Yet another newbie

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Hi, I'm Ken, I've been recently diagnosed with Asperger's.

I'm 28, so now I'm realizing I've spent my whole life like this, and I'm discovering more and more memories of situations that probably should have clued me into the fact that something was wrong...but didn't.

I realized when I was 24 that I had some sort of social-phobia, so after some particularly painful events, I decided the best course of action was to face the fear head on...so I became a bartender. I am (of course, I guess) a great "administrative bartender" as my boss puts it - the bar is always stocked well, the inventory well maintained, etc., but for the first two years, he kept telling me I needed to "talk more", which I agreed with - I just couldn't do. I probably still need to talk more, he just quit telling me.

So that's a short history of me. Hello to all of you, and I hope I can help you in any way I can.

Ken

Welcome to WP, Ken. That's pretty gutsy, working as a bartender. I spent 50 years with AS before I found out. Talk about clues! But without a framework to put them in, and people insisting we "try harder" to be normal, how would we know?

Have fun here.

Welcome to WP!

Tim

Hi, welcome to WP!

Very brave of you to take such a job. I have to confess that my jobs generally involve spending more time with computers than people!

Hi Ken
Welcome to WP
I was a barmaid for 18 months, was great at the mental maths for adding up orders and the physical aspects of the job but rubbish at the customer rapport (also didn't have big enough 'frontage' to be a popular barmaid ). It was fun for a while though.

Hi Ken
Welcome to these forums. I worked briefly as a bartender last summer and plan to get back into it. I'm pleased that you found a niche in there and have done it for two years: when you go through some of the forums here, you'll see job retention as a recurrent problem with us.

Hi, Ken!

Welcome to Wrongplanet!

I hope you enjoy posting here!

Hi Ken!! !! !!

Welcome to WrongPlanet

Welcome!! I remember when I was a bartender, my boss told me the same thing!! ! I was always on top of refilling customers' drinks and remembering who drank what, but when it came to socializing w/ the customers, i was paralyzed. I kind of stood off to the side waiting for someone to need something. I made good tips because i was efficient; i probably would have made more $ had i been social too. Oh well. What are you going to do, poop yourself? I hope not.
Anyway, welcome!! !

@Woman: That is exactly how I feel. Now if I could just figure out how to get over it without pooping myself

@AspCat: I'm 28, and I've had 24 jobs since I was 16. My current one, at just over two years, is my second longest. My longest was 2 years, 9 months. So job retention (or lack of) is something I'm very familiar with.

Maybe learn some jokes or something. Or magic tricks!