The inability of autistics to earn a living

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I am sure many auties and aspies will agree its not the part of getting the job and doing the work (Its a breeze, we do the job very well)
but the part of fitting in and environmental factors like noise, cold, distractions, that gets into us.

I have never worked more than a year in any job after my graduation from university.
And my latest job of 4 years long (a miracle really) is looking to end...

We just have to hope that God will make a way for us.

Stand by us, oh Lord.

I have been working since I was 18 and have had five jobs total, I'm on my 5th one. The longest I ever worked was my last one and it lasted two years. I worked full time for a year and a half before my hours got cut due to the economy. It was hard finding a new job so I ended up going to this company that is for people with disabilities and they give them jobs. It's janitor stuff and they fire lot of people for not being able to do their job. My husband has came close to losing his too due to his feet. I went unemployed for six months after the company graduated me from training. I worked three times in April but then got put on haitis (sp) because I didn't have a GSA badge. So it took me about a month to get one and I was put to work in June and have been working ever since.

I have always found getting a job difficult because lot of places wouldn't hire me nor call for an interview so I blamed it on lack of work experiance, then I blamed it on the economy. I even applied at hotels again and got no phone call.

But I have a job again now and it ain't no hotel.

I can remember my first job attempts---and the jobs I got. When I was in high school I tried to get a job at the new grocery store down the road from where I lived. The owner was needing a lot of people since it was brand new. The owner, who also did the interviewing, knew my family and me. I thought I would get the job because he always seemed to like me. I interviewed and didn't get the job. I never knew why. Then, when I was in college, a friend of my Dad's ran a shake shop and said he needed summer workers. He told my Dad to have me come in for an interview. I did---and I didn't get the job. I never knew why. Then, I got a job at a very nice locally owned department store. The lady who was a big wheel there saw that I got hired---she was my cousin. And, when I got my teaching job (where I still teach), I was recommended by the principal who was on the hiring team---who happened to be another cousin of mine. That's why I consider myself lucky. If I hadn't had those cousins, I wonder if I would have gotten a job?

Just to comment on the Auntblabby comment I can say that I have no problems being associated with anyone on the autism spectrum. Although I like tradition and am a bit saddened to see the Asperger's label removed, I am also for combining the labels together as Autism (all forms into one).

In 1988 I had an anxiety attack while working at Hungry Jacks (the Australian franchise of Burger King). Left and couldn't hold a job for more than two weeks at a time for the next ten years. No self esteme, just a lot of fear. But I eventually got involved with a job agency that specialised in disability and difficult cases and got a job working in a plant nursery two days a week for a year and a half (boss retired and sold his land). Got a few jobs after that, but always through an agency.

Last job I had for three years. Quality controller in a recycling centre. Unfortunately they lost their contract to a larger company, so they closed down. But here's the thing. That was the longest job I ever held, full time. It was a busy work environment with about forty employees, truck, forklifts, lots of noise. Hell on earth, EXCEPT whereas all the other work stations were high traffic group events, my area was out of the way. It started with a couple of people, but I worked quickly and learned at my own slow pace, but excelled and took over the various stations resulting in the others getting moved to other stations. In the end I had the run of the floor to myself, and run well enough that except for mechanical faults, the bosses never had to come down, which they appreciated.

The QC section had high turnover of staff over the years, but I had the longest single time of anyone at that station. I'd still be doing it if the business was still running. Finished a year and a half ago and unemployed ever since.

Thing is, it suited me quite well. Limited social interaction, working at my own pace, limited intellectual investment, so I could think of other more interesting things, and a bit of personal pride at how I handled my job.

It wasn't a university level job and I didn't get rich doing it. I hated the intrusion into my personal time. But in the end I have to work and it was the best to date. The thing is, there is plenty of work out there that we can do, but it's a matter of recognising/finding it. I got that last job by luck, not searching for something that fit me.

This time luck won't cut it, so I'll try and profile myself and fit it to a work spectrum and fit the results into this geographical region and it's skills shortages.

My jobs include land scaping the boss lived on the street behind mine he saw me jogging by and asked hey Todesking want to mow some lawns. I worked with him for a year until he kept running out of business. Funny thing is he was one of my childhood bullies. When he told me he could not use me anymore he looked like he was going to cry. I guess he found out I am not that weird after all.

My second job my brother got me working at supermarket with him I cleaned the bakery and very badly at that. I worked there for six months. People made fun of my brother because I was so weird. They were afraid to pick on me because they went to high school with me and knew I liked to fight.

My friend Tom felt bad that I was working for minimum wage and hated my job so he said he could get me in working with him as a dishwasher. The boss gave me the job because of Tom and I made him laugh durring first time meeting him at the resteraunt so he gave me the job. He later moved me to the mornings shift because he could have me do dishes, spit chickens, make salads, and fry things. This job lasted nine years I spent the entire nine years being insulted and tormented daily. I put out a few resumes but not one interview came from him. The boss would not fire me because I was doing the work of three people so he was saving money. I was stuck there for 9 years until I was fed up and walked out.

After walking away from the resteraunt job I tried several temp services none of them would hire me because I did not pass the math tests they gave out. (I failed so many tests it caused me for the first time to consider suicide) So I tried this on temp service that my friends claimed took anyone. They gave me a math test but when I handed it in the girl at the desk put in a garbage bag that was sitting with other bags full of other finished tests. They sent me to jobs that immigrants would have refused. The jobs were unsafe, dirty, backbreaking, and full of the worst social misfits you ever wanted to meet. I stayed there for six months until they sent me to a job at a machine shop that was clean and had normal people working there.

At the machineshop I fit in for the first time in my life. My sick sense of humor found an audiance. The only bad thing is that I was nervous around the cnc lathes and had a hard time working with them the screeching, vibrating, and grinding noises made uneasy and nervous. They told me they had fun working with me but it was not working out. On my last day the metal finisher quit so they let me see if I could do metal finishing. On my first try I did better than the old metal finisher so they called the temp service and hired me fulltime. For the first time in my life I had medical insurance, a 401k, and somewhat descent wage. I worked there for nine years until they ran out of jobs that did metal finishing and the only jobs left for me to do was operating the cnc lathes. So after 9 years of busting my ass I am now laid off. I have been without work since October 09' oct 1st will be one year without work. I still do not know what I am going to do.

I've been very lucky to have a boss who has been patient with me and willing to work with me to get good work out of me despite my faults. He seems to demand more conformity to his way of doing things than I'd like, but I'm starting to see things his way and trying to mesh the two. It's been very interesting.

I'm afraid to change jobs because I don't want to have to go through this with another employer.