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Do you work?

Daydreamer

I've heard before that a lot of people with autism don't work. Some do part time or volunteer but working full time 5 days a week can be overwhelming.

I don't work. It's annoying because I really want to and a friend has managed to get me in somewhere and I did a days work there, totally nailed it and then after work I had a massive meltdown, and then another the same night and was hit by fatigue the next day that left me bed ridden.

But I would still like to work full time as it would be a way of keeping busy and escaping my anxiety but the pressure it puts on me is difficult to avoid. I'm still thinking about how to get around that.

They reckon ideal jobs for people with autism is in libraries and working with computers. The job I tried was working with children.

Parents

  • I do work, and full-time, but I always had this awareness that I was only capable of sustaining certain forms of work without risk of severe burnout. So I consider myself to be very lucky to have found myself in a job that could not be more perfect for me: a largely records-focussed library job. Lots of routine, a manageable rate of change, a reliable reservoir of knowledge that I top up as things gently evolve. It's 9-5, I don't have to take my work home with me (unless I chose to jump on the PC for a modest bit or voluntary overtime, as I have done on occasion given how much I like the work) and it's in an area where I feel like a reliable small but important cog in a much bigger machine - one that's helping people (literally anyone with access to Google) get free access to good quality research.

    I hope this is the job I remain in for the foreseeable future, I need the stability - and the money!- and I would find significant change pretty traumatic at this point. In the meantime, I take each day as it comes and let my energy and focus ebb and flow, maintaining standards that I can stand over at appraisal time with my head held high. 

    I do shudder at the thoughth of what might have become of me if I'd succumbed to more of those societal pressures about what trajectory the average man 'should' take in life - aspirational, status-obsessed, a constant restless quest to seek out new challenges every few years, manage other people, resources, all that. The rat race. I'd have probably taken a nervous breakdown, Square peg, round hold. I'm glad to have found one of life's rare square holes and I'm sticking to it! 

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  • I do work, and full-time, but I always had this awareness that I was only capable of sustaining certain forms of work without risk of severe burnout. So I consider myself to be very lucky to have found myself in a job that could not be more perfect for me: a largely records-focussed library job. Lots of routine, a manageable rate of change, a reliable reservoir of knowledge that I top up as things gently evolve. It's 9-5, I don't have to take my work home with me (unless I chose to jump on the PC for a modest bit or voluntary overtime, as I have done on occasion given how much I like the work) and it's in an area where I feel like a reliable small but important cog in a much bigger machine - one that's helping people (literally anyone with access to Google) get free access to good quality research.

    I hope this is the job I remain in for the foreseeable future, I need the stability - and the money!- and I would find significant change pretty traumatic at this point. In the meantime, I take each day as it comes and let my energy and focus ebb and flow, maintaining standards that I can stand over at appraisal time with my head held high. 

    I do shudder at the thoughth of what might have become of me if I'd succumbed to more of those societal pressures about what trajectory the average man 'should' take in life - aspirational, status-obsessed, a constant restless quest to seek out new challenges every few years, manage other people, resources, all that. The rat race. I'd have probably taken a nervous breakdown, Square peg, round hold. I'm glad to have found one of life's rare square holes and I'm sticking to it! 

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