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 was working full time as a piano teacher. I found that was very difficult. I felt like I had to put a different mask on every 30 minutes and my boss was very unkind. She pointed out any quirks I displayed in a negative way. For example, she seemed annoyed that sometimes I would leave my coat on (I am very sensitive to cold). She would make it seem like I was passive aggressively telling her to turn up the heat (I wasn't). I left the piano school and then tried many different jobs trying to figure out what felt good. I did find I enjoyed repetitive work (factory/ grocery) that had me pushing things, organizing things, and not having to interact very much with customers/ coworkers. I have a family, so unfortunately, these jobs didn't pay enough for me to take care of their needs. I went back to school and got a teaching license. I taught in a school for a couple of years and it was EXHAUSTING! I love children and teaching, but it just was SO tiring. I think interacting with my coworkers really was the most difficult part of the job. I started to look for online work and was able to start teaching for an online school. I work from home 4 days a week and go in once a week. It has been MUCH better. The day I go to work is still very tiring, but the rest of the week better suits me and I am better able to take care of my own needs. I am hoping to stay at this job until I retire.
I guess my advice to you is to see if you can work out some kind of hybrid situation where you go to work just a couple of days a week, so you have plenty of time to recharge on the other days when you are home. Since the pandemic, more employers are willing to negotiate these kinds of arrangements, especially if you have already been working for them and they appreciate your work. Good luck!