Is it alright if your work seems pointless?

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Since I had honestly nothing else to do this summer, I decided to get a summer job at my dad's place, a clothing warehouse... And I honestly don't see the point of what I'm doing.

At first all I was doing was typing up random sheets (mostly just carbon copying shipping info, nothing difficult at all), which while 'important' in its own way would only last up to half an hour total and then I'd pretty much screw around for a good deal of time until more papers came in. After that I was sent down to the floor to perform the oh-so exciting task of putting together cardboard boxes. While it was still 'important', there never seemed to be any real need for what I was doing, as if I asked people if they needed some boxes to be made, they'd just shrug and say things like "if you feel like it". It was nothing that someone else couldn't have done (and someone else likely would have wound up doing it anyways), and once again it ended rather quickly giving me nothing else to do until the other workers finally managed to use up all of the finished boxes.

While I have to work for at least another week or so since I owe some cash that I don't have, I'm not sure if I really feel like working after that. Sure, having extra cash is always great, but the process just seems pointless and I always feel like I'm only there for the sake of being there... Hopefully I'll end up with a proper duty at some point, because right now I just feel useless.

I'd rather work for minimum wage doing something that involves thinking that do really boring pointless work that pays slightly better. Of course if you have to work to make a living to survive, sometimes you have to do what you have to do. But I'd easily trade financial gains for more satisfing work.

Of course the options are greater when you don't have to raise a family or anything and just support yourself.

babe..its your dads place...so you will get paid wether you work or not..sound slke they are treating you like a work experience girl and just giving you stuff to get youout of the way..just stick it out, its a job, stop being so aspie honest and string out the jobs to lasdt longer........this is how it works

how about you try to find a job you like. if you do find a better one you can quit this job(if your dad doesn't mind). If you don't find a better one at least you will still have a job.

You have to start somewhere. It might be the most boring job you'll ever have, but you can put it on your resume as experience. Stay there for at least 2 months! You'll be glad you did. At least it's not hard or unpleasant! Boring is always better than unpleasant. Stick with it.

The notion of "starting somewhere" is very very true. My first job was absolutely horrible. It involved working as a lifeguard at a pool, where there were a lot of obnoxious pre-teens who flat-out refused to follow rules. And I wasn't even given the phone number to call security. It was the worst job ever, paying minimum wage, and I wouldn't go back there for anything.

Despite all that, it was a job. It gave me at least some kind of work experience that I could use on my future job applications. It also gave me income; cold hard cash that I could truly call my own. And one thing my parents were lenient about was how I spent the money I earned. At that time, I started making friends, so luckily, I had the money for doing things.

So tough it out, and stay on this job. This "boring job" will end in a few months, but being able to put it on your resume will benefit you for many years to come. And having cash you can call your own is always nice too.

I work at a f*****g bagel place, I'd love to find another job but haven't been able to find anything better. So how's that? s**t, boxing boxes and typing up sheets seems like much better (albeit boring) work than what I'm doing.

I often thought if there are any such jobs/careers such as adult aspies working with aspie children, aspies teens? I would like to get into that field. Would I have to go to school for that type of work? I figure aspie and autistic children and teens would rather have someone who really understands there way of thinking and being and who would really love to help them with daily living skills, rather than NT's because aspies are likely to understand them better than NT's would. My mom believes I would be not only good with NT kids, but really good with aspies, autistics, and other children with special needs. I too believe we would be really good working with the special needs children and adults as well. What do you all think?

I've looked into that myself, I think you either have to get a degree in Psychology or Social Work, which is about 6 years of school...but then again you might be able to avoid that if you volunteer first and get the experience. Some places may be more lenient in the hiring of those w/o Psych or Social Work degrees if you have the experience to back it up.

Vinzer,

I started out working for my parents' business and it was kind of pointless work. My dad had a drug store and the store gave out free TV listing guides to all the local motels and restaurants in the area (and to customers) as a promotional item. We used a rubber stamp to put the name, address, and phone number of the store on each one and my brothers and I did the stamping.

We were little kids and didn't get paid, but it was our first job. As we got older, we got more responsible jobs and eventually (at about 12 years old) my parents started paying us. All our wages were put into our college fund.

Eventually one of my brothers ended up buying the company from my parents. So pointless work can definately lead to something better.

Your job is not really pointless. You are gaining work skills such as showing up on time, following directions, interacting with people, and so forth. Once you've proved you can show up reliably and do the work assigned, ask your dad if there are other things you can do. And look around to see if you can find work that's not being done. Maybe something needs to be organized or straightened, swept up, or cleaned. Maybe you have some special skills or interests that you could apply. Maybe with your Aspie perspective, you can see better ways of doing things that others don't notice. You need to be careful and tactful and ask before you do anything. You don't want to take away someone else's job, mess up a system that you don't know about, or get a reputation as the boss's interfering, know-it-all (or know-nothing) kid.

If you see someone doing a job you're interested in, you could ask if you can "shadow" them and watch what they do and see if you can learn. Some people like to share their skills and knowledge. Be sure to ask them to let you know if you start to get annoying.

Look at this as a chance to learn all you can.


asperoasis,

I'm sure you could have a future working with Aspie and autistic kids. When I was in high school I volunteered at a school for autistic kids. This was back in the bad old days when most kids with autism were put in institutions and when autism was blamed on bad parenting ("refrigerator mothers"). Boy aren't we glad those days are past. Ugh! As an adult I volunteered as a 4-H leader and several kids in our club were Aspies. I bet if you contacted your local autism society or support groups, you could find volunteer opportunities to work with AS kids. That would give you some experience and you could find out if it was something you liked. You can also talk to people who are currently working with AS kids, maybe even some of your teachers, to find out about their careers and education.

I'm not sure how old you are, but Campfire and the Red Cross (in the USA) teach babysitting classes (4-H also has child care projects). These could give you some basic skills working with kids. First aid classes are always useful when working wtih kids. Many community colleges have early childhood education courses. There are many books about working with and teaching AS kids that you could read. In college, you could get a degree in social work or education, depending on what direction you wanted to go. If you wanted to be a special education aide, I think that only takes a two-year degree (at least in the USA). There's also theaputic day care for kids and families with special needs. I'm not sure what the qualificaitons are for being a theraputic daycare worker.

Some of these jobs don't pay really well, even though they are very important. Don't let that discourage you. Learn as much as you can about all the different kinds of jobs people do working with and helping AS kids and you are sure to find a career that ftis you. As I mentioned before, your local autism society may be a good place to start.

Best withes,
Melinda, FGM

(quoting the thread title)

I'm the hardest working carry-out at my store.
*sarcasm* Pointless? Who the hell said it was pointless?! *sarcasm*

my dream job would either be at the balloon factory or the bottle factory. blowing up balloons and breaking bottles respectively of course.