Working with a superpower... Probably combining a few questions already here.

[Gomendosi]

So I got a job the other day. Which leads me to my question of... do you have an Aspergical superpower?

I dont know what else to call it, a bloke I heard about, his son is supposed to have Aspergers, the lad is a whizz with cars, eats, breathes and lives for cars... so they got him an apprenticeship with a motor mechanic and he's the happiest person ever. Thats an idea of what I mean, Aspergers apparently can focus your talent into one particular thing?!?
Well me, I never knew where I fit in as I have no known affinity to any one thing, at all, that i'm aware of. There was never that one thing that everbody that met me would say was my "thing".

Now, recently this guy I was introduced to decided to give me a go at a local shop, he put me on as a salesman, and I went ahead and sold everything that wasnt nailed down, turns out, that's my thing. Of course I had a few days of mind numbing awkwardness while I learnt everything about everything and asked a trillion questions into the bargain. But the whole situation just felt right, from the moment I walked in there! It's Perfect!

The reason I am thinking this is like, my thing, my Aspergical superpower. It is because it compliments everything in my nature:

As a salesman:
I'm permitted to talk at length on subjects I am familiar with and people actually listen
I meet new people and they leave before I become attached or grow bored
People meet me and leave before growing bored or discovering the "real" me
I feel as though I am helping people make themselves content
Every person that comes in is a new and different challenge/ adventure

Does anybody else feel like this in their job? or do you all feel like this because of planning? Was anybody just lucky like me?

I am really intrigued by this magical hapenstance and appreciate your input ; ]

 

[confused_becca]

i'm having a bad day but the words "Aspergical superpower" made me smile
for me it feels the opposite, and that everyone around me is super and i'm the lame duck

however, i've picked up a knack for sailing, and i've been at it for a short while and i'm better then everyone else that ive been learning with

it relaxes me, it gives me something interesting and unique to talk about, and i feel empowered when i am on a boat

 

[BruceCM]

Certainly not found it yet, if I do! I don't think I've got 'obsessions' but if anybody else does & can find work related to it, that's likely to work well. I certainly find work related communication a lot easier, for the most part, than socializing stuff. No boss or work colleague complained about me asking questions & you're even supposed to say if you don't know how to do something or you don't understand what you're being told to do.
Totally unlike socially, where you've got to go by 'rules' that everybody else can apply however they like & then not get worked up when that's almost always in their favour. But I can't even discuss that here or in other Aspie forums! Huh.

 

[Gomendosi]

Oh SNAP! I think I just found my "Aspergical Kryptonite".

I mentioned before that I got a job as a salesman and I have been going great guns at it, just me and the boss in the shop really and he gets what the deal is, I make him money and he lets me do just that... everybody is happy.
It's gotten so I am opening the shop now and working half the day alone that's how competant he thinks me, but, lurking in the background... his other casual staff!!!

So, I head off to work this morning and there is some guy there and he is not my boss, I dont know him from a bar of soap, I never met him and he starts ordering me around and asking me questions like;
How do I like the job?, where have I worked before?, is the work hard for me?, do I think i'll stick around... that sort of thing

Simply put, I didnt know what to do, this wasnt supposed to be happening and I wouldnt talk to him. I got mad at my boss. I wanted to go home.





BUT...

Then I thought, what if he has no idea about my superpower, that I belong here, he's probably not even picking on me, he just hasnt seen me do my thing yet. So I pretended he was a customer and was able to get along with him till the boss rocked up. Then I took the boss aside and went off at him for throwing me to the sharks so, then he took me to meet the other people working there.
They're all O.K. but, I still reckon that first blokes a proper nutter ; ]

I'm kinda proud of myself for working around that whole thing but i'm not sure it's the job for me now, if I have to work all day with regular people they will discover my secret identity Ha-Ha

Anyone have a situation like this before, where you think you've found that one thing your sure your brilliant at and then it all goes south. I mean, finding or having a job where you feel really comfortable is hard enough for me (Us?) but when somethings threatening to make it a difficult situation, do you, can you adapt or do you move on or... what?

I am happy to have as much input as you mob want to give even if the situation is'nt an exact match, I do appreciate all responses ; ]

 

[BruceCM]

Hopefully, you won't find the others there too difficult to deal with! It's probably not just an Aspie thing, I'm sure it happens to plenty of people, to varying extents. If you're good at your work, in that line, you shouldn't find any great problems with colleagues. Potentially, more of a problem if your boss changes & you don't get on as well with the new one!

 

[Gomendosi]

O.K. This other fella that works for my boss is defiantly my Aspergical kryptonite and I think I know why now.
What happens is that I come in in the morning and I open up the shop, I drag out the displays and arrange them to best effect, so as to be eye catching but not impede progress into the store, then I make sure there are no gaps in the stock, count the float, open the door and sell, sell, sell.

