Should underemployment be considered as a lifestyle choice?

Post Reply New Topic

so true. it's one of those 'socially acceptable outlets for rage and hatred'. the same sort of people who indulge in it are the same who in historys past have also clamoured to bash other races, homosexuals, etc. these days 'welfare bums' and 'fat people' seem to be the acceptable targets of peoples need to hate something, targets you can vent and bash on amongst polite company without fear of being in the minority of opinion.

I am underemployed in a full-time job that can supposedly be done by someone without a college degree. It is relatively low-stress and uses my skills very well, and it would pay pretty well if I was single. But if I was single I wouldn't have to deal with other people at home and could handle more responsibility at work.

But I know what the OP means. Even if I had a chance at a promotion, if I was single, I wouldn't take it, probably. It's like "American Splendor", where the guy had a very low-stress, low visibility job, but also low pay job. He worked in some kind of menial file-clerk job where he could hang out at his desk in the basement and draw all day.

I tried knitting at my desk when things were slow, but I got in trouble. Maybe I should take up a more socially acceptable form of goofing off, like smoking.

P. S. I used to smoke, so I know, it's not just goofing off.

I work part time and go to school full time. Most days I wish I could quit one or the other because it's just too much stress. Alas, there are bills to pay and a degree to earn.

I work full-time and am in the process of taking up a second job to gain experience in another field. I have an NT friend who works part-time at a convenience store and does not collect "public benefits." I have no desire to collect benefits no matter the circumstances, because I possess enough survival skills to live like a wild animal (and wouldn't mind doing so if necessary) . My first paid jobs were farm labor and custom-designing miniatures for people's Warhammer 40K armies. In addition to being sporadic, it was often seasonal (during harvest for farming and during holidays for the model-building). Welfare is supposed to be a "leg up" and not a "hand-out." If, as "thewhitrbbit" suggests, someone (NT or not) is wanting to work part-time solely to free up time for their interests (as my friend does), that in and of itself is not wrong, so long as they don't attempt to defraud the system. THAT is what irks me. I do not want to fork over my taxpayer dollars to support some punk who wants to spend all day watching TV, playing video-games and buying luxury items (don't get me started about people selling their foodstamps to purchase drugs -- I hate what the town's turning into).

It's all about tax money. Our taxes go into welfare and that is where the money comes from when it is given to them. So to hear someone say they want to go on it so they wouldn't have to work full time is pretty sick. And I am not talking about people who are disabled or unable to get a job.

I don't see anything wrong with working part time..some people with AS get stressed out in certain job situations..so if working part time makes them cope better then what is wrong with that?..they are still working and earning!..no one would really be happy to claim state benifits with AS unless they found it difficult to find work....and they are many just like me who would love to work..but due to major problems with my AS right now i have to claim benifits..but i would work tomorrow if i could overcome my problems!

It's a lifestyle choice for most as much as slavery is a lifestyle choice. Many people on the spectrum can't handle the environmental and social stress of a normal work environment. Many also can't BS their way through an interview to get the job or promotion they deserve. Many highly qualifies people get passed over for jobs and promotions because of quirky yet harmless behavior. In short when a large percentage of a group are held back by physical and mental differences it is not a choice.

I'm long-term unemployed - the result of this is that my autism has gotten considerably worse, when I've worked in the past my choice has always been to work MORE...I was working 40-60 hours per week in my last job, in previous jobs I've been taking on additional work or finding projects outside of work to keep myself busy, without that I feel lost. Of course, not sure I can work at all now my autism is worse.

I'm sure if the option was there many on the spectrum would choose easier jobs or part-time work to reduce the stress and allow time to do something on your own rather than having to keep-up being 'normal' and social with co-workers...but of course that only works if you can live on part-time work or lower income. If you can do that then great, if you can find a way to work as little as possible but still earn, awesome.

Unemployment is worse for people on the spectrum in the UK because we're considered 'too disabled' for Job Seekers Allowance but 'not disabled enough' for Employment Support Allowance, and with either benefit you're going to be under stress, have benefits cut or stopped without warning, be forced into doing work placements or training that force you to do things that you cannot, etc. For many unemployment or underemployment will never work as a lifestyle choice, it's a case of risking well-being in order to keep yourself alive.

welfare is wealthy societys way of cheaply paying to pretend that everything is a-ok with everything, hiding problems behind closed doors. no one wants to see the depressed, the mentally challenged, the 'weird', the addicted laying about on the streets, in rags, begging.

I don't relate to this underemployment idea. People end up doing the jobs they are capable of doing; if they aren't doing them they can't be capable of them. Saying you have xyz qualifications is not the same as doing the actual job or any job. A large proportion of the capability aspect of any job is having the motivation to actually find the job and keep doing it.

So if a person chooses to not work or work in a job that they consider 'beneath them' that is their choice and nothing else; it does not mean the world has lost a great engineer/programmer/scientist as if the person really wanted to do those jobs they would be doing them.

Underemployment is therefore a get-out clause for underachievers - there's nothing wrong with that - I'm one of them, but I can at least admit it - I'm lazy and don't want to have to put in all the effort required to do a high-powered job.

Well I'm in the UK, have been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and I've been on both JSA and ESA (in the support group), so some people with Aspergers do manage to get on both those benefits. The average Job Centre worker doesn't even know what Aspergers is and has been guided by me as to what I'm capable of.

None of my benefits were cut or stopped without warning. I knew that at some point ESA would change to a different benefit (Universal Credit?) and that I might not continue to qualify for it so I got myself a part-time job as I was feeling better, which is how the system is supposed to work. I got incentive payments for starting a new job as well - a one-off £100 Job Grant payment and Return to Work Credit of £40 a week for 52 weeks. The system has worked relatively well for me so I don't think you can generalise where the benefits system is concerned.

You should move to Australia, you would get a lot more than that for being an engineer, I can't tell you that..

Yet at the same time, much larger amounts of your tax money are spent on wars and providing no-loss-insurance for high risk "investors". I think there are different ways that someone can provide a service to humanity, but it's not possible to make a living with all of them (while you can make fortunes in all kinds of ways that are hard to see as helpful or positive for humanity in general). Personally, I don't like that money determines the validity of all human endeavors and I feel we, as a culture, have the responsibility to not let anything box us in in that way.
So I'd rather spend some money to support alternative lifestyles (which doesn't necessarily mean being a Schnorrer) than for many other things the governments decide to spend money on.

It's not always a choice. I mean, could anyone seriously tell me there is a job with minimal noise, interaction, etc? I doubt one exists that is permanent.

There was a survey done by someone at my local Autism support group. 84% of people are in employment. The national average (this does include those who are too disabled to attend these meetings too) is around 15% employment for people with ASD.

Many of us are also too physically disabled to work. There is also the issue of other peoples' attitudes.

Mine . I do post-production closed captioning for a religious TV station. I am the only one in my room and I use headphones to hear the programs. The video equipment has fans that make noise and I can hear the production going on down the hall, but it's pretty well muffled and if it gets too loud, I can put on the headphones. The actual listening to the programs doesn't take up that much time. Most of it is reading and correcting grammar and punctuation mistakes. I only have to interact with people when I have to go to the library to get a program or when one of the transcriptionists drops off her work.

I've been at it for 15 years and I'm bored silly (and extremely well-catechized).