A few weeks ago, I had an amazing figure of 85% unemployment for aspies left on my blog in comments. I disagreed and decided to put it to the test.
I did a fairly unstructured and not necessarily reliable survey and came up with the following figures;
Survey Results
Of the 90 respondents, 48% were employed in either full-time or part time positions and a further 26% were studying. The remaining 26% was split into 2% housewives/househusbands, 13% not looking for a job and 11% unemployment.
The 11% figure is probably slightly higher than global unemployment figures but isn't significantly higher.
In the graph below, the red areas indicates unemployment, blue indicates employment and green indicates study/school.
It seems obvious to me that the Aspergers condition alone is not sufficient to prevent an individual from obtaining and keeping a job.
What Types of Jobs can Aspies do?
Probably the best thing that an aspie can do is to find work that is either related to their special interest or work which doesn't conflict with too many of the general aspie characteristics. While there is a tendency for aspies to seek jobs in computing and academic fields, there is no reason why aspies cannot be employed in lots of other areas.
Special interest jobs are very good for aspies as they can often be quite innovative and can easily take on leader, designer and developer roles. Unlike their co-workers, aspies often live and breathe their special interests and therefore have a genuine interest in pursing them - rather than simply focusing on the job at hand.
Low Profile jobs are good for aspies with difficult comorbid (associated) conditions or low degrees of social tolerance. Not all aspies need this but some will thrive in closed environments. Programmer and factory roles are often suitable here.
There's also a great answer on Yahoo which talks about Aspergers Employment Strengths and Weaknesses. It's well worth a read.
I've also found some free PDFs on helping aspies gain employment on the Berkshire Autistic Society Web Site.
Some useful books on the Subject
Hawkins, Gail; "How to Find work that works for people with Asperger Syndrome"
Grandin, Temple; Duffy, Kate; Attwood, Tony; "Developing Talents: Careers for Individuals with Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism"
Meyer, Robert N; Attwood, Tony; "Asperger Syndrome Employment Workbook: An Employment Workbook for Adults With Asperger Syndrome"
If you look at the related books in Amazon, you'll find several other good titles.
Monday, March 17, 2008
How does Aspergers affect Employment Prospects?
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8 comments:
I would be interested in knowing how many of those in part-time or full-time employment feel that they are 'under-employed' and/or 'under-paid'.
It would be interesting but I'm not sure how I could compare it to NT's. I've got a feeling that if I asked NTs about these things, I'd get negative answers too.
I've been directed to some scary British research which has a lot of negative things to say. I'll investigate it and talk about it in a followup post.
A professor where I teach is being investigated for harassment. He is probably going to loose his job.
He is NOT diagnosed with Asperger's but many of us suspect it, including a professor whose son is aspie.
His research area is immunology and breast-feeding. He tends to stare at women's breasts and he will talk endlessly to people about breast-feeding. Fortunately for him, his wife is a lactation consultant and interested in his research. Unfortunately for him, some students find him "creepy" and inappropriate. It isn't just the intense interest in breasts, it is the general social cluelessness. There are so many things. Like standing too close for too long to a female student when they are alone in a lab. He doesn't notice that she is getting nervous about his intentions and just keeps on talking. This happens a couple of times and then she files a harassment complaint.
He was sent to a training on harassment years ago, but afterwards he did get a little better, but not much.
Like I said, he is not diagnosed with Asperger's and I don't think he would appreciate us telling him that is the problem. He has been accused of sexual harassment one too many times. Well, more like 15 too many times, but he keeps getting more chances because people who know him well think that he "just doesn't get it."
Like I said, he is not diagnosed. His explanation for why this is happening to him is that everyone is intimidated by him because he is so much smarter than the rest of us. That may be part of the issue, of course. Going into another professor's lab to get somethinng and then staying and taking over because she is doing it wrong has not helped his case.
There are some of us who would like to defend him on the grounds that he probably has Asperger's, but I doubt he would welcome such a defense.
I think I should ask you a specific question, but I am not certain what to ask. If you have anything to say about undiagnosed Aspies being accused of harassment, I would be interested in reading it.
"It seems obvious to me that the Aspergers condition alone is not sufficient to prevent an individual from obtaining and keeping a job."
Very much true, you need the secret ingredient for that: discrimination!
We need to acknowledge and modify the faulty logic which uses social skills as an ultimate measure of competence and is applied by many employers even in areas where social skills are not needed for doing the job right.
My husband has been in computer programming for 7 years now, but he is unable to hold down a job for very long because he can't meet deadlines. He has been fired 3 times in 2 years because of this. Yes, aspies can be employed. The question is, can they STAY employed?
And to veildglory, my husband is one of those who thinks he's underpaid, no matter how much he's making. I'd agree that is a huge factor.
I honestly can't meet deadlines either which is why I'm not great at working with project teams.
Instead of moving into areas which are unsuitable for me I do two things. First, I've stayed at a troubleshooting level (a highly technical one) which means that I get problems that nobody else can solve. There's no deadline... it's supposed to be immediate or ASAP. It's easier for me to deliver to that kind of schedule.
The other thing that I do is stay away from top-level management issues like project over-runs. Instead I concentrate on delivering quality solutions as fast as I can.
I've only had three full time employers in my twenty years of working life. My first Job lasted seven years, my second, four and my third is still going at nine.
So.. I guess aspies can hold down a job long-term but it has to be the right job.
BTW: I'm always being told that I'm underpaid but realistically, what would I do with lots of extra money anyway?
You needed to ask all of them how long they were employed, how long are they normally employed, why they left their jobs.
I agree with the people who write that we can be employed, its the matter of staying employed. I have a chemistry degree and have exhausted that. Now I am a legal secretary and have just lost another job in that field. I am middle aged and its getting scary. It's not that my work isn't good or that I am obnoxious, its just that when I say things that sound perfectly alright to me everyone looks at me like I just suggested killing kittens on our lunch hour. I think my next career will have to be comedy. Luckily, aspies are smart and adaptable, but we must have ridiculed instability in other lifetimes because this payback stinks, frankly.
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