At my last job I burned out in part because neurotypical coworkers kept treating me like an incompetent child because I communicated differently than them. I ended up spending more time and energy trying to initiate them than I did actually communicating. Masking takes so much effort. - ThreadSky

ghostlysable.bsky.social • 40 days ago

At my last job I burned out in part because neurotypical coworkers kept treating me like an incompetent child because I communicated differently than them. I ended up spending more time and energy trying to initiate them than I did actually communicating. Masking takes so much effort.

Reposted from big rock big river, ms ⧖

Eat shit fuckers.

www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

Comments

bunnimarie.bsky.social•40 days ago

WFH saved my mental health. Being constantly misunderstood for my AuDHD made me feel so incompetent.

c0ffincunt.bsky.social•40 days ago

Ngl this is a huge problem for me at my current job.

ghostlysable.bsky.social•40 days ago

I'm really sorry. It's so frustrating and exhausting to go through.

c0ffincunt.bsky.social•40 days ago

Hopefully soon I'll at least have another job which pays enough to make it (almost?) worth it.

madelinebright.bsky.social•40 days ago

Working with colleagues and volunteers with autism has been so eye-opening to me about how fucking annoying I am. By being discursive and vague, I put up barriers to effective communication. By relying too much on qualitative measures, I introduced failure points.

I'm still working on being better!

ghostlysable.bsky.social•40 days ago

Thank you for working on it! That's so much more than most people do. You seem like you'd be a good person to work with <3

madelinebright.bsky.social•40 days ago

Aww thanks! Ultimately I'm the boss of our little non-profit so if someone doesn't feel supported or like communication is effective that's on me to get it right. I take a great deal of pride (as I think does the rest of the team) in having a diverse group so we want to make it work for everyone!

ghostlysable.bsky.social•40 days ago

Weirdly enough, a lot of their criticisms boiled down to "you're incompetent for needing to do this differently", even when it produced similar it better results.

Meanwhile, it felt like they spoke in code because they would say one thing to me and mean the exact opposite.

ghostlysable.bsky.social•40 days ago

I should never have struggled at that job. It was something I could do in my sleep. But I lost my contact regardless and the burnout of masking every single day literally disabled me for more than a year. The communication disconnect played a huge role in that.

ghostlysable.bsky.social•40 days ago

And I cannot stress this enough: my neurotypical coworkers and managers called me incompetent and childlike for needing different supports than them. I got released after what felt like a half-effort at providing those supports didn't immediately undo nearly a year of damage.

ghostlysable.bsky.social•40 days ago

And obviously I had my faults and issues, and I'm not trying to lay it entirely on them. But the way they treated my needs as flaws, and the way they failed to communicate with me, certainly didn't help me address my issues.

Now it's two years later and I'm still scared about working in an office.

col321.bsky.social•40 days ago

I'm so sorry you weren't respected 🫂💛

valhgoria.com•40 days ago

Not to generalize, but neurotypicals seem to struggle immensely with complexity. It was immensely life changing the moment I realized that I had to use 5th grade language with them and skip details. Also, as a neorospicy who struggles with speech, it made having a social job so much less draining.

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