Job Burn Out and Aspies?

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I think Aspies can handle change but we often need more time and possibly more explanation than most in order to assimilate it. I think our lack of social skills means it is harder to form the kind of networks we need in order to find another job if one is unsatisfactory. I don't know how others on the forum feel, but things have to get pretty bad before I can get up the courage to make any kind of major changes.

When I am working I tend to over-do it, and try to get as many hours as I can so that I have more money. This backfires because the burn-out I feel get is far worse than any benefit I got from the extra cash. Then I turn into an as*hole and sabotage the job

I voted "within months" ... which is more or less true... the longest job I've had lasted 18 months ... was also the best job I ever had and at least for a while, I was being paid just to solve the company's most difficult software development challenges ... they actually described my position as "R&D" after the fact, which was cool by me, because it was the best description I could give of not only what I was doing, but what I have always *wanted* to do... unfortunately the company wasn't paying me enough even after 18 months and started to become very regimented so there was a lot more "paperwork" in the job and I think more than there needed to be. At a number of jobs I've been fired before I burned out -- usually for reasons related to AS, except that I didn't know about AS until a little over a month ago. I really think if I had another job that was the same sort of R&D in a software development environment, particularly a "lead developer" or "chief architect" job and especially one in which I got to make decisions about what to develop and when and how, I think I could do that happily for the rest of my life and not burn out.

I'll get back to you when people actually start giving me jobs...

That's what I was trying to tell that guy who put on another thread that people on welfare were leeching off the system. It's all very fine to say that but if there are not enough jobs to go around, people have to live somehow.

The longest I have been able to keep a job is about six months.
Most of my jobs do not actually fire me, I quit before they can. I prefer to leave on my terms than to leave with an official black mark on my name.
I think that most of the time it is not so much us getting sick of the job, more that is is the job getting tired of us. It takes a lot of concentration for me to maintain a facade of 'normality', and I think that after a short time that facade starts to wear thin. when that happens, the employers and co workers get to see me in my natural state and are usually dissatisfied by what they see.

ooooooooh boy can I relate, folks!

The longest job I've had was about a year and a half in a call centre - but I never took calls, I did processing at my little station and kept to myself. I did make a couple friends there.... and made enemies with the most social of the girlies there (also the most easily offended. I guess I made a comment one day that made her feel foolish so she made it her mission to cause trouble, spread lies, etc.)

But it seems every job I go to it's the same thing... I just can't get along with my workmates - particularly bullheaded management-types!

The more people I deal with, espeically coworkers, the more burned out I get.

Wanna' know the real irony? I LOVE the feeling of helping people! I'm actually a pretty good salesman IF I know what I'm selling and I'm allowed to do it *my* way. Problem is, all the retail-flunky shops want you to push extended-warranties (aka pure cash for the company) and I simply refused to when I knew it was a lousy deal. Management does NOT like a low-ranking employee telling them (directly, indirectly or even accidentally) that theirs is a bad idea.

Most jobs only last about 6-12 months. I've GOT to do something different! One job I loved doing and could have done for a long time, was work the file room. Organizing, finding, replacing files in storage. Peice of cake. No stress (though many couldn't stand the job - too many numbers confused them...) and I could even listen to my MP3 player. But then the company laid off a third of the workforce. +50 of us out on our ears.... but the boss got her last licks in and FIRED me on my last day. Nice, eh?

Like MeshGearFox, I too have pushed myself to stay with a hated job. I crashed big time. I won't do that again. The only way I can work fulltime is to carefully monitor my stress levels. Sometimes I don't do it well. This past week for example, there were too many people in the room and too much going on for me to concentrate. I could feel it in my stomach. And I acted a bit immature and angry which isn't characteristic of me. Looking back, I should have left the room, taken a walk, left the office early - whatever it took to get my stress level down. Staying in that room was a mistake. Trying to be a 'team player' when I'm absolutely not a team player is exhausting.

The money is good. I have interesting work. But handling the social interaction aspect is so hard. I take it one day a time. Reading what others post here helps remind me I'm not alone.

Aaahh, gotta love that hindsight...

I feel another crash and burn coming on even though work has improved. It's the other stuff plus the aggravations at work that have done me in. This seems to happen about once a year. Perhaps I should see the doctor and say I feel this way in the hope that it can be averted because I'm good at what I do - it's just all the bull that goes along with life that I struggle to cope with at times.

What do you do Pandora? what sort of hours do you work?

Man, I'm already getting the burn and I've only been at this job for three weeks. Most of my work day is after most everyone else has gone home, which is fine by me. The only problem is those first two hours where it's active as hell. I mean you've got one guy on one side who thinks it's hilarious when he talks in a high-pitched voice, and the guy on the side is only encouraging him by laughing at it. The latter guy also likes to drum on our desk a lot.

Ah, but at least it's more peaceful now that it's 6:02

Read this and had a flashback to doing data entry on 2nd shift (5pm-1am) many years ago... made me nostalgic... wish I could go back to that... though even if I found another job like that, the state wouldn't let me at this point.

This is exactly why I don't work anymore. Jeeze I'm glad I'm not the only one who has this reaction!

I somehow managed to eventually work myself out of having that reaction... although the first several jobs I had, I definitely had that response... I remember in my case specifically it was mostly debilitating stomach pain, although I did have a few migraines in there for variety... when I called in sick, the stomach pain went away pretty much immediately -- the migraines not so much, but I was generally okay the rest of the day... But somehow I eventually managed to overcome it... wish I could say how specifically.

I ended up going back to school not so much because I wanted to make more money, but because the tedium of low-level jobs was driving me insane.

Now I've got a much more challenging job, but even so, after a year of it I'm sick of it and looking for something different.

I always thought it was just me, and that I'm really easily bored. Is this another aspie trait?