What is your experience with being a cashier, security guard, manual laborer, or janitor?
As a kid I sold wine and vegetables. I was happy in both jobs. They were small local independent shops, and the boss and other staff were like a family.
How did autism affect your performance?
Only a little. I could be too meticulous in aligning the bottles on the shelves and in the cellar. And sometimes I could talk to the customers too much instead of getting them out of the shop so that the next customer could be served. In a small shop that wasn't a problem. In a large or chain shop it would probably have got me into trouble.
What kind of unskilled jobs are good for autistics?
I may be stretching the definition of 'unskilled' here. I wanted to mention software testing, but I think that counts as a skill.
I know autistic people who do freelance data entry jobs for public and private services. The work is simple and repetitive, but detailed. Precision is important. The tasks are well-defined and linear; there is no multitasking or sudden changes of focus; it's not people-facing; it can often be done working from home, depending on the sensitivity of the data. The advantage with being freelance is that the focus is on the work alone, rather than the other stuff that often goes with being part of a company (team bonding, social events etc.) which autistic people (speaking only for myself) don't handle very well.
16 Jun 2024, 10:41 pm
