Finding a new job - interview!

I hope it went ok.

Hopefully after the scary first few minutes you were able to talk and say what you needed to.

Remote working can be a bit isolating and make it harder to learn new items. You need to be be more proactive in asking for help.

But you also have more freedom. You need to pace yourself and it can be harder to switch off, so don't overwork.

You need to have somewhere suitable to work too.

Every coffee break you can go on the garden, you can pop out at lunch.

There are ups and downs. 

I hope you find something that suits you.

Hi there, I’m so sorry I can’t give any advice but I wish you all the best of luck! You take care x

illustrated.lady said:

I have an online interview later today and I'm so nervous, I hate online video chats, I find them really awkward

The way I found to conquer this fear was to tackle it head on - go do them, sometimes mess them up and always look back to learn from them.

I would sometimes ask for a friend or mentor to role play the bits I really struggled with until I could use my scripting and masking skills to fake it well enough to get past the interview, and once in the job I typically found my technical skills more than compensated for my poor social skills (I didn't know I was autistic at the time).

illustrated.lady said:

This is also my first interview since being diagnosed as autistic and I am trying to gain more of an understanding of how it affects my work life. 

I would recommend starting with something easy to follow to learn about autism and identify which traits you have (you will have some traits all at varying degrees of intensity) and then dig into them a bit more so you can understand what they are.

Once you know what collection of issues exist then you can look at how other people handle them - some can tackle them and control them, some find workarounds and others simply avoid them at all costs - there are many options you can consider to help.

Once you have finished looking into this you may well be a bit overwhelmed by the information and things you can try, so at this point I would recommend working with a psychotherapist who has experience of autistic clients as they can help you make more sense of it all.

It is quite possible that you have traumas from your earlier life that you have forgotten / hidden / downplayed that are still impacting you to this day and the therapist can help you understand these and take the sting out of their tail so you can develop healtier ways of dealing with the anxieties they connect with.

It is a process - mine took around 15 sessions and I did a lot of my own research and homework between sessions to speed things up. It took around a year due to my availability but I have come out of it much more confident, way less anxious and knowing much more about how my autism shapes my life and how I can do almost anything with the right coping mechanisms.

These are just my thoughts for your consideration - good luck with the interview.

That is what they are relying on for you to give up

I'm still there unfortunately until I can find something else.

I did speak to my union who advised to object to their refusal, I should say my request to have one day work from home and get rid of one of my extra responsibility, instead they took five hours from my contract.

I'm just sop defeated by the whole thing, I don't have the fire in my belly to fight anymore.

How long were you at your last job?

You could always file a tribunal claim for disability discrimination. You can do this yourself and the website Valla has all the help and information you need to do this yourself. By doing this when you have secured a new job you will have a chance that your current employer will try to settle and you might get a bit of compo.

Just because you file a tribunal claim doe not mean that you have to take it all the way and can withdraw it at any time.

I do not like to hear about folks whose reasonable adjustment requests are refused, its feckin discrimination!

Only an idea to mull over

Good luck! You’ll do great!