Is being a cashier a bad job for an Aspie?

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I'm not talking about the work itself. If anything, I think if I could just ring up groceries all day, I would like it more. It's the people and the noise and the smells that bother me. I think the worst part is that I get incredibly bored when there aren't any customers. I can stock tobacco for a while, which I actually enjoy since I like sorting things. But that only takes so long. I sweep and clean up my station, but that only takes a few minutes. Otherwise, I'm left doing nothing but pacing around, waiting for something to do. It would be different if I was allowed to occupy myself with a book or something, but that's against the rules. And of course, socializing with my coworkers is not something that I can easily do. So yeah, it's pretty mind-numbing.

Luckily, I may be quitting that job soon in favor of a lab assistant position at my university. I can at least take solace in the fact that I won't be a cashier forever.

So, any other Aspies had a cashier job? What was your experience with it? Any other jobs that would be a bad match for an Aspie?

I do it as an alternate to my profession at times. It is very boring and I tend to over-work areas that are already tidy, etc. which annoys people. Oh well. I think people that want to work the whole time they're at work are the minority... (why this is so, I will never know)

A cashier is a job you do because you have to, not because you want to. I'd say it's no better or worse than any other minimum wage job, but don't think of it as a long-term position. For the record, I had cashier jobs all through high school/college.

A lab assistant would be a great opportunity. You learn a lot of very interesting things working in a lab, and it looks great on a resume as well.

I echo what the other posters are saying.

"Lab Assistant" does look much better on a resume than "cashier."

Not to say one should be ashamed of being a cashier--it's better than not having a job at all.

I had trouble with my register not adding up at the end of the day, and I frequently had to make up the difference out of my own pocket. I have a nonverbal learning disability, so cashiering was challenging.

Despite my skill at math, being a cashier was a difficult job for me. I had trouble keeping up with the pace of my coworkers, much to our chagrin. I also had problems standing up still for long periods of time (which I now recognize as orthostatic intolerance). All the people, noise, lights, all the different things you had to coordinate, made the job very difficult to sustain and I just got up and quit one day (and that was just for one of the jobs).

I kept asking to do stocking instead, but kept getting rebuffed.

I actually quit 4 days ago from being a cashier.
The noise levels were what bothered me the most. The job was incredibly easy and paid very well, but (especially around Christmas because I worked at Hobby Lobby) it would get very noisy. The kids and babies were the worst.

I too got bored very easily. I became known as the "returns girl" or the "runner" because I would move very quickly and returned items to their spots because I didn't want to just stand there.

For the social part, I copied EVERYONE. After a few months, I talked and behaved like all the other cashiers so I could socialize. I felt like such a fake, but hey, at least they didn't think I was weird.

I was a cashier for a local retail store a couple of years ago. I couldn't handle any aspect of the job, especially the customers. There's no way I'd go back to doing that sort of work again.

Me? A cashier? You got to be kidding. It is a job I would never do. So many people, so many distractions. I can't even focus on the money when I am the one paying - I never count if I got right amount of change, I just get away from the scary place as soon as possible, putting the change to my pocket blindly. I would honestly suck as a cashier. Anxiety would kill me.

However I wouldn't mind being a storekeeper or a service assistant - one of those who walk between shelves, take care of the order and amounts of stuffs and answer technical questions about the articles to curious customers. In fact I already do it when I am in a shop - I like fixing the order of stuffs on shelves and for some reason other customers often ask me shop/article related questions... and I am usually able to answer, despite the fact I don't work there.

I'm a cashier, have been for a year and eight/nine months. I like how structured and routine it is - set breaks and lunch, i always know what to expect out of any given work day, etc. I learned how to socialize to a passable degree with customers by copying what other cashiers were saying to their customers, and by just asking customers their preferences for how to bag certain items as i scan them (if they havent already voiced a preference). That way i talk to them still, and have been called friendly even, but its all scripted. It works though because i'm sociable and friendly to a point yet i'm not expected to keep up a conversation and scan at the same time cause i can't talk and scan at the same time. I lose track of what i'm doing then, cause talking takes up too much of my focus.

All the noise used to bother me when i first started out. I'm sensitive to noise, hypersensitive is the word i'm looking for, so i hear everything at once there's no background noise. I can only block it out if i'm focusing fully on the customer right in front of me, but it took months for me to get to the point where i could hyperfocus on the customer enough to block out all the chaos and noise. Until then, i had lots of anxiety attacks at work. Even now, i shutdown sometimes at work. Its nothing major, in fact i dont even know that anybody's picked up on it for what it is. I just get overwhelmed and literally cant talk to customers any more. I dont greet them, tell them their total, nothing, i just go through the motions. I just cant take any more at that point so i just stop talking. It used to happen more but now it only happens if its near the end of my shift or if i've had an angry customer that rattled me a bit or something like that. My aspie-ness is a lot more obvious if i'm really tired or hungry or otherwise not on top of my game. I can hide it a lot better otherwise.

I'm a cashier in a restaurant and I'm able to handle it. Mostly because I pretty much just have to follow a script when taking customers' orders. I just greet them and ask all necessary questions, but no small talk involved! We get really busy during the lunch hour but I just get in the routine of putting orders in the cash register. I tend to have a harder time working during slower times, when I'll be doing other things like making tea or stocking things. It drives me nuts when I'm in the middle of that but then an occasional customer comes in and interrupts me and I have to stop what I'm doing! Because I just like to do one task at a time and finish one thing before doing another.

Hello, this is my first post/reply.

I am currently a cashier at a socially demanding and fast paced store. I hate it but I'm "the best" at my job. Shocking...I just copy my "guest" and organize the stuff well. I follow every rule and smile the whole shift. I communicate with my co-workers and managers. I do my absolute best and work harder than I think I probably should be. I'm exhausted after two hours of work but I keep going. My store plays music regularly and we often have children screaming or babies crying or both. The worst if not most annoying parts of it are when our computers or printers don't work or break...I can't do anything at all but apologize and not get obviously irritated. No one suspects much. I'm twenty one so I'm a younger worker compared to my co workers and they like to be physical, hug and pat shoulders and I do get why to a degree because my face just shows constant discomfort, they want to help me feel better. They are gems to work with because they do most of the talking. My wages are very good and I get plenty of hours now and then. I can't just leave because I want to go back to college and get a degree.

Yes!! !

I've been fired from every single one I've had and I'm not kidding