Aspergers and unemployment

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It is probable that those numbers are true. I am 30 years old, and I have never had a full-time job for any length of time. The last full-time job I had was in 2007, and it was a help desk position; I only lasted 12 weeks before I got fired. Before that, I worked some temp jobs doing data entry work, which got boring quickly, and I also worked part-time retail jobs. Shortly after I got fired from the help desk position, I returned to school full-time until about 2013. I currently work part-time at Amazon, but it is starting to get to me. I have trouble in my interaction with other people, which makes holding any job difficult. It is very depressing for me that I can get any job in my field of expertise, Information Technology, my parents are getting tired of me living a home, but I can't afford to move out.

It would be interesting to see a cohort analysis on this issue. It may be that the older cohorts have or have had a much higher rate of employment, for a variety of reasons, even though they shared the same autism challenges and strengths as currently younger cohorts.

What I think a reliable study might find is that the ASD unemployment rate is rising, and if so, I see that as probably due to many factors, and internalised stigma may be one that is particularly powerful in hampering the search for younger cohorts.

Furthermore, it may be that the employment rate amongst ASD academics has been more stable than in non-academic areas.

The whole issue has been talked about very simplistically; Autism Speaks basically used made up estimates and presented them (as usual) as 'facts', without (as usual) having any regard to the well-being of the population that they claim to be so concerned about (us). The unemployment figure was used by them to highlight how expensive we are to 'real people', (disgracefully) to encourage more prejudice by promoting more stigmatisation. That is what they do, sadly.

I have seen studies that make claims though I have yet to see a robustly designed study on this issue. On the other hand, that ASD people are discriminated against in job selection is indisputable, and blaming the victims is loathsome when what the true issue actually is most probably structural forms of economic oppression.

If anyone knows of a robustly designed study, I would like to see it, please link it here.

This article reports research that found a 35% rate - a very great difference from the 80% claim. I haven't seen the original study itself (yet).

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012 ... m-disorder

One variable that would bias studies and their samples is that diagnostic clinicians are far more likely to diagnose an unemployed person as being on the spectrum (perhaps matched by the corresponding bias that someone securely employed is misdiagnosed). Also an unemployed person may be more inclined to seek formal diagnosis.

There are clinicians who seem to think: "You have a successful career? How could you possibly have autism?" So samples drawn from diagnosed populations will be biased to a greater or lesser extent by these misconceptions and samples where only diagnosed people are studied. From reading on WP and other forums, successful women seem to be the least likely people to receive a diagnosis even when they present with solid characteristics and history. Their experience of work is not going to show up in survey type studies that rely solely on diagnosis for selection, and their input appears largely absent from the spurious claims made about the ASD unemployment rate.

I just skimmed the article, but from what I see the article did not find an unemployment rate of 35% in the general population, but rather only for youth 19-23 in their sample. Full article is free at the bottom of the news report. To quote:



Based on that, it sounds like you are correct that "structural forms of economic oppression" are the major contributor. The paper only examined youths up to the age of 23, and they also separated them into groups based on "functional skills", i. e., "how well each youth could do the following: tell time on an analog clock, read and understand common signs, count change" and so forth. For the more affluent who also scored higher on "functional skills", the rate of non-participation in education or employment was only 3% if I am reading the chart correctly. Oppressed minority groups also had higher rates of non-participation, indicating the importance of an intersectional perspective in understanding the issue. This latter issue is particularly concerning since there is evidence suggesting that people of color are more often misdiagnosed or not diagnosed compared to White people.

With the exception of sporadic spells when I volunteered, I have only worked as a paid employee for a period of approximately 10 months. This is a rather shameful admission for me to make as I will be 'celebrating' my 26th birthday in May. Worst of all, I have never had a successful job interview in my life. It was a local employment agency who found me work as a quality inspector and taxi surveyor, and these were both fixed-term contracts in the year 2010. I now fear that I will never work again.

I went to college and did a law degree, but the only position I have ever held for any period of time was in the government as some kind of office clerk for about a year. I don't even know how I got the position, I was a wreck at the interview and I didn't even tell the recruiters about my diagnosis because I didn't want to be treated differently either at hiring or in the workplace. It was far below my actual intellectual capabilities but it was either that or starve, so I did the sensible thing.

It was not fun. I can't count the number of times my boss called me to her desk for things like "not saying 'good morning' with the right tone of voice" (I have only one tone of voice - flat - and my idea of modulating it is mostly about increasing the volume) or "not smiling enough". I was very naïve and eager to prove myself so the ones with more seniority often just piled their work on me and I had to be told directly to stop doing their work. I thought that was completely normal and that they just had more things to do than I did because they had been there longer. I thought it was actually great that they trusted me with it, but perhaps they would have trusted it to a sea slug as long as it was being done. I tried really hard to be liked but to this day I don't really know how to. All I know is that whatever I did exhausted me. I took my cues from the frequent warnings I received and tried to change my behaviour accordingly, but it wasn't natural so it wasn't easy, sometimes to the point of being nonsensical to me.

