Isn't It Cute That He Has a Job.

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That's another reason to never disclose to an employer ...

I notice that tokenism thing with WalMart. They had a disabled person who wasn't all there mentally & was in a wheelchair be a greeter but they also had another associate stand next em & do the actual work like checking receipts & telling customers HI. The person in the wheelchair was sometimes asleep. Talk about a slap in the face for the actual worker I should add that I harbor NO resentment towards the wheelchaired person. I'm sure those people have major difficulties sometimes. I feel putting disableds like that on prominent display is exploitation to make the company look good. It's also very unfair for the person who's having to do all the work.

Unlike the wheelchaired person, my disabilities aren't immediately noticeable which is a double edged sword. My physical disabilities quickly become apparent if you watch me for a bit, especially in a workplace setting so I feel I should mention them. They also explain my very limited employment history & why I lost/left my last job. I may need some accommodations in certain work environments but I try to compensate for that by doing the tasks I can do as well as I can. I take on as much work & responsibility as I can do. I much rather be working than goofing off(except during official/required breaks) & very willing to work extra when needed & able to.

Bleh...

I've started to become more acclimated to this idea. Get hired first; let employers see your talents and strengths and weaknesses and then let them in on your secret identity.

I've never got a job yet where I've disclosed from the outset - and I've applied for many.

They'll even interview you but they'll never hire you. That's been my experience thus far.

It is a spectrum and we are all different, so great that some here are motivated to advance their positions. But do you have a goal? Somewhere to head to as you contemplate moving on from where you are? Maybe most of us aren't kept down by our employers and agencies. I suspect our biggest enemy is our own executive functioning deficits.

I think about all of my past jobs, in cafes, factories, gardens and nurseries and dairies, oh my! In the beginning I followed the advice of my step-father to 'be prepared to do anything.' Actually, I did that all the way through, but in the beginning I thought it was the only way.

Eventually I learned about the difference between 'survival jobs' and 'careers.' Survival jobs are the jobs you take to put food on the table while you work on actualizing your dream job. The stereotypical being a waiter while waiting for your acting career to take off.

And that's great if you're planning your next move.

And I never did. I'd get a job and give all my focus to it. It wasn't until the next bout of unemployment that I'd bemoan my lack of progress. I'm doing it now, as I did yesterday and several years worth of yesterdays before. Now I'm 52 years old, stuck in a small rural town of a thousand people, and I'd be lucky if I could pick fruit for a month in the year. But I don't want to do that, because that just perpetuates the little work and lots of unemployment at the discretion of employers cycle.

Which brings me to my overall point. If it's to be, it's up to me...so it will never be. I've given a couple of decades to thinking about it, but every squirrel is a distraction. And the only way to beat that is through fully functioning executive functioning, which we often don't have, and especially the ability to apply focus. Focus, however, requires something to focus on. And I've never found such a critter. Not even close.

So, as you sit in that chair across from your employment agency case manager, or as you pack another box of tins in the factory, or sit in front of the TV tonight knowing you should be doing something more productive... realise you'll never move from there, not in years, not in decades, if you don't have a long term goal and a step by step plan to get there.

Of course, I say 'you', but I mean 'me.'

The other thing about those organizations is that they are small-minded people who looked at the disabilities rather than abilities. Most of the time, they don't empower these people or push them to do more. Instead, they provide them a "Place to work" and that's it. Most of the time, they just babysit these people. I have people in the downs community who own their own business and are doing well, actually.

I always found it hard to get a good job till recently I could get interviews but always failed at the interview stage.

My partner is a roaring success he's a network specialist he's so good that he's had companies headhunt him for example 2 years ago a IT firm was willing to pay him 60k a year all accomodation expenses paid to work in Saudi Arabia for 3 years and he was told that 60k was mostly tax free.

He declined but I struggled yet he finds it easy part of me thinks is because he said as a child till he was 10 he wen through therepy and conditioning to suppress his more autistic traits