Finding a job with aspergers

[Solveig Inga]

Hello guys, this is my first post to this forum and first time ever connecting with other aspergers/ASD folks! Wondering if anyone can relate to my situation or has any suggestions.

I really am struggling with leaving my current job, but I know I have to. I currently work as a trilingual interpreter, as I am fluent in Spanish and Mandarin. Recently however, there's been a change in management and now I am watched constantly. If I don't turn around files in under 60 seconds, I get an email about it asking my what I was doing. As someone with executive function issues and who struggles with attention span, this has made my job go from great to hellish. Before, I was left alone to do my job and that was fine, but not anymore. I love working from home, I love my hours, but I just know eventually I'll be let go because of this. I've been hiding my aspergers for a long time and have never been formally diagnosed, so there's no way for me to let them know that's whats going on.

I am now on the search for a better situation, however I'm so afraid and distressed about searching for something new I've been in stress overload all day, crying spells and dissociation, complete inability to focus, the whole nine yards. I feel like I wouldn't be successful in or qualified for any of the jobs I see, and I want to do freelance work because I think the freedom and ability to choose my hours would be perfect for me as well as the ability to work from home which is where I'm most comfortable and its a great situation for my service dog too, but I don't know where to start. I have bills to pay and need consistent income in order to survive.

Does anyone have suggestions for navigating job searching as someone with high functioning ASD and with no formal diagnosis? Ive been diagnosed with Depression, Anxiety, OCD, Social Anxiety, ADHD, and IBS but they never caught that it was all just stemming from ASD. Any suggestions for getting started as a freelancer in a serious and dependable way and getting over the fear of getting started? Any suggestions for remote work that pays 20$+ an hour that is good for folks with ASD? Any help is much appreciated!

 

[Raphael Outcast]

This sounds a nightmare. But one day it will be over.

Like you I was diagnosed with a zillion conditions that were actually by-products of the underlying A.S.D. before the psychiatric profession finally, reluctantly, recognized in 2014 that I had been right when I suggested an A.S.D. diagnosis myself in 1998.

Depends if you feel ready to "come out" to an employer about having A.S.D. It may be that the law would give you certain rights, e.g. obliging an employer to make allowances for your A.S.D. and concomitant needs: it is internationally recognized as a disability, after all. So maybe pursuing a formal diagnosis would be a useful step towards protecting yourself from this kind of nightmare arising. There again, some employers are just bad employers.

Freelance work from home sounds ideal for you, and I don't know this but it could be that an enlightened employer would regard your A.S.D. as a superpower rather than an impairment: high linguistic ability can be a feature of Asperger's, for instance, and good attention to detail is a typical feature, so if you had a diagnostic report proving that you possessed qualities like that, you could argue that your A.S.D. was actually a reason to employ and retain you as a translator, rather than a reason to harass or sideline you.

Is there any chance you could flag up with your present employer that you believe you have an undiagnosed A.S.D. and are finding the recent changes unbearably stressful? Is it possible your employer would take a look at your record, see that you're good at your job, and decide to go easy on you?

I have been in a similar position and it ultimately ended my working career. At that time, I had no formal diagnosis. I wish I'd pushed harder to get a diagnosis when I was younger; my last employer did see that I was quite good at the job, and might have been willing to make some adjustments to suit me if only I'd been able to show a formal diagnosis.

 

[Bolletje]

I know in my country hospitals and general practitioners have a phone number they call to book an interpreter for patients that don’t speak Dutch or English. These interpreters mostly work from home. It might be something worth looking into, but I’m not sure that’s enough work to give you full time employment.

 

[Progster]

I used to work (for a brief period) as a language teacher in schools, and lost the job for various reasons - environment, issues with other members of staff, simply not being good at teaching/handling groups, difficulties with class management, and also inspections and observed lessons - I couldn't cope with this at all, so I know exactly what being watched when working feels like.

I now work through teaching online, proofreading/editing and the occasional translation. If you have the right clients, it can earn you $20 and hour (for the proofreading I earn over this amount), but if you don't have the contacts or do the marketing and networking, it can be hard to find clients, and as a person with Asperger's I'm not a very socially active person with a lot of contacts. But in time, it can build up slowly. I'm never going to get rich, but I earn enough to get by plus the occasional trip abroad.

