Aspergers and following the rules!

Post Reply New Topic

In my new job I have to get up at 7:00 in the morning and be in the office by 8:30.

I was debating with my dad last night saying its not fair that I have to get up early for work because my aspergers makes it harder to fall asleep at night. My dad then said "well 95 percent of the population start work at 9:00 in the morning" I then said "well 95 percent population probably have not got aspergers". I then continued "it's like how the 'right handed' majority in the old days made the left handed minority conform to the rules and use there opposite hand"


Who do you think is right in this arguement me or my dad?

Despite the trouble falling aslep, I worked for over 40 years virtually never being tardy or having unscheduled absences from work. I was so anal about punctuality that most of my working life I made it a point to be at work at least 30 minutes prior to start of shift. I thought that promptness was another good quality of Aspies. I am never late for anything, not just work. I have worked many times without having gotten any sleep at all.

I can see your point certainly. Is your employer aware you have aspergers? Could you approach them and see if it would be possible to start a little later and leave a little later? I think they would be required to make accommodations like this under disability discrimination law unless there is a really good reason they can't.

If it's not fair, then what's the alternative? Should society provide you a job custom fit to your particular issues? Should you not ever be required to wake up early? It won't hurt to ask if you could come in later and stay later, but it's unlikely to happen and saying, "my Asperger's keeps me awake at night" is not going to make them jump through hoops.

[Moved from News and Current Events to Work and finding a Job]

Personally I'm self employed. But this do with noise and stimulus in the work place, and generally being happier on my own.

I have to say though "becuase of Asperger's" is may not he best way to look at this. Asperger's is a semi-historical condition, describing some traits arbitrarily (and not others). The point is traits can and should be look as individually and not necessarily as fixed to each other. Some trait can be deal with effectively.

Have you consider that not being able to get up early or got bed early is secondary or possibly not specifically related to Asperger's. It might not only to with Asperger's but symptoms compounded by.

Are you hyper-analytical and have difficultly switching off, do you have nighttime apprehension, are you a night owl? I can relate to all three. However I used to have the same problem as you and no longer do.

I pretty much work from 7am to 6pm, with breaks for eating, drinking and showering. Yes I work before I shower, most of the time. Mornings are actually a great time to work.

I used to have a hard time getting up for and most of the morning was wasted.

I also had another problem which was to be hyper-vigilant and sensitive to sounds.

My advice is not to rely on a sound based alarm, as your primary wake up. Instead recommend something like this:

http://www.philips.co.uk/c-p/HF3330_01/ ... l-adapters

I have it waking me up over an hour on the full setting. It is not something that suddenly works, you have to keep on using it. Eventually it will influence your sleep pattern. So to start with you may need another wake-up as a fallback. To the point you naturally wake up. There are papers on the science of blue light an sleep patterns.

Diet and exercise are also really important. You also have to have down time. I'm a hypocrite but try not to stare at screen before you go to bed. This actually is relate to the science of blue light and sleep patterns.

I also have done other thing like neurofeedback, but this is something that is definitely 'try before you buy'. This definitely helped me with sensory.

haha.
I have a sister-in-law who can't understand that 'everyone has to take sh*t, that's called 'work'', is not an argument.
The whole point they're making is 'I didn't dare to stand out by asking for a change, so please you don't make a fuss either'.
She calls me lazy.
ask whether you can come in later and stay later, or look for a job that allows you to do that. My sister-in-law still can't get her head around the fact that I start work at 10, not 8, as is custom in my country. - but she just doesn't understand that just because a thing is custom, it doesn't mean it can't be changed by and for a minority, as, say, a single company, if there's no economical benefit from sticking with the custom and individuals could benefit from it.
My sister-in-law also never stayed at work until she dropped to sleep from exhaustiion either, but I don't resort t calling her lazy because of that.

As science tells us, teenagers need more sleep, and starting school early in the morning is detrimental to their performance in class. But alas, why would we want to change this age old tradition? Of course we would want our children to have it better, but not through the sacrifice of something we have *always* done this way.
Humanity.

