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How hard is it to answer the question ‘what do you do for work?’ when someone asks you? It’s hard for us autistics to find or hold down a job. People already see those who don’t work as ‘lazy.’ The truth is we want to work, but employers don’t want us. Some of us can’t pass the interview stage. Some of us get overloaded and quit. Some of us are fired due to our differences. Some of us are bullied off of the job by NT co-workers.
Or getting fired for missing too many days due to medical appointments.
How do you say you’re unemployed because you’re in a system that doesn’t wanna understand how your brain works?
What prompted me to write this blog is; carpenters were fixing up an abandoned house and I came outside and they asked me if I was working today. even then, everyone’s work schedule is different.
I remembered how my ‘friend’ thought she knew everything about me when I told her I couldn’t work due to my mental issues.
Remember 80% of us are unemployed. Only a small % of us work. It’s rough being in a work that’s black and white.
Ableists like to roll with the small % of disabled people they know/see who work to gaslight us.
When someone asks you about your occupation, what do you tell them? You’re unemployed because of autism, you can’t hold down a job?
When I was upfront and said I couldn’t work due to my disability, my “friend” shamed me and compared me to her friends
Do you lie in fear you will be judged and shamed? I told a ‘friend’ I could not work due to my disorders, my old doc even felt I would struggle to hold down work. She acted like she knew about me, judged me. She just assumed I have ‘poor’ skills. She knows nothing really. I could have been fired from 10 jobs because of my autism and it was decided I just could not work. A medical professional told me I would not be able to work due to my disorders.
This person is just a Barbie doll on the internet judging something she doesn’t know Jack about. She compared me to her friends. How did she know her friends weren’t struggling to keep their job. How ‘simple’ the job is doesn’t matter if disabled people are fired for needing too many days off and for not working fast enough etc.
This is what I mean. NTS/abled-bodied people think they are such experts on employment among disabled people more than the person actively struggling.
Just because you know people with disabilities who work doesn’t mean everyone is that lucky. I couldn’t find a job. Went through a program that did nothing to help me. I found some cryptocurrency blogging sites and steadily trying to build that because my folks struggle to make it. It will take some time to make a full-time income from them though.
The only “job” that is available to me, the “friend” thought it wasn’t a real job
My ‘friend’ also said that YouTube isn’t a ‘real’ job and to ‘get a real job.’ Why the hell do people think the only real jobs are there are being a 9 to 5 slave? This isn’t trying to slam people who work 9 to 5. That isn’t the only thing you can do. Some of those ‘real’ jobs are going away and they will only continue to disappear. It will only get worse.
This question goes far beyond if you’re disabled but if you stream on Twitch full-time, someone not knowing the time and money it takes to build your channel.
I am updating this as of 2021. I originally wrote it in 2019. COVID hit and took a lot of those ‘real jobs.’ My blogs are still here, YT/Twitch is still here. No job is safe if you didn’t make it yourself.
I decided last year (2019) to work towards self-employment because I feel it is best for me. I feel it’s best to work from home where I am at ease than to have to mask in a NT world. If I get overwhelmed, I can walk away get some air or whatever, and come back when my brain is up to it.
You can just say you have tried finding a job with no luck so you are going to school for X. You’re doing chores for your parents to help them out somehow. It is a hit or miss.
People are set in their ways.
Closing thoughts
It is rough having an invisible disorder. Very rough. If people wanna judge let them. They will be singing a different tune if it was them or someone they know.
Even if you are not disabled. If you’re in an industry that’s underestimated. Are you afraid to say ‘i’m an actor” because the person doesn’t get the time, money, effort you put into the movies you do?
Are you afraid to say you’re a Youtuber because people don’t get the time, effort, money, etc that goes into your videos?
When will people understand entertainers bring more to the table than they think? You wouldn’t be laughing at your fav show w/o the actors
You wouldn’t be on YT/Twitch watching videos you like w/o the creators on the site.
You would be enjoying music w/o the artist etc.
If someone is unable to work due to their disability. Stop thinking you know more than they do. If you buy a car part, where are you going to get a tutorial? YouTube. You want to know how good a movie is before you spend money seeing it, where are you going to get spoiler-free reviews? YouTube. Saame for video games. Where are you going to get spoiler-free reviews? YouTube.
Your iPhone broke, where are you going to go to make sure you buy the right stuff? Youtube? You like to shame these content creators but will run to them the minute you need information. Everyone contributes in different ways and should not be shamed for not contributing how YOU want them to.
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