Nonverbal jobs really an impossibility?
So I better cut this rant down -
The short version, due to circumstances, I have been completely nonverbal but totally functional for the past week. Thanks to grocery self checkout, email, online transactions, paperwork etc, I have still been able to get plenty done, without a word spoken.
I've noted it here before, but for me, verbal speech creates a kind of white noise, a blurring distortion in the mind, and everything seems confused. Nonverbal for a few days, and suddenly, my mind is bright and clear. Couple that with a form of dysphonia which makes speech physically difficult, and I hate speaking.
I appreciate being nonverbal so much I even started looking for jobs that don't require speech - but all I get on searches is the engine picking up keywords, which just lead to jobs with "excellent nonverbal communication" in them. Yeah, not ideal.
My current job doesn't require speech if I am working alone as it is task-based, but more often I am working with a supervisor. Whom is very nice and I get on well with, but does require me to speak.
It just seems as if nonverbal jobs are impossible. But surely this can't be true, with some creative thinking? Has there been any research on this? All I can find online are articles by Temple Grandin on jobs for autistic adults, and this isn't specific enough.
Anyone have any real idea of what kind of work would be possible, completely nonverbal? I intend to improve my sign and am willing to communicate with that, as well as any written medium - emails, texts, reporting etc.
I do intend to have vocal surgery to improve my physical speech, but even if I did greatly improve the physical side, the mental side would still be uncomfortable.
Surely there must be some way around this speech thing in employment. I just don't really know where to start research. Ideas?
PS : How do deaf people cope with speaking in relation to jobs? Do they just employ speech as best they can, because it's a requirement? Other disabilities like hearing loss or complete mutism might be enlightening.
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:sigh:
There really should be.
If society wanted to cooperate with intelligent nonverbal autistics, there would be opportunities in legal research (both paralegal and JD level), copy editing, script writing, accounting, computer programing, photography, forensic science, research, etc.
I as an autistic customer certainly wouldn't mind if my carpenter, plumber, locksmith, landscaper, personal shopper, cosmetologist/aesthetician/masseuse, tailor, etc. were non-verbal.
Here's what an internet search turned up though:
Jobs for Nonverbal People with Autism or People with Poor Verbal Skills
Reshelving library books -- Can memorize the entire numbering system and shelf locations
Factory assembly work -- Especially if the environment is quiet
Copy shop -- Running photocopies. Printing jobs should be lined up by somebody else
Janitor jobs -- Cleaning floors, toilets, windows and offices
Restocking shelves -- In many types of stores
Recycling plant -- Sorting jobs
Warehouse -- Loading trucks, stacking boxes
Lawn and garden work -- Mowing lawns and landscaping work
Data entry -- If the person has fine motor problems, this would be a bad job
Fast food restaurant -- Cleaning and cooking jobs with little demand on short-term memory
Plant care -- Water plants in a large office building
(https://www.iidc.indiana.edu/pages/Choo ... s-Syndrome)
Oh... I'd love that! One of reasons why I cut my hair myself (2nd being - I hate people touching my head, but I could handle that) - hairdressers always want to talk, always, it's so uncomfortable. Plus I get the eye contact kind of "through" the mirror - horrible.
I often avoid shops where people kind of jump at me and start talking straight away and being a bit pushy. I also avoid chatty people at supermarket checkouts and pick the ones that are usually very quiet. Or self-service.
I do anything to avoid phoning people, I just send emails, texts, letters and the worst thing is if someone leaves only a phone number and does not reply to texts or wants to phone me back. Luckily online help chats are becoming more popular, I have no problem with them.
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I cannot tell you how strongly I relate to this sentence: "for me, verbal speech creates a kind of white noise, a blurring distortion in the mind, and everything seems confused."
I feel this way in conversation with most people, particularly with the habit everyone has these days of interrupting or talking without pauses where I might desire to interject.
In fact, I had an outright meltdown just two days ago, in a public place, because a friend I ran into just started BOMBARDING me with this massive stream of speech and I got overwhelmed. Within maybe fifteen minutes of this WALL of verbal noise, that made me feel that "white noise" static crazy chaotic feeling in my head, I actually started losing control of myself, ranting about random stuff and shouting at her and getting angry. It was like pressure that just built and exploded. She stormed off and I'm left feeling like I don't even care if the friendship is over, because she tends to talk this way a lot, but the other day she seemed particularly overwhelming as she had some agendas she seemed to be pushing on me which also made me feel very "got at" and pressured.
I do wish that I could put on notice everyone I ever have to randomly encounter that I CAN'T TAKE A WHOLE LOT OF TALKING.
All my life I've tried to go along with it but I can't do it anymore, I'm experience quite acute burnout.
In my job -- sorry, that was your original post and I digressed from it! -- there should be minimal speech required, but lately more of my clients are present and push some small talk on me when all I want to do is get on with my work in silence.
