• Replies 12 replies
  • Subscribers 79 subscribers
  • Views 2272 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Creating work opportunities for people with ASDs

Laddo

Like many people with ASDs, I struggle to find work. Once I get a job, I usually struggle to stay in it due to the huge demand to be sociable constantly at work. I generally end up managing okay for a few months, then getting overwhelmed and having a breakdown. I also have issues with nastier members of staff victimising me and constantly singling me out to criticise my work, regardless of how well I actually do it. Now I can imagine that many of you have experienced similar problems to me - after all, supposedly 80% of people with ASDs are not in long-term employment. In theory, it is illegal for employers to discriminate against us but often it is not the case in reality.

I am personally pretty tired of it. I want to work, I want to contribute to society, but I feel so held back by the way other people perceive me and my poor social skills. I have been wanting to do something charitable, something big for a while but haven't been too sure what to do. Now I've had an idea. I would like to see some kind of organisation set up that gives us the opportunities we deserve. Something that genuinely recognises people's individual strengths instead of judging them for supposed weaknesses. Somewhere that people with ASDs can not feel judged and not have to worry about the social pressures of today's working life. I was thinking that with the help and support of various different charities, this has a chance of working. What are your thoughts on this?

Parents

  • Do people at work tend to treat you differently than they do to others Charlie? Like... I dunno, more cautiously or something? They always seem to for me. I sometimes get the impression I'm intimidating to some of my colleagues but I have no idea why. I've had colleagues making so many assumptions about me, most of which involve them thinking I'm stupid! Since when is having an IQ of 135+ stupid? It's usually the thick colleagues that make that assumption too - I suppose all I can do is laugh at the irony of it all...

    Unfortunately much of the time it is the managers doing the discriminating. I've been called all sorts by managers including 'retard' by an absolutely useless woman who only got the job because her immediate superior was Polish and so was she. At the same place one of the other 'managers' (who seemed to do literally nothing) nicknamed me 'Mr Bean', although I did call her 'Shrek' back to her face as she looked like she'd crawled out of the sewer!

    Definitely agree that employers often go for personality over ability. I have known many useless workers on a higher pay scale who spend most of the time rabbiting. Hiring attractive female staff just because of their looks does really irritate me. Firstly, it doesn't take their abilities (or lack thereof) into account, secondly, it's sexist towards both women and men - the employers discriminate against men by not hiring them and objectify women. We do tend to be good at logical thinking and do tend to like to do things properly and these should be highly valued traits, but they're not.

    I am tempted to start a Facebook group but there is always a high risk of trolls ruining it for everyone. I even saw a post on this forum where someone was moaning that they keep being banned from forums for trolling and how it was depressing them because trolling people made them feel powerful. It's absolutely pathetic! If someone has to make other people's lives a misery to be happy in theirselves then they must live a very sad and worthless life. The other possibility is a full-blown website as there aren't very many out there for people like us. I'm learning HTML and CSS but it has been a slow process so far so this might not happen for a long time.

    Anxiety is indeed a very common problem for aspies. For me personally, it is caused by the enormous social pressures put upon us to be 'normal' and fear of having to relive all the childhood bullying. We are not to blame for being lonely though - if people were more accepting of us instead of childishly hating us for being different then more of us would be happy. I often wonder how and indeed why people feel the need to chat 24/7. I do like to chat with friends but with total strangers? No thanks

Reply

  • Do people at work tend to treat you differently than they do to others Charlie? Like... I dunno, more cautiously or something? They always seem to for me. I sometimes get the impression I'm intimidating to some of my colleagues but I have no idea why. I've had colleagues making so many assumptions about me, most of which involve them thinking I'm stupid! Since when is having an IQ of 135+ stupid? It's usually the thick colleagues that make that assumption too - I suppose all I can do is laugh at the irony of it all...

    Unfortunately much of the time it is the managers doing the discriminating. I've been called all sorts by managers including 'retard' by an absolutely useless woman who only got the job because her immediate superior was Polish and so was she. At the same place one of the other 'managers' (who seemed to do literally nothing) nicknamed me 'Mr Bean', although I did call her 'Shrek' back to her face as she looked like she'd crawled out of the sewer!

    Definitely agree that employers often go for personality over ability. I have known many useless workers on a higher pay scale who spend most of the time rabbiting. Hiring attractive female staff just because of their looks does really irritate me. Firstly, it doesn't take their abilities (or lack thereof) into account, secondly, it's sexist towards both women and men - the employers discriminate against men by not hiring them and objectify women. We do tend to be good at logical thinking and do tend to like to do things properly and these should be highly valued traits, but they're not.

    I am tempted to start a Facebook group but there is always a high risk of trolls ruining it for everyone. I even saw a post on this forum where someone was moaning that they keep being banned from forums for trolling and how it was depressing them because trolling people made them feel powerful. It's absolutely pathetic! If someone has to make other people's lives a misery to be happy in theirselves then they must live a very sad and worthless life. The other possibility is a full-blown website as there aren't very many out there for people like us. I'm learning HTML and CSS but it has been a slow process so far so this might not happen for a long time.

    Anxiety is indeed a very common problem for aspies. For me personally, it is caused by the enormous social pressures put upon us to be 'normal' and fear of having to relive all the childhood bullying. We are not to blame for being lonely though - if people were more accepting of us instead of childishly hating us for being different then more of us would be happy. I often wonder how and indeed why people feel the need to chat 24/7. I do like to chat with friends but with total strangers? No thanks

Children
No Data