 

[AMANDA DESIREE WILSON]

I just got a temporary job driving a small bus at a local ski resort this winter season. I too have Asperger's, OCD, and Chronic Depression. I like to be around people, but I don't seem to work well with them. So I ended up becoming a professional driver for a few years.

What you need to do is discover what it is that is making you unhappy with your current job. You are lucky to be able to speak three languages. There are many opportunities out there for people like you. For instance, businesses in international trade or shipping and receiving are always looking for people like you.

I too have taught English in other countries. If you don't have problems around others, this is a great opportunity to see the world. However, some people have problems around others. If that is you, then you need to find a job where you can are happy working alone. Don't get upset in your job search. Just do some research and above all, don't burn any bridges.

I am sure that with your qualifications, you will find something that you will enjoy doing.

 

[unperson]

i've done driving jobs too, you work alone except for pick up and drop off. night shift in factories can be ok too, kitchen work, just whatever, just apply for anything, see what happens

 

[Shenandoah]

Argee with Raphael Outcast on seeking a formal diagnosis and trying to seek accommodations with the current employer. They may be just being pricks but it's best not to assume. They could be just following a new process of some kind. Corporate gets stupid like that under a new manager and stuff like that.

 

[Raphael Outcast]

Well, Inga was talking about searching for a better situation, also freedom, ability to choose own hours, and working from home. I have tried driving buses and lorries and farm tractors, as alternatives to teaching. Much as I do adore driving (I've been driving on the public highway since age 13), a driving job will not feel like "a better situation"! The money will be terrible, the hours will be awful, the employer who employs drivers can often be a stupid and unpleasant human being, and (at the risk of sounding snobbish) everyone expects the driver to be a robust and cheery member of the good old-fashioned working classes, so everyone will assume the driver can take any amount of banter or abuse in his or her stride. My capacity for absorbing banter and abuse is zero, to be honest...

That said, if you can find a decent employer who appreciates your dependability and does not let off steam by swearing at you, yes a driving job could suit some people with A.S.D.

But leaving the house is stressful for me, and leaving the house at times fixed by someone else is ten times more stressful (I think this may be Pathological Demand Avoidance), and then the stress induces dissociation and inability to focus etc. as Inga describes, so then you can end up in no fit state to drive!

So I would like to believe some kind of tuition or translation or copyediting work, based mainly at home, must be available. And if you did have an official diagnosis, which you could wave like a white flag, maybe with the right employer that could help you to stipulate or negotiate some slightly more favourable working conditions?

Even if your current employers have alas become uncongenial, and even if they are disinclined to be more reasonable with you, would they at least give you a good reference?

 

[Rasputin]

Hello guys, this is my first post to this forum and first time ever connecting with other aspergers/ASD folks! Wondering if anyone can relate to my situation or has any suggestions.

I really am struggling with leaving my current job, but I know I have to. I currently work as a trilingual interpreter, as I am fluent in Spanish and Mandarin. Recently however, there's been a change in management and now I am watched constantly. If I don't turn around files in under 60 seconds, I get an email about it asking my what I was doing. As someone with executive function issues and who struggles with attention span, this has made my job go from great to hellish. Before, I was left alone to do my job and that was fine, but not anymore. I love working from home, I love my hours, but I just know eventually I'll be let go because of this. I've been hiding my aspergers for a long time and have never been formally diagnosed, so there's no way for me to let them know that's whats going on.

I am now on the search for a better situation, however I'm so afraid and distressed about searching for something new I've been in stress overload all day, crying spells and dissociation, complete inability to focus, the whole nine yards. I feel like I wouldn't be successful in or qualified for any of the jobs I see, and I want to do freelance work because I think the freedom and ability to choose my hours would be perfect for me as well as the ability to work from home which is where I'm most comfortable and its a great situation for my service dog too, but I don't know where to start. I have bills to pay and need consistent income in order to survive.

