Why aren't you working?

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Perhaps this topic has come across, but honestly, 105 pages in this subforum.. no thanks.

I guess the question goes out to aspies who haven't been able to get a job for yeah, I don't know... 5+ years into their adult life. Why aren't you working? What's preventing you from doing a job? And more importantly, what's needed so you can actually do a job (regardless of the job)?

Obviously the notion of "bad economy" is an argument to be had. That is somewhat out of our control.

Lack of education is another one. I suppose if you're unable to get yourself educated through the "formal" system getting a job is hard, since it provides a lack of skills and knowledge, perhaps you're not even trained in a regular job setting (maybe you took a few courses but lacked an internship), and in some places/countries the notion that you did not attend a "regular" school is already frowned upon. As it seems over here courses are fine, if they're on top of a regular degree through college, showing you can function at a proper working environment and are eager to learn extra as well.

I guess the need for proper adjustments at a workplace and the lack to finance those is part of why some of us can't hold and get a job. I mean; for what it's worth you might really need to have a closed office/workplace and an open office plan clearly isn't helping you out there. Yet, a company might not feel they're gaining much from giving you that little retreat for financial or practical reasons.

Quite sure there are so many more things to be thought of why some of us are chronically unemployed. So, let's hear it.

As noted in the other thread you really need to be a good networker to get most jobs. Being very social and multitasking are increasingly job requirements.

Age descrimination

Interviews were designed for the sole purpose of tormenting me.

To be a good networker, you only need to know one. My mean uncle criticized me for not having a job. My nice uncle told me about a job openings at his company until I got a job there (still had to go through interviews and assessments because he doesn't work in HR).

I agree that their multitasking requirements can sometimes be unreasonable.

Being put onto incapacity benefit from 1986 by the jobcentre. Hving to leave school with inadquate qualifications because the education system wouldn't let me do the exams that employers were interested in. I left with six CSEs which were later superseded in the 1980s to GCSEs. The former qualifications were for those who would progress into the building/construction industries not for Asperger syndrome/Autistic young people.

I was hazed by other people during a time with a temping agency which involved loading and unloading lorries of sweets for Mars/Fullers at times.

All the interviews I had were unsuccessful but did manage to affect epilepsy which I had since 74. The demands for interviews such as the 'sell yourself' triggered temporal lobe epileptic seizures. Also when I had one job it was exploitative and the boss was a bully who wanted me out as soon as possible.

Any new college courses are only at a very basic level which is not any interest to employers especially when allistic people are also looking for work I would have no chance among that competition. In work and employment issues there is no such thing as healthy competition but thats the system to make job hunting more like X factor rather than the ability to do a job in the first place.

Lack of understanding in employers. I have heard that things have improved a great deal since 1986 but I don't trust the system and even so called work placements such as my time at RITO from 1988-94 brought me a lot of emotional abuse and excuses were made to justify that. It was not a proper job anyway just somewhere where I went to look as though I was working which was doing some kind of warehouse work such as stacking pallets for Courage brewery. It was mixed ability and they had a poor record of finding work for disabled people which is what they were set up for in 1969. I did not really learn anything useful there either to me or useful for an employer. I in the end walked out of that place on 10th April 1994 after having my PTSD reinforced by the staff there and taken for granted.

In terms of working I have no real niche and I should have found a niche 30 or 40 years ago but that was not encouraged and being 48 years old there would be a lot of difficulty and that meand going onto a lot f basic college courses which are going to be obsolete in 2 years time as well.

Inaccessibility for people on the autistic spectrum in terms of the people and in sensory terms the last time I worked for an organisation which I set up myself for the benefit of non allistic people and there was a few sources of sensory overload as well but I was not bullied and that was only becasuuse that place I set up myself and wrote the rules and constitution and planned the actual work in the evenings and the inaccessibility was the phones and the alarm which could go off if you weren't careful.

I have physical disabilities & some mental stuff that limits me with employment. I have a rare low vision disorder that causes some colorblindness, light sensitivity & problems seeing fine details at distances. I have a tremor disorder that acts up when I'm nervous or doing things with fine motor-skills. My knees hurt when I kneel on em so I tend to sit down on the floor instead. I have sinus allergies & skin eczema that acts up in certain environments. I'm also dyslexic & have ADD on top of Aspergers.
I worked before doing custodial stuff & dish-washing but I hated dish-washing & had a hard time finding custodial jobs partly because of not enough experince, my limitations with certain aspects of the job & not interviewing well. I'm on Social Security Disability & not looking for employment at the moment but may get a really part time job after Christmas so I can make an extra hounded a month.

Suppose I should get into this topic as well as I've started it and I'm not working either.

After all the talks I had with jobcoaches, therapists and professionals in the field they all figured that I'm such a problem for employment in general, I would really need to find that one employer who thinks I'm a great guy on top of me having the neccesary skills that would help him move along as a company and not be a weight that slows them down.

Over the past year or so I've ended up having at least a rough outline on what I would need for a job; but since it's "special accomodations" and due to cutbacks we have waiting lists, that probably adds to why I'm not working. I am on a waiting list for another 3 years, technically, if it weren't for the fact that come january 1st waiting lists are cancelled and I'm back to square one. Yay cutbacks.

But I do have gathered with professionals to write me up a document in terms of what would work for me in terms of accomodations. I think they're fair and probably a godsent for anyone on the spectrum, which makes me wonder why this is in general, not happening.