Sometimes I wish there were still manned lighthouses and I could just get a solitary job living and working in a damn lighthouse, old-school.
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OMG me too! That's actually one of my fantasies.
I often avoid shops where people kind of jump at me and start talking straight away and being a bit pushy. I also avoid chatty people at supermarket checkouts and pick the ones that are usually very quiet. Or self-service.
I do anything to avoid phoning people, I just send emails, texts, letters and the worst thing is if someone leaves only a phone number and does not reply to texts or wants to phone me back. Luckily online help chats are becoming more popular, I have no problem with them.
I'm OK with my hairdresser touching my head, but mostly because she gives amazing scalp massages. The rest of that though, I can completely relate to. I wish I could walk into a shop from the past- the ones that gave you a nice cup of coffee or tea and a cookie, had you sit down on a couch, and previously having been informed of your measurements and general preferences, would parade models with similar measurements to yours in a mini runway show. Then you'd pick and it would be tailored to you and it would be just right. I've heard from elder female relatives about such things and I can't imagine why they aren't (as?) available now. At the very least, I'd prefer a quiet to silent personal shopper who's aware of my measurements and preferences to show me what's available. The swarming salespeople are acting that way partly because of commission and partly because of security concerns. I wish they would just leave the security to the guards/police.
I remember when AIM was a big thing in college. It was so much nicer than having to phone people to meet up and do things.
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Side note: I am now wondering if there's a special specific collective noun for a large group of politicians.
Since we have "a murder of crows" how about "a lie of politicians"?
"Ooh look, there's a great big lie of politicians gathered outside that building!"
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Factory assembly work -- Especially if the environment is quiet
Copy shop -- Running photocopies. Printing jobs should be lined up by somebody else
Janitor jobs -- Cleaning floors, toilets, windows and offices
Restocking shelves -- In many types of stores
Recycling plant -- Sorting jobs
Warehouse -- Loading trucks, stacking boxes
Lawn and garden work -- Mowing lawns and landscaping work
Data entry -- If the person has fine motor problems, this would be a bad job
Fast food restaurant -- Cleaning and cooking jobs with little demand on short-term memory
Plant care -- Water plants in a large office building
Yeah I encountered that search. And some of it seems a bit ... optimistic. I doubt anyone is going to hire someone who doesn't speak specifically to water office plants, unless it was a faux disability job. How long would that take, anyway? You'd never get enough hours doing that. And fast food - forget it. I lasted two shifts. There is heat, light, LOUD noise, crowds, smells, multitasking, "fast paced" demands, and a LOT of interaction and a LOT of speaking involved. Again, cooking and cleaning sounds fine, but that is never all there is to a fast food job. You are expected to be an "all rounder."
I have applied away for factory and process jobs, thinking I could just wear noise-cancelling headphones, but these kinds of jobs actually seem hard to get unless you already have three years experience.
I am just hopeful there may be a creative way to get into maybe a niche, where the job is realistic, but speaking isn't part of it. I recently met someone who was a geologist for a mining company, and though I wouldn't do that job as it is deeply unethical, it made me wonder about professional jobs that require only practical work and then report writing - which was what he did. If communication was necessary, then email or text might have been enough. One would be expected to conduct a geological survey, then report on their findings.
I just hate speaking so much ...
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For the plant watering jobs, from what I gather, that worker would have a contract with multiple office buildings or something, and would spend the day traveling from one "gig" to the next, watering the plants in each. I don't know much more about it but theoretically if a person were able to get fully booked with a regular roster of rotating appointments with all these different locations, that could fill an eight hour day and five day week -- though that's only the theory, I'm not sure how it really works out for someone pursuing that.
Many jobs that involve doing a service like this for a client, involve creating a roster of clients to visit each day of the week, similar to landscaping/yard work businesses: you don't just cut the lawn once a week for one family, you get hired to be the regular yard guy for multiple homes and have a different one for each day or morning or afternoon.
I just had another idea for a job where you don't need to talk much to anyone -- are there still guys that contract to go and refill vending machines for snacks and cold drinks? Again I don't know much about it but apparently that can be a lone wolf kind of job where you just drive around multiple locations refilling the machines.
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you don't just cut the lawn once a week for one family, you get hired to be the regular yard guy for multiple homes and have a different one for each day or morning or afternoon. .
Got a neightbour who does that, but he's retired and is self insured, and he divorced his schizophrenic wife in the process.
Drive and get contracted to vending machines? Yeah, I'd say that's pretty much last century, the local transport operating system deals with all that anyway, and private contractors are hired from a warehouse supply logistical chain who ship them off wherever the destination is. So, separate corporate companies employing individual recruits for large contractors are off the shipping lanes for the foreseeable future.
A tea or dinner lady is also for the over fifties plus. As are lunchtime supervisors as I sadly found out about, trolley ladies in hospitals, same. Doesn't leave much for the minors or under thirties.
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