can you manage the stress or boredom if it's a trade for security?

How about a complete change of direction?

I left 32 years of working in IT Support / Service Delivery Management to work as a property developer (lots of hands on in my case) which I love.

It makes decent money, I have a product to be proud of at the end of the job and I spend a chunk of time each year working on affordable housing projects to give back to the community - the feelgood factor far outweights the inconvenience.

Do you have any hobbies, interests or passions you could move into that are sustainable for you?

I find the tangible product of my work more than overcomes any mental fatigue - sure there is the muscle pains at times and exhaustion from some heavy labour days but these somehow all feel so wholesome. I never had that sort of feeling from working in a corportation as a small cog in a huge machine.

If you really want to stay in IT then make a plan to learn a related skill - see what is newish on the market and gaining traction - AI seems logical - and go through a learning process and try to find where it can be applied at work and then get to know the people approving such projects so you can get in if/when they happen.

I never stopped learning new tech in my career as IT is evolving so constantly. There are plenty of online courses to give you the basics on pretty much anything so I would advise making time to do this if you want to stay in IT.

In the meantime, a mix of mindfulness (to stop your anxiety from taking over) and meditation (to find some peace) would be my recommendation.

Also look at early retirement - you may find your pension schemes will start to pay out now and if your outgoings are modest then it could support you while you work on your plan B.

Please know that; although I am merely one person: I have both listened to and heard that which you convey. 

You are describing a tough situation (although, not one devoid of hope, as you have a range of skills and experience to re-apply to yourself and addressing your scenario). 

Having switched: a) to a less technical role and b) between the private and the public sector, it is fair to summarise that both changes maybe ..."challenging" (for any IT professional). 

You have been courageous and determined in adopting this path towards establishing your return to the workplace (particularly following a very poor prior role exit experience).  I wish for you; the opportunity to remind yourself that you are likely grappling with quite a considerable transition / transformation.  It may be the case that you are experience surprise at the depth of emotions and frustration at the length of time adjusting to the changes appears to require.    

Add into the mix; you are having to accommodate a range of ongoing health challenges plus Autism, as anyone else would: you are doubtless also trying to balance a range of competing priorities and considerations. 

This may mean that, from one week to the next, you have found yourself juggling the need to re-prioritise the rotation between e.g. your new role acclimatisation and performance / adjusting to the new workplace environment, colleagues and commute / your Autism needs / your healthcare needs and so forth.

From your description: it does sound as though you are aware you have keen diagnostic and problem-solving skills (which you are accustomed to appying within prior workplace roles).  I hope you may draw confidence from that acknowledgement: and find ways to apply that toolbox of skills to yourself in a kindly manner too.

If I were in a situation similar to that which you are tackling; I would try my utmost to remind myself: to find some ways to slow down my racing thoughts.  Speed may increase the risk of a jump towards the potentially flawed "solutions thinking" mode.

I might also consider two things.  Firstly, for a week, on a daily basis, writing down a summary paragraph of (whatever happens to crowd through the mind on a given day).  The aim being to; review at the end of the week: how I had documented concerns, day to day and reflect upon whether I still felt the same way (after those few days of distance from the potentially harsh light of a given day's experience).

Secondly, I would try to remind myself to: reach out to a respected friend / relative / ex-colleague or mentor - to gain their perspective too.  (If I were uncomfortable actioning this option: instead, I would re-visit a book / blog / podcast etc. which I have found chimed well with me in the past - to hopefully aid refreshing my outlook). 

I tend not to regularly frequent the Community Forum (therefore, please do not be concerned or slighted if you were to have replied / posed a further question and I were not to have responded in a swift timeframe).

My hope is that your new role may not actually be as unsuitable as it might current feel (rather, the upheaval and myriad adjustments involved in this transition may have been a large contribution to the source of your experience so soon in your time with the new organisation).

Next time I visit the Forum, I will endeavour to check-in with this thread - to follow your potential interaction with my thoughts and those of some of the other Forum Members (who will doubtless have shared with you other words of wisdom in the meantime).     

Actually - this is a very long shot, but is based on what you said - what about a proof reader?

Maybe you need to take some sick leave? Chronic fatigue is no joke and pushing yourself is going to make everything else that much harder. It's time to be nice to yourself and take a proper break.

Maybe you'd feel differently about your job if you were less tired?

GPK - I don't have any advice, but I can give you sympathy because I am in almost the same boat as you. Though without the current job.