Working below your capabilities

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My dream job would working at a place like Australia Zoo doing things like Steve Irwin did or marine life like dolphins and orca. It's my idea of having fun and getting paid for it. The best thing about working with animals for me is they calm all my Aspie symptoms!

It's been suggested that I be made a supervisor in a few of my retail jobs, mostly because I usually know how all the systems work (the till, the stock control etc). I always say no. I could cash up just fine, but I couldn't cope with angry customers, or the social aspect of how to relate to the other staff. So in the end I end up working for supervisors and managers who are a lot younger than I am, which sometimes feels a little odd but overall I am happy just to be left alone to do the job.

I know exactly how you feel. I can't say I was doing college-level work at age 8, but I am quite bright. All the jobs I've done were well below my capabilities and sent me into despair. I'm well educated (bachelor's degree and graduate certificate), but can't seem to get out of the rut. I'm studying for my second bachelor's degree right now, hoping it will lead somewhere more mentally challenging. I'm not sure where yet - I'm just happy that the material is more challenging than my usual forms of employment!

I got the promotions, and regretted them. I was good at supervising and managing, but it took me so far out of my natural strengths and stressed me so badly that it made me ill. I had concerns about it from the start, but the money was tempting. I was the sole breadwinner in my household, and that put a lot of pressure on me to earn more.

I think it's better to find ways to live within one's means and keep one's stress levels manageable. I'm proud of what I proved to myself I could do, but I'm still not convinced it was worth the tradeoff.

I once got a very prestigious award at work and they still assigned me to menial tasks.

I think your point in bold is important. I have had managers/supervisors tell me I am very good at certain parts of my job, so it is impossible for them to understand why I don't want to do them. I may get the job done well, but at what cost? Feeling stressed/anxious/uncomfortable the whole time is no way to spend your working day.

When they made me boss the most stressful part was having to deal with all of the power.

Since I don't have a lot of experience, I have no other choice but to work below my capabilities and change my career. I'm thinking about finances...

Yep.

My organization is getting increasingly desperate though and were trying to gently cajole me into applying for a promotion. I'm actually pretty good at telling people what to do and motivating them, I've been bossy since I was a kid and if I was in charge of a team it would automatically become A Quest! (read: obsession) so I'd give it my all.

The problem would not be the level below me, I'm confident I'd manage those social interactions quite well (see: A Quest!), but my interaction with upper management. I think they're stupid. They ARE stupid. And inefficient. And all around crap. I work independently enough now and have limited enough exposure to them that biting my tongue to refrain from saying: "You're stupid. And inefficient. And all around crap. You're welcome." isn't too painful. Taking a promotion would mean I'd have to be face to face with them every day.

I'm currently looking for another job and I've been pondering how honest I should be about my personality during potential interviews. But maybe that's food for thought for another thread.

In a lot of the places I've worked they can kinda see that I'm not manager material. They are aware I have the knowledge for it but they just don't see me being the dictator boss. And they're right.

I'd suggest reading "The Peter Principle" - it gives a good insight into the hierarchy of the modern working culture

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"Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence"

Thanks for the link, Snar. I hadn't heard of The Peter Principle before and found it quite interesting.

What I took away from this is that The Peter Principle is applicable to Aspies, while The Dolson Principle (that which argues against Peter's theory) is applicable to NTs.

Peter (AS) Principle: "Eventually they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions."

Dolson (NT) Principle: "The higher the management level, the easier the job." "People can be demoted, not promoted, to their level of incompetence."

Of course I am generalising, but for the most part I think it fits nicely.

Lol uh I'd be open to the prospect of promotion, but was actually turned down because of my social skills. But I feel as if I have the technical parts of my job down to a very competent level, such that I am asked to take on responsibility that is usually only asked of higher-ups, without me getting paid more...

I expected to be turned down, though, since I work for an organization that is open to disabilities, and so had prior entrusted them with the knowledge of my social disability...

I have usually been offered middle-management positions whenever I've been in a job for awhile. For a long time, I would take these promotions because they appealed to my ego and also meant a little bit more money. However, like many other posters, even though I can do management work fairly well (at least, well enough to keep the job and not get into too much trouble with the higher-ups), it was extremely stressful. I could NOT "just turn it off" at the end of the day. I hated conflict, I hated worrying about whether other people were doing their jobs correctly, I hated playing referee between warring co-workers, and I hated being yelled at by my bosses if my "team" wasn't performing to their desired standards.

Now, I run like heck from anything that could ever even develop into a management position. I only do freelance work where I am the only person involved in the quality of my work (voiceover work, mystery shopping, tutoring, etc.), and never want to run a company where I would have to have employees. Internet-based work is good, where there are few, if any, phonecalls. I know having great "people skills" is key for the visible forms of success (management, entrepreneurialism, etc.), but I am at the age where I just need to work with my strengths, not constantly try to fix my weaknesses.

For me this is tricky territory - as in yes, I'm capable of a lot more, and I'd love to do a great deal more if I could do it well, but in the real world and a dominant 'hit the ground running with no training' culture I don't see it happening.

My best guess is that, with AS, you spend so much of your resources tied up in trying to not think like 'you', figure out how to think like someone else, and than re-say what you think should be said, not the way you'd say it but the way you think you 'should' - it only leaves so much room for performance, and the more social the job the worse that overhaul gets by definition.

Its good to have someone with a good head on their shoulders at the higher level. You might not be doing any direct work, but your job would be to keep things working the way they should and improve them. If you have some good ideas and talents why not apply them? The stereotypical boss might not always be the best choice for the position.