Day 5 of autism acceptance
Talk about employment and your career. Ā What do you do to support yourself? Ā Are you on disability? Ā Was it hard to get or maintain?
I guess I was mainly lucky on that part. I had a traineeship in a library for my studies and they needed someone. Since I was pretty good at what I was doing, notably with computers, they kept me as long as they needed.
They came back to me a few times and I must have worked 3 or 4 times for them. I never had a job solely by attending a job interview. People always called me back months or years later because they needed someone or the person they chose over me wasnāt the person they needed.
I thought my last job would be my chance to get a long-term job, but it turns out they didnāt want me because Iām too autistic for them. They didnāt say that, but, basically Iām āweirdā, I make people feel uneasy and itās a burden on them that I have sensory processing issues (notably when it comes to noise).
Going to be unemployed by the end of april. My diagnosis is not officialized yet, so I canāt pretend to disability allowance, but I still have my unemployment allowance and, since I worked for quite a long time, I have at least a year to find a job.
Working can be pretty hard because there are so many social rules and so many ways to f*ck them up. Just take the concept of a coffee break :
How long is it supposed to last ? What are you supposed to talk about ? Why is it frown upon to not take a coffee break, because thereās a lot of work to do and you feel like youād be wastingĀ your time ?
Dealing with the noise and the chattering is quite difficult too. They pretended that they didnāt mind if I worked with headphones on when I was in my office, but they actually told me that it was wrong after saying that they didnāt want me anymore. I donāt get it.
I hate the whole ājob interviewā process. It seems to me that itās just theater and that youāre supposed to build a character that your boss will like. You have to be fake to earn your job and itās mind-boggling to me.
Why should it matter more that the other guy they interviewed is super chatty and all if he canāt handle a computer at all and canāt deal with deadlines ? Why should it make him the perfect candidate ? I think this whole system is unfair and very uneffective.
Anyway, I try to stim, even though people can look weirdly at me, because it helps with my anxiety. I have stim toys that I use when itās too much. I also try to have a very quiet and comfortable life outside of work because I need my energy for my job. Well, not anymore, nowā¦