Does anyone have suggestions for navigating job searching as someone with high functioning ASD and with no formal diagnosis? Ive been diagnosed with Depression, Anxiety, OCD, Social Anxiety, ADHD, and IBS but they never caught that it was all just stemming from ASD. Any suggestions for getting started as a freelancer in a serious and dependable way and getting over the fear of getting started? Any suggestions for remote work that pays 20$+ an hour that is good for folks with ASD? Any help is much appreciated!

I can relate, as someone who was never formally diagnosed. Recently, a few people have disclosed that they suspected ASD. It may be wise to consider transitioning to a new career, something I have done several times. Maybe learning Computer Programming or information security will lead to new opportunities. Good luck!

 

[Raphael Outcast]

One small point which struck me during the night is that, although getting a formal diagnosis can be of some considerable help, it isn't always quite the magic bullet one would like to hope it would be. Ultimately it still depends how humane and enlightened the employer actually is. The so-called specialist team which diagnosed my Asperger's managed to miss more features and manifestations of the disorder than they actually included in their diagnostic report (and my Community Psychiatric Nurse assured me this was quite typical...). So, if your employer is prepared to take a deep breath and simply believe you when you say, "Look, I have Asperger's and therefore I can't cope with X or Y or Z, sorry!" then that's going to be fine; but the diagnostic report you get will not necessarily explain that X and Y and Z are among the things you have trouble with.

In a different context, I have been in the position of forwarding various psychiatric reports to an organization to prove that I was unable to cope with stuff, and then because the reports failed to itemize all the stuff I couldn't cope with, and also failed to emphasize that those difficulties were lifelong and incurable, this organization contrived to allege that my difficulties were not very severe and could be easily remedied. Eventually after my doctor wrote a zillion letters, we did prevail, but I was lucky in having a doctor who was willing and able to write lots of letters. So: a diagnosis can be helpful, but it isn't a magic bullet in all situations.

But good luck, anyway.

The psychometric testing the A.S.D. team carried out on me produced a report stating that my perceptual reasoning and verbal comprehension were very good, so if I were trying to persuade someone that I could be a good editor or translator, I would certainly be emphasizing that evidence as a reason to employ me or retain me: it really does sound as if, in that line of work, Asperger's could be a superpower rather than an impairment!

 

[Rasputin]

Well, Inga was talking about searching for a better situation, also freedom, ability to choose own hours, and working from home. I have tried driving buses and lorries and farm tractors, as alternatives to teaching. Much as I do adore driving (I've been driving on the public highway since age 13), a driving job will not feel like "a better situation"! The money will be terrible, the hours will be awful, the employer who employs drivers can often be a stupid and unpleasant human being, and (at the risk of sounding snobbish) everyone expects the driver to be a robust and cheery member of the good old-fashioned working classes, so everyone will assume the driver can take any amount of banter or abuse in his or her stride. My capacity for absorbing banter and abuse is zero, to be honest...

That said, if you can find a decent employer who appreciates your dependability and does not let off steam by swearing at you, yes a driving job could suit some people with A.S.D.

But leaving the house is stressful for me, and leaving the house at times fixed by someone else is ten times more stressful (I think this may be Pathological Demand Avoidance), and then the stress induces dissociation and inability to focus etc. as Inga describes, so then you can end up in no fit state to drive!

So I would like to believe some kind of tuition or translation or copyediting work, based mainly at home, must be available. And if you did have an official diagnosis, which you could wave like a white flag, maybe with the right employer that could help you to stipulate or negotiate some slightly more favourable working conditions?

Even if your current employers have alas become uncongenial, and even if they are disinclined to be more reasonable with you, would they at least give you a good reference?

There are some specialized jobs in IT and service related jobs that permit one to work from home and still earn a good salary. My doctoral research was focused on work motivation and leadership of virtual teams. My wife works as a data analyst for a company that employs mostly virtual teams, and she loves the relative freedom.

 

[Raphael Outcast]

Although Inga with such formidable linguistic skills did not strike me as someone who would necessarily be fulfilled in the world of IT, do I not remember hearing of one IT consultancy which recruited solely from among the A.S.D. population, on the premise that we could be relied upon to do a more thorough and effective job? At the time, I even looked up this firm on the internet, just to see if the news story was a spoof or a misunderstanding of some kind, and yes, the firm really did exist.

