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Job-related challenges

belles12345

I have autistic traits (possibly enough to be autistic- currently undergoing assessment), and I am now very much aware of the difficulties that I have in my work due to my research on autism.  Aside from the social and communication difficulties (which I know are big challenges for me), I also feel that I struggle in other areas in job-related organising/communicating etc.  However I am a perfectionnist and am unable to understand if these challenges are also fairly normal for neurotypical people too and within the 'normal' (if it exists!) range of daily challenges... these are the following:

- difficulty remembering to do a task that I am aked to do after a minute unless I write it down

- asking something that I have already been told or that is obvious, only to realise that I already knew the answer before but completely forgot

- not realising something seemingly obvious, such as that a schedule can change (I tend to view it as fixed and work around it, then feel stupid when I realise that there was no reason to be so rigid)

- difficulty reading 'inbetween the lines'- I think this is fairly standard for those on the spectrum as far as I can gather

- feeling irritated when interrupted doing a task, and struggle to do so unless directly asked

- looking through piles of work repeatedly if they're not clearly organised (due to lack of space to organise properly), to check that there is nothing I should have done in the pile

- forgetting to take some essential equipment (some of which it is dangerous to be without)

It would be great to gain some perspective on these struggles, as I am aware that I may be getting these out of proportion in my head and that actually I am coping ok when sometimes I feel like I am not.  I suppose it also depends on the frequency that this happens, which I am not sure, and again compared to what.

Parents

  • Thanks for your excellent replies, understanding and insight.  Do you think that mentioning difficulties in such areas would be taken seriously?  I would hesitate to discuss these as I feel that I could meet the 'everyone struggles with these things to some extent, just get on with it' kind of response, alternatively being viewed as incompetent and risking my job security.  However I also worry that one day I may slip up and create a risky situation, as could potentially happen were various factors to coincide (which is unlikely but nonetheless possible).  Until now I have remained in this employment through being very good at specific areas at my job, only having caused some minor-medium severity of negative situations, and rubbing along with coworkers (mainly through learning the hard way to voice as few opinions as possible and be as polite as I am able).  I keep expecting to be uncovered, or like I say make a major slip up.  I will probably keep quiet and try to manage as I have been doing unless I am asked about any difficulties.

    I see what you mean about the hyper focus.  Yes this makes a lot of sense, good spotting this link.  

    I think that I am very lucky in that my current coworkers are kind and helpful in their treatment of me.  This certainly hasn't been the case in the past.  Like you mention Trogluddite, I can look back on many past jobs and relate lack of success/job loss to autistic traits.  Interesting about the accessability issues for wheelchair access, Longman, and rather unbelievable.  Given that this is a visible disability it is difficult to imagine adaptations for autistic people.

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  • Thanks for your excellent replies, understanding and insight.  Do you think that mentioning difficulties in such areas would be taken seriously?  I would hesitate to discuss these as I feel that I could meet the 'everyone struggles with these things to some extent, just get on with it' kind of response, alternatively being viewed as incompetent and risking my job security.  However I also worry that one day I may slip up and create a risky situation, as could potentially happen were various factors to coincide (which is unlikely but nonetheless possible).  Until now I have remained in this employment through being very good at specific areas at my job, only having caused some minor-medium severity of negative situations, and rubbing along with coworkers (mainly through learning the hard way to voice as few opinions as possible and be as polite as I am able).  I keep expecting to be uncovered, or like I say make a major slip up.  I will probably keep quiet and try to manage as I have been doing unless I am asked about any difficulties.

    I see what you mean about the hyper focus.  Yes this makes a lot of sense, good spotting this link.  

    I think that I am very lucky in that my current coworkers are kind and helpful in their treatment of me.  This certainly hasn't been the case in the past.  Like you mention Trogluddite, I can look back on many past jobs and relate lack of success/job loss to autistic traits.  Interesting about the accessability issues for wheelchair access, Longman, and rather unbelievable.  Given that this is a visible disability it is difficult to imagine adaptations for autistic people.

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