My job is getting too much for me

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I've been cleaning at a care home for over 2 years but now I am finding it draining and difficult. They're giving us a lot of pressure, making us rush backwards and forwards in little time, and if we don't get done on time we have to stay behind and finish, and they don't pay us for overtime.
I know it's a job and money and everything but now I'm starting to cry before going to work, and I get exhausted quickly even if I have energy drinks or caffeine, but nobody listens to me because I'm young and so should be fit.
I'm just starting to think it's not the job for me and I want out. I've been looking for another job, but I can't find one suitable. I just can't stick it there any more. I know a lot of people don't like their jobs and have to carry on but I'm prone to stress and anxiety more.

I just want a quiet job, like sorting through mail in the back of a post office. But jobs like that are hard to come by. See, a lot of people thrive on rules and pressure at work because it keeps them occupied, and they can just think of the pennies. But me, even thinking about the pennies don't make me feel better. I hate rules and pressure and being told off at any little thing I forget to do. Some multitasking I can do, depending on what it is. If I'm multitasking in one room, I can do that. But at a care home of over 80 rooms, you sometimes have to multitask all over the building, and it just overwhelms me. What am I going to do if I can't find a less stressful job?

If your supervisor knows about your ASD/autism, let them know that the multitasking is really overwhelming you. Otherwise...

Since I really don't know anything about you as far as education, experience, special interests, etc., all I can do is suggest you start looking for a new job immediately. Preferably, though impossibly, you'd start looking when you first started feeling overwhelmed. Look into what it takes to become a yoga instructor or security guard in your area. If you do become a security guard, look for jobs involving gated communities. You might even be able to find a job where you're currently working. Look at your city's website for jobs working for the city. If you're craftsy, consider selling things on Etsy for extra income. I'm sorry this is happening to you.

I know I would be happier in a job where I can be in the background. I don't really like the public, and authority is the hardest thing for me to do. Doing something like sorting mail in a post office, or washing up in the kitchen at a restaurant, or packing boxes in a factory or warehouse, or typing and inputting data on a computer are the sorts of jobs that I would feel more comfortable in. Yes I know it doesn't sound too exciting but I'd rather that than work somewhere where I'm going to be running backwards and forwards having to think of too many things at once. But the sorts of jobs that will suit me are so hard to come by. Other jobs all seem to want the skills I struggle most with, like must be able to work under pressure, or must have excellent communication skills. It's not fair, because I am very capable of doing things like grocery shopping and house work, etc. But when it comes to the employment world, it seems to frighten me. So I can't get any help because the government just say "if a person can walk, talk, see and hear, and is capable to think and do things for oneself, then they can do anything." So yer, that's my problem. I am too stupid.

No, you're not too stupid. Don't tell them you have AS--that would be the death of your job. I wish I could offer better advice.

I would try to look for a better job while you keep this one. Don't quit this job until you find another job.

I've also heard there's good news on another front

LOL...Nobody's told me anything. People don't gossip to me here.

I was in a similar situation where my job got too overwhelming. There were too many projects at the same time with ridiculous deadlines and everything was an emergency. It didn't use to be like that, but in the last year or so the company I worked for grew rapidly and things changed. I asked my boss if I could work from home at least a day or two every week to help me deal with the stress, but she said no because it wasn't offered to everyone. It had gotten to the point where I felt I didn't have a life anymore. By the time I got off work I was too exhausted to do anything I enjoyed or even anything i needed to get done.

So I looked for another job, and after about 3 months I got one working from home. It is much better and I feel alive again. I am still recovering though from working in an overly stressful environment for over a year. (It was even stressful for many of my coworkers) However things are getting better every day.

However, the job search was highly stressful. It was getting harder and harder to endure my old job while at the same time I was seemingly failing at finding a new one. At times it felt hopeless, and sometimes I wished i never started looking for another job because the job search was stressful. I often thought I wasn't good enough to get hired. But it was worth it.

The sooner you start looking for another job the better. As more time goes by you will just get more and more overwhelmed and have less and less energy for job searching. The job I got is work for home programming. The work from home part really limited my options. Also my experience was limited due to the nature of the programming done at my old job, but I kept searching and eventually, about the time I felt like giving up, I got a job.

So this was really long but basically, search for another job. It will be a difficult, stressful, emotional roller coaster but don't give up.