The downside of it all is; that everything in my documentation points towards some kind of office job. And I can't recall finding any job openings for office jobs that require no formal education of some sort. Since I clearly lack that as well. I dropped out of university for, presumably aspie-issues (prior to my diagnosis), so I would beg to differ that a job would be to "hard" for me; one can wonder if I actually have the correct frame of mind and train of thought for such a job.. or any job. If anything I've learned that my thinking and problemsolving is pretty unconventional and I can't do a thing with rules and procedures.

I'm in touch with a social worker who helped me through the application but even she thought the document was hilarious, since she doesn't see how this fits into any type of employment.

- Quiet working environment that has a minimum amount of stimulation (in the sense of sensory overload)
- Autonomy and my own place to do a job/task on my own way
- Solitary tasks
- A job that fall in line with my intellectual capabilities
- Clear directions
- No pressure to complete said task
- Offer good structure I can work with.
- Additional assistance by a person with whom I can connect on a personal level to avoid any adversary and anger issues, as well as a positive vibe and communication within said company overall
- A minimum amount of interruptions and distractions so I'm not taken out of the loop when I'm working
- A maximum of 30 hours a week. Approx. 6 hours for 5 days a week, preferably during office hours or any other steady shift

Yeah... they look totally awesome, these mandatory adjustments that need to be in place to have any chance of keeping me employed, on my behalf. I have little to no affiliation with most office type jobs to boot. But I suppose I have to see how this goes down.

So yeah, that's why I'm not working; these adjustments aren't the things I can barge into a temp agency with and tell them "I need a job, this is what I need adjusted for me" and follow up with "Oh, and I have no education of any sort".

However, there's a little job prospect, but I still have to sort that out and have a serious talk with said employer (and good friend of mine). A friend of mine runs a tattoo shop and he currently expanded and wants to get me in for an apprenticeship as piercer at his shop. I know enough about that stuff and it interests me, but I don't want to mess up the entire legal situation I have going on in terms of accomodations, since if such a job would seem manageable for me, I can see social services be like "well... you have a job... quite sure you can do any other job as well"... and they say aspies think black and white, lol. And I guess there's a thing or two to be said about aspies, passion and their ability to do a job.

Why waste my time making money for someone else? Slavery is not fun and I don't accept becoming a slave just to live.

Briefly: I am without a driver's license and have struggled with agoraphobia for several years, with the severity increasing within the past two years to where I was afraid of the outside world.

Now, I am going out weekly to a social group, trying to get my license, and taking propranolol to deal with my incessant anxiety. I live frugally; I do not ask for much. Outsiders could easily misjudge me by superficial facts about me without knowing integral details. For once in my life I am genuinely excited about my improvement and the possibilities that will open to me. I deserve it.

There were many periods when the paranoia and fear was so bad that I could not leave my house for months. I had no social network. My journal entries and accrued memories of these past three years are difficult to assess and process. This has been maddening. If I keep up my momentum, I think I can resurface. I expect this unfortunate detour and withdrawal of mine to be unexpectedly beneficial to my existence. My perspective on things is so different, even at age 20. I cringe at imagining a hypothetical version of myself that experienced no hardship and suffering such as that experienced from my debilitating mental illnesses (agoraphobia, depression, etc.). I prefer the person I am at this very moment without a doubt. To reference Nietzsche and the Joke: I've grown stronger and stranger.

There's a lot of emotion when I think about this. There will be a time soon enough for me to decompress and get perspective on this ordeal. As I wrote in my journal, this was my own personal war that I battled through.

So I take it you're either really wealthy or run your own company?

mostly becouse networking skills are more important (to employers) then relevant knowledge and skills.
if you have difficulty connecting and speaking to others, you are deemed less valuable then someone who is a social butterfly, even though person B has near zero relevant knowledge while you are an expert.


in my case: during interviews, the recruiter notices that "something is off", and doesn't dare hire me; and disclosing (which i tried a few times) doesn't help due to the stigma. aspergers is almost unknown, but autism is seen as bad for business, recruiters reason that 'aspergers~autism', close enough, also bad.

It's an interesting notion and actually made me think of something else that very much applies to me.

I'm not that socially awkward and I don't think that I couldn't network. The thing however is, I tend to connect certain type of people. In the past I've networked plenty when it came to my activities in the local music scene. It's apparently one of those crowds with whom I actually get along somewhat fine.

Expecting me to network with different types of crowds; perhaps the less "artsy" ones. I don't think I'm even considered appealing to them in my overall behavior, frame of mind and whatever sets different groups of crowds apart.

In the intentional community being planned in Pueblo, one of the priorities is job creation within our own people. This will be discussed more at AutHaven [ March 20-24 2015. $150 includes food, lodging, handouts, etc. in the mountains about 25 miles west of Denver]

I wish they had something like that in Canada. I'd be right on board.

Not employed currently but I'm working with an agency to find work, if I can. I don't work because of several disabilities including low vision, cerebral palsy, and a hearing issue, as well as ASD, OCD, ADHD, and severe social phobia. I badly wish I could work.

It is called being a parasite to my family and the state. Family is very easy to control as I can always play the suicide card to them as they are too afraid to call the state to pick up to go to there so called mental hospital. Also, I saved money when I did work so I can live the sweet sweet NEET until my money drys out.

Good on you... I guess. I can relate though and in a sense I think like you, yet I wouldn't explicitly call myself a parasite. I rather call myself the result of a failing support system, lol.

Be glad your family actually cares enough about it and doesn't dare you to kill yourself. A friend of mine had a similar situation and when he threatened, his mom took out the bleach and told him "here... something to get you started".

Also; I suppose you can be happy your government is somewhat accomodating of that behavior. In the future I can see these things change, but hey.. enjoy while you can