Those of you who work - what is your job?

I've worked for a large wholesalers for 25 years in various roles. The front facing people orientated roles were really not my cup of tea, it so tiring.

I'm now in a role where I'm pretty independent and dealing with things via email and the odd phone call. 

I still have to pretend that I can tolerate other people from time to time but it's more manageable.

I'm currently throwing money into my pension and savings in an attempt to retire earlier as I will not be able to last physically to my official pensionable age.

Typically when employed my jobs lasted anywhere between 1-4 years. I have been self employed for over 20 years now and although I can feel exhausted I find being in control of who I am around and where I work to benefit me hugely. Weather it was luck or was destined to work for myself I really do not know but I do know being employed caused me a great deal of anxiety and stress. 

Shelf stacker in supermarket. Hate it. Hours I have are very good though and virtually unheard of in supermarkets. I only do 2.5 days but it’s still very draining mentally. Thankfully, no music plays in our store, and it’s a very small shop. I’m aloud to wear my ear plugs too. 

I work retail far from ideal but it is what it is for Joe and has been that way for 4 years i want to go into music but it’s hard to start up in so it will happen when it happens snd I need to find thr right path to take to earn what I earn now after taxes and expenses 

I don’t mind at all!

So I just happened to search for “autism” jobs on Indeed and “Job Coach/Employment Specialist” came up as a possibility. There was actually quite a few openings for employment specialists in the area I was moving to this spring, so I applied to two or three positions. Now an interesting aspect is that what I do is paid for by the state I work in, so I don’t know if they have something like this in the UK. I hope so!

As far as qualifications, they don’t have any in particular for this job, but one thing that has been a huge help for me is that I have experience in a wide variety of jobs (education, custodial, retail, and factory). Having that experience ahead of time really makes communicating with different employers a lot easier. It sounds as though with your own job experiences, you’d probably do well at it.

I was diagnosed 6 months after I took early retirement, so never asked for adjustments, or knew that I would be able to ask for any. Luckily my various managers were very straightforward to deal with, if I was producing the goods, they had no problem with how I went about it. For my last decade of work I was essentially my own boss. I had two joint line-managers, but I knew lots more about the technicalities of my job than they did..

The most successful career I've had is 25 years as a physiotherapist.  Problem solving, somewhat repetitive once a successful strategy generated thro' pattern recognition and abstract thinking ( I am a long way "off piste" compared to many of my peers but get good results).  I also expend a lot of effort as a Union Health and Safety rep.   A chance to interact with people - this can be draining but emotionally and socially rewarding but as you say can bring one into situations that are challenging to the senses.  Unfortunately there's always more demand than capability in a lot of paid employment, so learning to protect oneself can be a painful journey.

In terms of generating a career I have somewhat followed advice, followed my passions, and had some helpful people along the way.

In respect of a job I turned a hobby into a career (I was a martial artist at a reasonable level of understanding of biomechanics before).

Academic study got me there,  I find this this OK for me as long as I am not forced to take on to much at one time and acknowledge when enough is enough.  I've picked my qualifications up along the way - psychology and sociology especially useful with autism.  Support network fit for the purpose and "breathing room" to learn at the right pace something "from the ground up" that you are genuinely interested in would be my suggestion if you feel that getting some more study would help. 

Being trained for a job took some of the stress out of confidence problems about getting a job if that makes sense.

Sometimes the chances and opportunities are there it's just that for some reason one doesn't recognise they are there.

A lot of the lessons in life only make sense and are useful years after you first encounter them.  hang in there!

Best Wishes

Hi, I used to work in retail and call center, also in McDonald's.  In McDonald's i had panic attacks because of the terrible noise there, but I preferred working in the kitchen than service and coffee beverage. Whatever job that was- contact with customers, the obligatory to make eye contact and small talk and the constant uncertainty,  when will some customer approach me and ask something,  used to make me extremely anxious and depressed. The call center job was same uncertainty with the inbound calls (technical support) and same with the small talk between colleagues.  I also struggled to sit in front of a screen the 8 hours, I needed additional breaks because I couldn't look at the screen. I often used to go to the bathroom to cry and myself didnt know why. I always thought im just i ferior to others. Now I work in a warehouse.  Its not perfect,  I'm also tired and probably burnt out and there is a mentally ill colleague, who makes it all even harder, but the job itself is not so damaging. And i use my strengths there. At least I don't hear anymore that I have to modulate my voice while talking to a customer, I have very little contact with customers.  I graduated bachelor degree in logistics,  speak 3 foreign languages fluently and have good PC skills and I'm so unattractive and lack self confidence,  that the maximum I'm capable of is this, as listed. At least I have a job.

I can see this being quite stressful but also it's such important work and must be fulfilling. Do you mind me asking, how did you get into it and did you need any particular qualifications?

Martin said:

a researcher into the molecular and cell biology of tropical disease causing pathogens.

Very similar role for me. I'm or rather was a microbiologist, before having my career ended by my manager for asking for some pretty small reasonable adjustments. Now I'm drifting along waiting for my ET to progress. The result may be early retirement.

Hi, I'm retired now but the majority of roles I worked in were in accounting. I was fairly good at it because I'm analytical and have good pattern recognition. But I struggled with the office environment and moved around a lot - until my last job, I had never stayed more than 5 years with the same employer, and the average was 2.5 years.

The other roles I tried were SEN teaching assistant and a teacher of English as a foreign/ second language. I enjoyed one to one and small group work and seeing pupils progress was rewarding, and teaching English to adults was interesting as I love language, but being in a classroom full of people can be quite exhausting.

The jobs you have tried are all ones where you are required to interact with a lot of different people each day, which I know is draining. But I also struggled with working from home on my own, because my home is my refuge and I needed the structure of going to a workplace. It works for some people, but it's best if you have a dedicated room or space in your home to use as an office, which you leave at the end of your shift. 

You seem to have enjoyed care work, but I can understand your difficulties with poor management of care homes. If you have a driving licence, perhaps you could try one to one care, visiting clients in their homes, either elderly or people with learning difficulties. You might be able to relate well to autistic people needing support and be able to help improve their lives. There are usually a variety of shifts to choose from.

I hope you find a role that suits you.

Having your own office is a godsend. I don’t always use mine without clients, but I do have access to it if I ever feel overwhelmed.

I think for me the answer was not to consider a public-facing job. I am retired now, but I think I had my ideal job. I was a researcher into the molecular and cell biology of tropical disease causing pathogens. I could hyper-fixate to my heart's content, had my own projects, so I could pace myself, all the way from working far into the night to taking days off (or at least very easy days) to recover from burnout, and had only about 7 or 8 people that I had to interact with closely on a daily basis.

For the last decade of my working life I managed scientific services in a university research institute. This meant I had some man-management duties and had to interact with many more people on a daily basis. I found this much more stressful, though having my own office was a saving grace.

Probably not much help but before I got ill with CFS/ME and had to retire due to ill health, I worked for many years as an Embedded software Engineer (usually requires an Electronics Degree) - it suited me as I would get a project to work on and be left to get on with it until I'd finished it (usually weeks or occasionally months of work), then be given another project.

I work full time as an employment specialist for people with disabilities. There’s a lot of pros and cons to it. On one hand I feel fairly fulfilled with my work and I have a pretty flexible schedule. On the other hand, some of the clients are really draining me and there is a lot of stress to get people jobs in a timely manner (which of course, is not always possible or plausible). So it’s going okay overall so far, but I might burnout at some point.