You either need a swing shift job or a graveyard job or a job that starts later in the morning.

This is a situation where you need to find a job that suits your needs instead of expecting them to accommodate. Your dad is right.

Your dad is right. The employer gets to decide when work starts and stops, not the employee. If they let you come in later because you have AS and you say that it keeps you from falling asleep at night, then they would have to do the same thing for those with insomnia who can't fall asleep at night, whether they have AS or not.

I would think that your sleep schedule would gradually change to fit the job if you keep making yourself get up that early. How did you manage things when you were in school? School starts early, so you had to be there then. Also, have you thought about maybe getting something to help you fall asleep earlier? Maybe some Benadryl or if that doesn't work then talk to your doctor and see if he can give you something like Ambien for a short term thing to get your sleep schedule the way you need it to be.

I saw someone saying how you should stand up and push them to change the hours you work, but that person isn't taking into account some other issues here. Other people may be relying on the work you do so that they can do their jobs. They may need for you to do your work by a certain time so they can do their work. Why should all of those other people be forced to change how they are doing things because you haven't gotten your nap out?

If you seriously cannot function on that amount of sleep and cannot go to sleep earlier, then finding another job with different hours is the solution to this, not changing how everything is run in the company.

I see no harm in him asking the question. It may be that the workplace can't function without him starting at a particular time or it may be like my husbands job where as long as you do your x number of hours they can be flexible about when that is. If he doesn't ask he won't find out.

I've had the same problem for years with the sleep thing but I just carry on regardless. I hate starting new jobs cos I'm really quiet around people till I get to know them and often thought of as ignorant. I get through many jobs due to various things but mainly by suffering meltdowns when everything gets too much for me.I don't mind working but its the having to deal with people and trying to fit in all the time that takes it out of me and on top of it all I'm suffering from depression and have no interest in doing anything so that just adds to problem of blending in and wearing my happy face every day.I never mention when I apply for jobs that I have any problems for fear of not getting the job and as for the quizzes and aptitude tests that a lot of them give you now, Ive got that good at them that I just know what to write to make them want to take me on. Yes its wrong but at the end of the day I need the job and once I get my foot in the door I can usually stumble my way round till I sort of fit in and can do the job. Its dog eat dog now when it comes to jobs so its every man for himself so I just do what I have to and worry about it later.

Even though I don't like getting up earlier than I have to, I hate being late and would get up at anytime I need to to avoid that happening.

If you are bound and determined to ask about going in later, since this is a new job I'd at least wait a month or two and try to adjust your own schedule around your employer's schedule before you ask if it can be changes. Also, are there other shifts there you could work? Like evening shift? My youngest son is 19 and he recently got his first good job and for the first two weeks he had to work 6am to 2pm, but now he's on 2pm to 10pm shift and likes that a lot better. He's working for a company that makes seats for foreign cars, so it's like assembly line stuff. Maybe you can give this new job a try for a while, and hile you are doing that you can keep your eye out in the paper or on Craigslist for something else that has hours more suited to you. Also, if you have Walmart over there, they hire stockers to work 11pm to 7am all the time. You go in when the store is closed (or not very busy for the 24 hour ones) and just stock the shelves. If you don't have Walmart, I'm sure you have something like it there, you might want to check that out. Since most people don't like working the stocking job, it's fairly easy to get I hear. You just have to pass a drug test and be able to lift heavy things.

At school and college I'd have night were i slept bad.

My parents got this specifically catered to my needs yet they the biggest challenge for me 'sleep'

The reason I'm suggesting that you work around their schedule, or at least try to, is that as an adult you'll find that most people aren't going to work around and cater to your sleep schedule. Especially considering the fact that there are lots of other jobs that have hours that would perfectly fit into it. Yes, I know that they will give people special accommodations, but I don't know that it extends to changing the required working hours to fit in with somebody's sleep schedule. I would think that would be something that you would need to learn to manage and deal with yourself now that you are an adult, rather than expect them to cater to you about it.