Sudden changes to schedule.

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This may be more of a rant than anything else but I don't know what to do. We are running technical interviews at work for prospective employees, and as one of the senior programmers I am expected to run a number of these interviews. Which although I do not like or enjoy them I can cope, I've done enough of them.

So I've started going to the gym every day after work. I'm having enough issues with the fact that the gym on Fridays closes early at 8pm, so I have to rearrange my Friday to fit it in. Anyway now I am randomly being given interviews that run from 6-7pm etc. Which since it takes me 1.5hrs or so to get home from work totally messes up my schedule. its sounds so small and pathetic but I just don't know what to do. I don't think anything I say is going to be taken seriously however I didn't sleep well last night and changing my weeks plans already is stressing me out so much. Last time I had to stay late, and then the guy didn't turn up.

Urgh. How can people be so chill with these kinds of things. IT'S NOT FINE. I HAD PLANS AND YOU DIDN'T ASK ME AND NOW THEY ARE ALL MESSED UP AND I AM REALLY STRESSED AND CAN'T THINK ENOUGH TO WORK. Urgh sometimes I am really not suited to working.

They also keep trying to give me interviews to run on the day, like I get in in the morning and it's like 'SURPRISE HERE'S AN INTERVIEW'. I can take hours sometimes to prepare for interviews, I need to research the person, learn about how they code, read their CV properly, take notes, work out what questions to ask. Plus I need to get suitably anxious and stressed because being forced to interact with someone I don't know in a small meeting room is not my forte.

Anyway... yer anyone else have issues like this? I told my boyfriend and I am pretty sure he just thinks I need to grow up and stop complaining. I feel like there is a big difference between complaining and feeling kinda sick, stressed and completely freaked out.

When you get an interview at the last minute, that's pretty normal I'm afraid. You have to do the best you can and roll with it. Getting last minute interviews for the evening, that's a whole other can of worms. You have a valid complaint. Exercise is an important part of the process to prepare for a good night's rest, and I have trouble sleeping when I don't have exercise.

If you don't plan to address this concern with your employer, could you find a gym that is opened at a later time? If you do cardio, could you buy a cardio machine for your home? Just some suggestions.

On your end, you can regard all plans as tentative - things to do if no interview shows up. My weather service predicts all sunny weekends long-range, and then knocks them off as necessary. Your body will also be primed for the gym, but you can burn that off running up and down any handy staircase and swinging from the handrails.

However, "The essence of modern management is to make individual strengths productive, and individual weaknesses irrelevant." - Peter Drucker

If your boss does not have that engraved in their memory, they need it posted on the walls. Maybe you can go take up lots of your boss's time after every interview, asking if you got it right, and generally making your opinion sound unreliable. You might also be able to help your boss learn to evaluate technical workers without knowing a lot about what they do.

Yeah, I know the feeling. I'm just simply doing my best to learn to deal with it since that's something I have to do if I ever want to live a more or less normal, independent adult life. And I do... I mean the "normal" part isn't necessary for me otherwise, but if I seem too wierd in the eyes of other people I won't be able to get a job and that's pretty important for having an independent life, so yeah. My advice would be to try to learn to tolerate changes and have some flexipility in your schedule. It's far harder than it sounds, I get that, but unless you get your boss to understand you that's pretty much the only thing that I can come up with that could help you.

Thanks for the replies guys, I know you are correct that there is a certain amount of just having to deal with it, and I know I can do it. I just don't know how to deal with all the background stress it causes me. It's not like I try to freak out over it, but I do. And telling myself not to isn't doing much ahaha.

I am basically worried I am going to burn out from all the little things of 'appearing normal'. Humm I don't know... No idea how to deal with all the nervous energy, the gym is only doing so much xD.

I burn out when I'm not able to get enough sleep, and that wastes my previous efforts. However, I have discovered that meditation can help a lot. It is almost necessary now as an antidote to all the overstimulation from modern life with electricity.

Does your employer know you have autism? That can take a lot of the pressure off trying to seem normal. I'd be surprised if you're the only one in your office who has it, given that you work in computer programming. You could ask for a reasonable accommodation to be given only the interviews that you have enough time to prepare for (i.e not the ones who show up out of the blue and immediately need interviewing.)

You can also request to have a reasonable accommodation made to your schedule so that you never stay past a certain time. I'm accommodated and allowed to show up to work half an hour after everyone else because getting up in the mornings is such a struggle for me, and I just stay half an hour later at the end of the day. Maybe you could see if your employer would be willing to do something like that.

I get very cranky if something comes up that stops me from going to the gym on schedule. It makes no difference how important that thing is, the gym is my time to work on me and I don't do well without it.