So old mate comes in on the days he works with me and the first thing he does is change the displays and if I query him or display displeasure with the change he then launches into a tirade about how he’s been selling for years and I will pick it up if I stay around for long enough. This to me is a giant smack in the face because I set it out in exactly the same way as the boss does, which by logical extension must infer the boss is wrong as well… in his own shop no less!
How is this bloke retaining employment when he so obviously has no concept of team work or diplomacy? A long while ago I worked for the government and had to go to team building seminars, conflict resolution management courses, that sort of thing (these are super great for Aspergical people by the way) and so I can only assume he is also a little bit special in some way that is unknown to me, that he feels upsetting the apple cart will either go unnoticed or be overlooked as not bothersome to anyone.

Thee, single worst part of my interactions with him is that he tells me off in front of customers for doing the wrong thing and, even when I change to actually do it the way he says it should be done he 'corrects' me, but the weird thing is that my sales reflect that when he is not around I am more productive than even him, and I’m using my own methods for sales. When he is there however, my productivity drops and I surmise it is not about selling for him, it’s about pecking order in the business.

The question now is; how do I kick my Aspergical superpower into overdrive to overcome the will sapping Aspergical kryptonite that he is?

 

[WildCat]

Heh, 'aspergical superpower'. Is that a play on 'magical superpower'?

Well, I do have a few of those (other people would call them 'savant skills', whatever, I'm not going to bother debating that) but they're relatively useless and I've moved on to learning more purposeful skills. Job-wise, I can force myself to move twice as fast and get everything on the shelves quicker due to my enhanced motor skills, thus saving time and money, but lately I haven't the energy to do so anymore. It could be that it wouldn't matter anyway as I'd be freed up for some mundane tasks, or that I've grown older?

I used to be able to add multiple digit numbers in my head fairly quickly, run like the wind, and read printed text fairly accurately but over time those skills are somehow being overridden. Which may be for the better, actually, but if I do develop more superpowers, well, I'll be sure to post back...

 

[Socialskillsdan]

Heh. Asperger's is interesting in that it seems to give abilities that are outside out of the norm. For instance, I can read and type exceptionally fast, and have been able to since I was a kid. My handwriting, alas, is terrible, so I guess it balances out.

The closest thing I've had to a "superpower" is relationships, which is a very strange thing for an Aspie to excel in. But because I've spent so much time studying social skills and how relationships work, I understand a lot about how to interact with people and what makes a healthy relationship--and what's more important, I'm consciously aware of all of those things. A NT person might feel that something is socially awkward, but not be able to tell you why. I can give you the reason behind it. It's kind of the difference between knowing a language because you studied it or because you grew up in it. I learned Spanish in college, and I could do a much better job of explaining Spanish grammar to you than English grammar because I actually had to learn the rules.

So for social situations, I had to "learn the rules" and so I can explain it better than an NT. This leads to me being able to use those skills at-will; whereas an NT has to rely on their unconscious ability to read body language, I can consciously make myself read someone's body language and decide how they're feeling. It's a useful trait.

I actually wrote up what I've learned on social skills, if anyone is curious I put it online at a site called Improve Your Social Skills. Feel free to click the link and read what I have to say, and let me know if it's helpful for you!

 

[Loomis]

My son who also has aspergers is a superb violinist. He is one of the best violinists in his youth orchestra. His youth orchestra is one of the ten best in the USA. Interesting because I have zero musical talent. My wife is from a musical family so I guess he gets his talent from her and his ASD from me.

 

[RubenX]

Mine is that, when there's something I want to learn, I always learn it. I'll search the internet, go to libraries, even do my own research to prove my theories. I'll become an expert on anything... provided it is my obsession at the time.

 

[smith2267]

I guess mine would be my facility with words. I always know just how to say things.
I'm also fairly good at doing arithmetic in my head, but not "rain man" good.

 

[Christian T]

Certainly not found it yet, if I do! I don't think I've got 'obsessions' but if anybody else does & can find work related to it, that's likely to work well. I certainly find work related communication a lot easier, for the most part, than socializing stuff. No boss or work colleague complained about me asking questions & you're even supposed to say if you don't know how to do something or you don't understand what you're being told to do.

Yeah, I also sort of cling to the structured formality of work or school, because it's so much more reassuring than the baffling flux of socialising.

Funny thing, my mum likes to use the word "superpower" as well to describe my uncanny abilities in linguistics - I'm treated as a god in that class - and, I hear I'm also a very good film critic. I do have a creative side to though, but I don't really think those abilities are inhumanly impressive.

 

[Streetwise]

Hopefully, you won't find the others there too difficult to deal with! It's probably not just an Aspie thing, I'm sure it happens to plenty of people, to varying extents. If you're good at your work, in that line, you shouldn't find any great problems with colleagues. Potentially, more of a problem if your boss changes & you don't get on as well with the new one!

I'm never going to be a therapist or amateur therapist its just not worth it