I mention this as an example of how, in some employment contexts, A.S.D. really could be seen as an asset rather than a defect, if it had been diagnosed.

 

[Rasputin]

Although Inga with such formidable linguistic skills did not strike me as someone who would necessarily be fulfilled in the world of IT, do I not remember hearing of one IT consultancy which recruited solely from among the A.S.D. population, on the premise that we could be relied upon to do a more thorough and effective job? At the time, I even looked up this firm on the internet, just to see if the news story was a spoof or a misunderstanding of some kind, and yes, the firm really did exist.

I mention this as an example of how, in some employment contexts, A.S.D. really could be seen as an asset rather than a defect, if it had been diagnosed.

My company is actively looking for ways to recruit people with HFA. It is not an official program or anything.

 

[Crossbreed]

I currently work as a trilingual interpreter, as I am fluent in Spanish and Mandarin.

Hang in there. Do you have a lot of viable competition for what you do? If not, they will not be so quick to can you.

I have a sidewalk route delivering the local, free newspapers. Since I didn't always make my deadlines, they often sought to replace me. (My route was often advertised in the very paper that I was delivering...!)

When the next candidates found out that the sidewalk portion was 15.5 miles, even in the snow (uphill, both ways...

), there were no other takers. Even carriers with easier driving routes were found dumping their papers, instead of delivering them.

The manager that was so strict was eventually removed and I was kept on for being so thorough. I have missed deadlines due to weather, surgeries, local events, etc., but I have never missed a delivery in 13 years. I started out on foot, but have had a trike for the last 11 years or so. (It is more like a workout than a job...)

My Secret Weapon

 

[Shenandoah]

Hang in there. Do you have a lot of viable competition for what you do? If not, they will not be so quick to can you.

I have a sidewalk route delivering the local, free newspapers. Since I didn't always make my deadlines, they often sought to replace me. (My route was often advertised in the very paper that I was delivering...!)

When the next candidates found out that the sidewalk portion was 15.5 miles, even in the snow (uphill, both ways...

), there were no other takers. Even carriers with easier driving routes were found dumping their papers, instead of delivering them.

The manager that was so strict was eventually removed and I was kept on for being so thorough. I have missed deadlines due to weather, surgeries, local events, etc., but I have never missed a delivery in 13 years. I started out on foot, but have had a trike for the last 11 years or so. (It is more like a workout than a job...)

My Secret Weapon

I love this! Thanks for posting this.
Before being afraid for your job ask if there are others willing to walk 20 miles in the snow uphill both ways
Willing or capable, probably more of the latter.

 

[Crossbreed]

...willing to walk 20 miles in the snow uphill both ways...!

The older a man gets, the farther he had to walk to school as a child.

 

[Shenandoah]

The older a man gets, the farther he had to walk to school as a child.

Oh yeah. Pretty sure it was 40 miles or me (well it was 7 minutes door to door but that's details).

 

[Solveig Inga]

Thank you for all the kind words of support and good ideas out there! I am open to any career...I was hoping to work in human rights because I enjoy helping people, but the thought of working in an office where I don't have personal space and peace sounds awful. One of my sensory issues is the sound of other people typing or clicking. I literally go nuts and get incredibly angry and frustrated (not at other people, i just have to physically leave and go hide in the bathroom or something). On top of that having to justify long periods of time in the bathroom due to IBS (also apparently related to ASD?) seems horrible. I am looking into applying for help desk jobs and getting A+ certified since I can take a pay increase and work from home, but I'm wondering what other options are out there. I'm VERY interested in freelancing but I have a lot of bills to pay, so nervous about not having steady income. I've got a lot of skill beyond just language. I have excellent proofreading and English abilities, I've got my own commissioned painting/mural business, I made money living abroad performing in a folk band for two years, I've got ample teaching experience....but the point is that I really want to find a way of working that I enjoy that is from home and stable/pays well. If I have to switch careers I'm okay with that...the problem is that I don't have a lot of time. I need to get out of the position as quickly as possible because its getting difficult to sleep knowing everything I'm doing is being looked at and scrutinized.

