Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm just about to reach 3 months into my first full time job. I scraped through uni but worked very hard and would like to keep this job. Part time retail jobs in the past have never been good for me due to the social factor and after 2/3 months I had to leave due to the amount of overwhelm, it made me so tired and anxious every time I had to go in.
Fast forward back to now. I was diagnosed autistic in February this year, before that my mum has always just helped me in anyway I needed as I've not had an easy life through school, bullying and a full blown crash or meltdown I guess at 15. But I'm about to finish my probation and have only had 4 days off work in that 3 months due to the overwhelm and exhaustion and burning out. But now I'm anxious every morning. I get to work from home 2 days a week from next week which was what I've been trying to push through for and started 1 day a week two weeks ago because of all this. My boss has been amazing throughout and very accommodating, we're currently putting in for an occupational health assessment at work and I've been looking into access for work as well.
I question is those of you who are in full time work (which I know isn't many) how to cope? I don't think working full time from home is an option for me due to where I work, but being a Graphic Designer it would be easy to do so. I make sure to go for regular walks but at busy periods this gets forgotten. But how else do you guys manage to stay in full time work, or did you find it better to move to part time? This might be an option for me but I'm unsure. I enjoy my job and the work isn't difficult, I just can't pin it down and I want to try and stay. This place has a very good work/life balance so I'm not doing many extra hours, if any. But I'm struggling to be able to do the things I enjoy like ice hockey and golf because of this knock on effect.
I worked full time for 34 years as a biomedical researcher at a university. I coped through a few different means. I am married with two children. In my evenings and at weekends I kept activities outside my commitments as a husband and father at a minimum. I needed the downtime, free of interactions with people, in order to recover from being a more or less 'social animal' at work. I worked in a converted cotton mill for the first 19 years, which was ideal for me, separate laboratories and small separate offices. Then we moved into a modern purpose-built building, which was significantly more challenging, with large open-plan laboratory spaces - each floor had what was essentially one large lab, with some small specialist rooms. The office space was open and we had 'hot desking'. To cope with this very hostile environment for autistics I took to spending 15 to 20 minutes every so often in the disabled toilets or sat on the steps leading to the roof access, just to get some relief from being constantly in a goldfish bowl and constantly forced into interactions with other people. For the last 8 years before I retired I had my own office, which eased things considerably.
I escaped to the toilet in my last job where I eventually worked 4 days a week as full time became too much due to autism and social anxiety.
Noe I work 2.5 days in a new job now age 57 most of the time from home just few hours a week in the office. Which I dislike for social anxiety reasons. But grateful that I can keep working. I walk every day for my mental health or I feel awful with stress. So it's going well.
Interesting to hear about the extended toilet breaks, if I can call it that. I have done that too at times, without knowing the reason why, and feeling guilty for it.