In fact it was so not fun that I cracked and spilled the beans to my (real) superior. I have Asperger syndrome. Next thing I knew, everybody knew about it. It was then that it started being really weird. For instance, one girl accused me of calling her drunk at 2am. I don't mean that she accused me in front of HR or anything, I mean that rumours were spread. The people there loved rumours and would start talking about anybody as long as they weren't within earshot. I didn't learn about it until months after the fact. Given that I don't drink or do drugs it obviously couldn't have been me. I think I'd know. But then again I'm kind of used to people assuming I am some sort of psychopath once they learn about my "peculiarity". My old neighbour once told my mother that she was scared that I'd kill her two boys.

Eventually I was let go due to an anonymous tip that I did something that was quite against the rules (though not anything criminal). The direction sat on it for months, seemingly until acting on it would cause me the most problems possible. I was not allowed to defend or explain myself. I'm not going to say I didn't do it, because to be frank I skirted the line, albeit naturally, my opinion on the matter is that I wasn't close enough to the line to warrant immediate termination, especially when the only "proof" they had amounted to hearsay. I could have fought it and I would probably have won, but I wasn't unionized and it would have been too much bother to do it myself against such a huge machine. I figured that I shouldn't stay where I am obviously unwanted. There were rumours that some positions in my dept. were being cut anyway, so I figure that it was done this way to avoid paying me severance. Whatever.

That's my one employment story.

I actually had 3 other jobs. Two of them were in a supermarket - in the second one, interacting with people was too much and I'd take any excuse to go do stuff in the back room, where it was found that I was working too slowly. I was, since I didn't want to go back to serving customers. The first one (my first job ever) I quit myself. I also briefly worked at a convenience store on a night shift. Serving customers (again) was painful, but the rest of the time was pretty good. I got fired again because once I finished all my tasks, I did not know enough to pretend to do something for the camera. My mother told me after the fact that when things slow down, I should pretend to do anything at all as long as it looked like I was busy. Instead I brought my 3DS along and played Monster Hunter. That's my bad...poor judgment on my part. If there is a next time, I'll know to fake.

Whenever I talk about this with people they always tell me that most people don't like their jobs and merely endure them and their coworkers, and if they're able to then so should I. I don't think they get it. What sounds like mere boredom or difficulty to someone else is soul-crushingly oppressive to me. People just assume that it's easy to deal with people. We are a social species after all. I don't think they realize the magnitude of what it is they ask us to do. When it comes to dealing with others, we have to spend actual energy and focus doing tasks that are supposed to be close to instinctive. It's the difference between having a computer solve a long string of equations for you and doing it yourself with a pen and paper.

As for working as a lawyer...I did not know that college was for networking. I honestly didn't. I never understood the point of all these "wine and cheese" meetings with people from the city's firms, big and small (mostly big). I mean I knew that you met these people there, but why would they make it easier for you to get an internship or a position? Aren't you just some student and isn't the reason why you're attending all these meetings patently obvious to everyone involved? I still don't understand how it works. If you want to tell them about all your qualities and qualifications, surely the interview is there for that. If you want to talk about more personal stuff, should that even enter into the equation? Unfortunately it is hard to obtain legal work in my country without this "legwork". Plus, I long since graduated, so I can kiss any decent internship goodbye.

So there you have it. It wouldn't even be so bad if I had anything to put on a resume at this point. I have no references, and I can't very well put the jobs I was fired from as work experience. Without my degree, my resume is terribly empty and not for lack of trying. I actually started another graduate degree in something else but I hate it. I quit midway through due to other circumstances (a nice depression). I'm supposed to go back this September but I'm not sure I want to. Unfortunately it's either that or I try and get disability because I can't get grants for another degree; either I finish this one or I don't go back at all. I truly don't know what to do. Coworkers and customers and so on are freaking everywhere and it seems I can't escape them, and if I don't escape them I can't keep my jobs. I don't see myself in a trade because I'm really clumsy. Thing is I would love to contribute to society. If I were on disability because of Asperger I think I'd feel very ashamed. I just don't know how I can do that in a way that will benefit me too, and that's after years of searching for an answer. Sometimes I simply wonder if my place is that I have none. That's definitely not how I saw myself as an adult when I was a kid.

If I had to go back, I would pick linguistics as my major because phonology is my special, obsessive interest. However I was convinced that I would never find work in my dream field (on-terrain analysis) so instead I chose law because I figured there was work. Halfway through I realized I didn't like it but I stuck with it because I figured I might as well see the other half done. Now I'm in the same situation in regards to my master's. I don't like it but I might as well finish it just because. However, my patience is running thin when it comes to enduring things I don't like doing.

I guess I rambled but it was quite therapeutic to write all that. Bottom line is I can't hold my jobs either.