I just got another email threatening me for not turning in my timesheet on time. We have to detail literally every moment of every day and what we are doing in an excel document. It is hell. So many tiny numbers. It literally gives me a headache. Not only do I have to fill out the excel document, I have to log it again online...something I always struggle to do every single day. I cannot keep track of the time like normal people do, so I have to look at my time stamps on LINK and go back and calculate all the time I spent doing things throughout the day....if we spend too much time in emails, not in calls, etc, we're in trouble. Its kindof amazing I've managed to keep this act going for 2.5 years now, but I think my supervisor was just kindof overlooking all of these issues because of the language abilities...I highly doubt they can find someone who is willing to interpret Mandarin Chinese and Spanish interviews with the precision I do. Those are their two most needed languages and I'm the only trilingual interpreter on staff. I would go through the trouble of letting them know I've got ASD but no formal diagnoses, and if they couldn't accept that, they certainly could accept the diagnoses I do have (ie OCD, Depression, Anxiety, ADHD etc....) however this job pays poorly for the work I do which is part of why my motivation has struggled there. I'm paid 16.50 for trilingual interpreting which is pretty insulting, and I got them to admit through asking in various emails about raises that not only do they not give individual raises based on merit, they give blanket raises of 2% each year regardless of how you perform. Well I'm not a moron, and I know the inflation rate is 2.6%. So everyone who works there is literally losing money by being there. There is no room for upward movement unless I want to make 2$ more as a supervisor and be stuck at the same wage for the next decade, steadily losing money via poor pay raises and inflation...so this is all contributing to me needing to find something else, and find it NOW. I just don't want to land in another job thats giving me stress overload on a regular basis, crying spells and insomnia. My mental health is my #1 concern and if I let things slide too far, I could end up in seriously bad shape. Any suggestions for specific positions or companies to apply with would be appreciated.

 

[Raphael Outcast]

... having to justify long periods of time in the bathroom due to IBS (also apparently related to ASD?) seems horrible.

I need to get out of the position as quickly as possible because its getting difficult to sleep knowing everything I'm doing is being looked at and scrutinized.

I just don't want to land in another job thats giving me stress overload on a regular basis, crying spells and insomnia. My mental health is my #1 concern and if I let things slide too far, I could end up in seriously bad shape. Any suggestions for specific positions or companies to apply with would be appreciated.

Well it's really good if you're prepared to consider any variety of work that fits your known skills. I'm sorry if you thought I was trying to typecast you as a translator and nothing but! However, with the linguistic (including English) skills and the attention to detail that you possess, copyediting and/or translation work do sound highly suitable, and they sound like the kind of job where A.S.D. would be regarded as a superpower rather than an impairment.

Yes I would say I.B.S. could very well be related to A.S.D. Anxiety plays hell with the digestive system, and people with A.S.D. often live with constant anxiety. In your case hopefully finding alternative employment might ameliorate the I.B.S. to some extent, because clearly your current job is adding to whatever baseline anxiety you might have been living with before.

It is very true if you carry on flogging yourself and persevering in the wrong job you could end up in bad shape. That happened to me and I have now been completely unable to work, on medical grounds, for a number of years.

At the risk of sounding cynical, the diagnoses you have at present sound likely to discourage another employer from taking you on (if you chose to declare them), whereas an A.S.D. diagnosis would to some extent account for those other diagnoses, and effectively supersede them. The kinds of abilities you have (and the nature of the things you can't cope with) would be very consistent with A.S.D. so I suppose that is kind of why I would advocate working towards getting a formal diagnosis, if possible, so that you can really sell your superpowers (such as attention to detail) and play down the depression etc. as unfortunate by-products of having hitherto tried to live and function with undiagnosed A.S.D. If you see what I mean.

However I am still failing to answer your basic question of what kinds of jobs to look for. Sorry. Hopefully other, more worldly people will have some more specific answers. Good luck!

 

[Solveig Inga]

I just have no one to sell them to currently since I don't even know where to look...I'm just applying everywhere and anywhere at this point but again, suggestions would be really helpful