People on the spectrum at work...what do you do?

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Wow...I would've thought that would be scream and cry territory, having to work in a call center. I mean, I got ticked-off customers in my last job, but I would've been terrified of that job because I know I usually don't call a place like that unless something is wrong.

(And my previous job really triggered some real freakouts. Thank God I am now in a new job, as an auditor, and I have something much more structured to do. Whoops...I guess I just put my job in this thread anyway.)

I have a part-time (2 days a week) job, and the rest of the week I'm self-employed. Both jobs are webdesign and programming. Some people I work with know I'm autistic, I don't keep it a secret, but I don't disclose randomly.

I work as an information analyst for the government, it was actually work who referred me to a specialist for diagnosis, and paid for the assessment. As I have since been told - I am now protected by law and work has to make reasonable adjustments to my work and workplace. I haven't decided which work colleagues I will tell, if any, but there is no rush. Have also been told that there are quite a few with AS at my place of work (lots of analytical, mathematical, computer type stuff) - so I'm in good company.

Previous to that I was in the Army for 9yrs - when you get told to do things its pretty black and white which is easy to understand, although sharing rooms was really stressful. Sharing with 10 is actually easier than 1 or 2, as with 10 there is always someone else for the others to talk to.

Before that I was a schoolteacher - planning lessons and analysing performance was great, but I struggled determining what constituted bad behaviour so only did that for a couple of years.

Well, it very well could've been, if there was any choice for me. I came to this AFTER doing what was probably the worst possible choice (a position requiring actual random door to door sales pitching, paid only on commission) given my capabilities.

I think that if I'd gone through life convinced that something was very wrong with me, I may not have had the strength of will to do some of what I've done by now. I always had a very strong external locus of control- that's blaming outside factors instead of being aware of things in yourself that cause problems- though some of it for good reason after some abuses I went through at age 9 or 10.

I don't really describe myself as having any social phobia, where some aspies do have it in addition to the spectrum traits. I think it is important to be aware of how the two can interact while also acting separately.

I think I grew into the capability mainly by the force of my avoidance of social thinking. As a teenager I separated myself from the idea of having to think about what others might think of me. In fact I made the effort to repel others from me and make sure they didn't feel the desire to interact with me. I hit a state of such social oblivion that I wasn't aware at all of the malfunctions in interaction that were directly connected to my own behavior. It's strange to describe.

So I found it pretty simple to do the scripted role, while at the same time being able, for the most part, to simply chuckle about those people who were rude or impossible to me. I didn't often allow things to escalate me into a meltdown state because I felt a little bit invulnerable to them, despite those times where I would be completely disarmed and unable to repair a situation. I was able to "survive" that because I could just blame the other person for being an imbecile, and not look at the fact of my own shut-down in those heated situations. When I melt down, reason shuts off and I basically justify an irrational running away. My thoughts don't work correctly and I basically just retreat till I "wake up" from it in a cooled off state. It usually only happens to me if I'm already exhausted and then encounter a strong shut-down.

The only other thing that has helped is that in the field I am in I absorb the information pretty easily, I have developed interest in having the expertise necessary to counterbalance weaknesses in the interaction piece itself. While you can't really "enjoy" figuring out billing math, it did turn my gears when I first started and now I've promoted into a role that's pretty free of frequent bill-complainers and is much more to do with working directly on devices, the main point of interest for me in the field.

Sorry if this is tangential at all to the thread but I thought I'd elaborate on me as an employed person

I'm in the public service.

More specifically, I am a subject matter expert in First Nations treaty negotiations. I am surrounded by mathies and economists, and it suits me fine!

Um. I plan to be a pilot.

I am finding that I can only succeed in things I have an interest in. For example, I currently work at a radio station and while radio is a special interest, music has been a major part of my life for as long as I can remember. That's why I loved my job at Hot Topic -- the music connection. Enjoying what I do means I work really hard and develop the skills that get me noticed as a great employee. The same went for my school work: I only succeeded in classes with subject matter I was interested in (although that technically wasn't true when I started to bomb out of classes I enjoyed because I couldn't do the work). I dropped out of school nearly a year ago.

When I worked for the staffing firm I hated it and only maintained my position because I was extremely close with the general manager of the company who got me the job in the first place. That and they probably knew they couldn't find someone else to take advantage of like they did to me.

I only discovered my AS recently so it didn't come up at work, really. Everyone knows I'm weird and they're mostly okay with it. I don't get picked on or anything. I've told people I work with at all of the jobs that I have AS but usually when discussing something not-work related.

I engineer fiber optic telecommunications networks. (There is a chance you are accessing the internet over one of them)
I took a promotion into management once and then went back to engineering. I couldn't handle the people issues.

I have not disclosed my AS at work. People just take me as strange and eccentric. One lady at work has a child on the spectrum. She guessed and now knows, but she has never told anyone. It is actually somewhat nice to have a ally.

Software development.

I referenced it in a moment of weakness while talking to upper management about teamwork and multitasking issues but I'm still unsure whether it was a good idea, or whether he even understood what I was talking about. But I felt backed into a corner where it was either that or walk out the door. They do seem to have left me to my own devices since then, which is when I do my best work.