Why are only 12% of us employed?

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You have a valid point there, I think. In the past people had a sink or swim mentality, and nobody made excuses for aspies (who knew they even had it?).

It's not so much that they're being brought up thinking that, but its that the system tells them that and assumes it to be true. My mum told me all about how she had to fight the idiots at the government to get me into a school and such. They thought I wouldn't be able to get through a normal school.

But I am very lucky to have a mum who defends me like that. Most people wouldn't fight their point like she did.

Wow. I really like this question that you have put up, together with the ensuing points. Thanks for doing so, they're very useful considerations.

Cheers,
.Skribble

I didn't know it was that bad. My job is only part-time hours right now. There have been times when I have been higher functioning. I suspect it's like someone said, most people are not diagnosed, certainly few people in my age group are. I am beginning to think that if I work in a situation with coworkers then I can't have a relationship. Because it is so draining I'm doubtful that I can handle both.

same here. where i went to elementary school, they began tracking kids in the 1st grade, which means that the classes taken in first grade deteremine those you take in high school and your entire future. all the kids were given tests to be placed in whatever class they went to, but the hideous people who taught in my grade arbitrarily placed me in remedial classes without giving the usual test. if my mom had not fought them tooth and nail, i would have stayed in those classes, and my future would have been screwed and i most likely would never have made it to college.



luckily my parents are not easily manipulated by authority which is good because i was only six years old then and thus would not have been able to stick up for myself.

these imbeciles (employers and educaters) seem to think that just because we do not communicate well and because we do not know how authorities expect us to behave, that means that we cannot do anything.

Point to make about that 12% statistic from the NAS

The study is based on data from their own organisation so 12% of their MEMEBERSHIP with aspergers diagnosis are in employment.

They have no verifyiable way of determining if their sample group is representative of the wider UK ASD population so take from the study what you will.

That's good to know, thanks for that info!

These statistics are totally invalid in my opinion and they just surveyed a small group I am sure, so people should not believe this stat at all. Most very high functioning AS people can succeed and move on with their lives, this is all I can say in my opinion.

I've never met another person with AS, so I'm not going to be able to generalize, but i think this is a good point. I know that *I'm* hard to deal with, and I'm very grateful to have a boss who is willing to work with me and try to help me do my job in the best way possible. It wouldn't surprise me, though, if there were some moments when he'd rather I just went away....

Something I've noticed about Asperger's people (okay Aspies) from reading these forums is an enormously high literacy level and a quite high average intelligence (spelling mistakes on this board are few and far between) ... you may scoff but there are neurotypicals out there who can barely read or write who are earning a good living, some a fortune ... so I'm beginning to think the Aspies are probably too literate, and so probably think too much and don't DO enough.

you probably got a good point there (no offense)

There always seems to be a disconnection there. People often mention how smart I seem, and are always surprised to hear how hard I find it to get and keep work.

AS for the 12%, I reckon that asperger's is seriously undiagnosed in our society, but most people manage to get along. If you had a job and a relationship and money and a couple of friends etc. why would you go looking for problems, or a diagnosis? A lot of guys i've spoken to in technical professions seem rather aspie like, but with fewer of the negative effects that I seem to have.

I guess most of y'all already said something simliar, but I'm not going to go reading the whole thread, sorry!

Same here. Working/living abroad has the advantage, that in the language-course you get the standard "sentences and replies", bodylanguage and situation training you maybe lack otherwise. Faux pas can be mutually laughed off, and you're always free to ask about things you're unsure about.

Hello DavidM,

You have a very interesting point about being "too literate".

The lesson here is not that literacy and similar skills are bad. They're just not enough.

In any situation where humans interact, social skills are needed. You may have your own set of rules of what constitutes an insult or a threat to status and what doesn't; trust me, everyone else has their own preferred rules, too. We need commonly agreed indicators of these things just as we need commonly agreed rules of spelling, grammar and punctuation, for the exact same reason: we'd all misunderstand each other all the time otherwise.

Meanwhile, when we meet all sorts of people we have to negotiate (in both senses of the term) all sorts of perceptions, expectations and priorities. As the saying goes, when you ask five different witnesses to the accident, you get five different statements. Different people have very different views of what really happened - especially when we have to implicitly decide what is and is not important so we can deal with the important stuff.

Also, people communicate in all sorts of ways, not just by using literal verbal expressions. And people, reasonably enough (up to a point), expect others to respond to all sorts of communications, not just those in words.

I'd say it's human nature...but check out some chimpanzees or dogs or cats sometime. Even animals have detailed social codes and signals. Check out Richard Conniff's The Ape in the Corner Office, for example.

Basically, in the workplace people need social skills at least as much as technical skills, not necessarily because some boss has arbitrarily demanded it but because the nature of diverse people trying to cooperate demands it. I'm sorry to say this, but not being able to get along with co-workers - let alone superiors or customers - can be a perfectly good reason to dismiss someone.

What do you think?

+1

This is a pretty good working definition of executive dysfunction.