Ah, that's the catch-22.
I wrote this in another thread:-

This has been the number one issue with me when it comes to finding work. I never know how or when to tell the employer about having AS. First of all, I am ashamed about the AS part, so that's difficult to say for a start. But it is like a ''you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't'' type of situation. Usually employers ask at the interview if you have any disability or anything like that, and I'm afraid that if I say no and they give me a job and I suddenly run into difficulty because of my condition, they might not understand and consider giving me a dismissal. And then if I said then that I have a condition, they will say ''well we did ask you at the interview if you had any disabilities and you said no'', and they will use that as a defense. But if I say yes at the interview when they ask me, it might jeopardise me from getting a job. Yes companies should give people with disabilities a chance, but they know how to work around this, and make us look the guilty ones.

I feel that employers should know about my condition, because sometimes I do need a bit of extra support in some areas, and I do get stressed easily too. I know I am good with passing off as NT, but sometimes I can have eccentric moments, and people then start pointing quirks out, or start picking on me, which humiliates me. Also my (possible) ADHD means I am forgetful, and sometimes I accidentally break health and safety rules even after training, which I know the manager needs to be aware of.

Hi, just by taking health and safety seriously you might do pretty alright and better than average. Perfectionism is probably a trap.

As far as disclosure, there might be a medium course of action and that is to disclose that you are ADHD. People generally understand this more than the Spectrum and understand that there are positives to it. Later on, if you feel yourself becoming friends with someone and you feel that they are a mature person, you might disclose in a light and matter-of-fact way that you're also Spectrum. Kind of the approach and attitude, what it is, is what it is. I'm just me!

I feel that you're short changing yourself in terms of your abilities. Why not use your experience working in the aged care home and seek training qualifications in aged care or occupational health and safety and return to the industry in a higher supervisory role or a specialised area in aged care. Do you really think you'll be happy in another unskilled job where your skills and intelligence will be under-utilised? It's normal to fear having more responsibility in a job. But until you work in a more responsible role you won't know whether you can handle it or not.

As you have experience as a cleaner why not try to find a cleaning job elsewhere? This shouldn't be too difficult. In the past I worked as a cleaner for the council. I found cleaning schools quite pressurised but for a while I had a lovely little cleaning job at the library. There were only 2 other people there and on Saturdays I was completely alone which was bliss for me. There was no pressure in this job. I'm thinking of trying to get a job cleaning hotel rooms as they would all be the same so it would be easy to establish a routine, although I'm not sure how much pressure would be involved, I guess that would depend on the employer.

I don't take health and safety seriously. I am very scatterbrained, clumsy, unorganised and forgetful, that often I accidentally break a health and safety rule, and then get pulled up for it. Then I feel embarrassed and guilty because I could have ''hurt someone'' (physically, I mean. But accidental). And I am not a perfectionist. I'm more of a ''that will do'' person, and I get so eager to move on to the next task....until I get pulled up. Then I get all stressed and confused.

I am starting to reckon that I've had more ADHD traits than anything else. If I said I have ADHD, I would probably get more understood and not so overestimated. But because I wasn't officially diagnosed with ADHD, my mum says that if I told them I had ADHD I would be ''lying''. I try to tell her that I really do reckon I have ADHD, and we've read through various websites about it, and even she started to agree on it. A lot of people on WP say that my supposed ADHD traits are probably just part of AS, but then what's the point in all these other names for other conditions? There must be a line between AS and ADHD, otherwise you might as well say that all conditions are on the spectrum, and that there is no such thing as conditions like Dyspraxia, because Aspies can be clumsy and poor motor skills and bad with directions etc, too. And with the common AS traits that I lack (I am able to instinctively read/feel other people's emotions and body language and can get jokes right away, and I have good theory of mind and can lie if needed, even when I was a toddler I remember being able to do that, etc etc etc), sometimes I do think I could have ADHD. But some people are for it, some are against it. So I'm just going to go with what I feel will make life easier for me and others around me.

Hi Joe:

The truth is, in places like where you work, they don't want to "accommodate" anybody. They just want you to do your job. I wish I could offer better advice for you. I apologize for being so blunt.

They don't care if you're ADHD, AS, or whatever. They only want a clean hospital.

I wish you could enroll in some kind of vocational program which would land you a better job. I'm an American, so I don't know the British vocational system too well. I do know it's better than America's. Maybe be an x-ray technician, say?