Anybody manage employees?

[Jimbo]

I have been running my own carpet cleaning business for almost 10 years now and people keep asking me when I am going to add more trucks and employees because most of the year I have more work than I can handle. My problem is that I just don't have the self confidence to manage other people and really I am happy just working alone. I was just wondering if any of you are the manager types and if you feel like being an aspie gets in the way sometimes?

 

[Ste11aeres]

I don't think I could be a manager.

 

[Geordie]

I know of awesome Aspie managers in where I live. Some Aspies can manage other people.

 

[Aspieistj]

I was a nursing supervisor in a hospital for years before I learned I had AS. It was always a huge struggle for me to accept the way the majority of workers thought, felt, worked, etc. I knew I was very different but I just couldn't understand how they could be so uncommitted to my work ethic. I frequently received critical performance evaluations because my staff "didn't like me." I had no clue and finally retired just about the same time I learned I was an Aspie. Now I know. If you supervise a large number of people, most of them will be NTs. They will be VERY different from you and because they are the majority, they will decide you are weird and disrespect you. You will constantly ask yourself why they don't behave the way you think they should. From my experience, if you own the business and have no one above you to answer to, then you can choose simply to try to understand how "normal" people think and enforce your rules and deal with any non-compliance. You are the boss and you may decide to become a tyrant, in the employees' opinion. If you work for others and supervise a group of NTs, they will probably complain about you to your bosses. I found myself constantly tripping over the fact that I just NEVER learned to think like my employees. It was as if they all came from some alien planet.