Post #23 - A (Working) Day In The Life (Of An Aspie) - The Morning: Part Two

Now, I like 1:1 meetings with people I know - they're rarely a surprise and I'm much more effective in controlled environments.  Most of my interactions aren't like that though.  In the main office I keep getting distracted, I cannot help it.  I don't like distracting others, work has changed over the last five or so years and not for the better.  I cannot tell what others are thinking or trying to imply - it's almost impossible for me.  The place where I work employs some, well, let's just say - colourful characters and as a result, it's doubly hard for me to cope with them.



These are some of the things I cannot bear as a result of being in an office environment:

• Somebody banging their keyboard like they're squashing an army of invisible ants
• Broken equipment being dumped on my desk during whilst I'm not there
• Sudden shouts and hollering at the monitor
• Unplugged wiring
• A constant untreated hacking cough (I don't just mean somebody with a cold - worse than that..
• People holding a conversation over my head
• Hot food/fish sandwiches etc

That said, I acknowledge that I can also be annoying too, by doing these things:

• Sudden shrieking bursts of unexplained laughter
• Inability to moderate my volume
• Odd or eccentric conversations/pieces of trivia
• Non sequiturs 

I like to get out and about at lunchtime - sometimes I'll do a circuit around the lake of a nearby park, but otherwise I'll leave the building and to ensure that I gain at least ten to fifteen minutes' worth of activity.  If I don't do this it means that there's no specific division between morning and afternoon and in the autumn and winter months humans need light and air, even if it is of the central London kind!

I return to the office and eat my lunch - it's almost always of a packed variety - sandwiches, crisps, fruit etc.  I have a hiatus hernia which has been exacerbated by weight and this often causes painful digestive problems if I'm stressed out.  Last week I passed another team who are located further up the corridor and they were all seated and consuming a fish and chip lunch - it smelt very strongly indeed.

Post #22 - A (Working) Day In The Life (Of An Aspie) - The Morning: Part One

If people don't really understand how it feels like to be a working person with Asperger Syndrome combined with depression, I hope that these series of posts helps. I've split them into four because it's much easier to read and certainly less boring!  It's hard, it's so darn hard and I'm slowly becoming housebound as a result, but writing about my issues makes it much more cathartic.

It's a work day, I know this because I will have woken extremely early and lain in bed, the duvet clamped around me, like an oversized sausage roll. At 7:30 I'll get into the shower and wash, because nobody, I repeat nobody, wants a stinky colleague do they?  Teeth, make-up and dress - downstairs, coffee and breakfast. Usually my son is downstairs playing obscure YouTube videos on his pad - being autistic too, he's usually favouring something obscure, such as a series of the quiz Fifteen to One dating back to 1988.




At 8:12 precisely I'll leave the house and walk the thirteen minute journey to the station. I'll pass all of the parked cars which clog up my road because their owners are too mean to pay for the station car park.  En route, I'll try to avoid walking behind someone smoking a cigarette or in front of anyone with clacking heels - it's a sensory thing and it bothers me, although it wouldn't concern the vast majority of the population.

Arriving at the station I always stand in the most suitable space to be directly in front of the last carriage of eight's rear doors. I like to sit in the exact middle of the car, which is the facing window seat of the middle bank of the six seat set. This normally means that I'll not have to sit directly beside or opposite anyone and as my journey concludes at the London terminus, I'm not getting in anyone's way.  I'll listen to a podcast or an audiobook and if all else fails, I'll flick through a copy of the Metro.



The area I work in has been a gigantic building site for ages now and it's a really unpleasant environment as a result.  There are huge wire barricades here, there and everywhere and everybody's so pushy.  I follow the stream of commuter traffic along the road and then approach my building.  I used to be able to climb up to my floor, but my fitness level has decreased over the past year.

When I arrive at my allotted desk, I worry whether someone else may be sitting there.  It's situated in the middle of the work area away from any windows.  The desk I sit on is smaller than the standard work area and this means if anybody sits next to me that they'll be far too close and my whole left side will tense up as a result.  Considering all of this has happened prior to me even logging on, what hope is there for me as an employee?

I'm part-time and a flexible worker.  Does this mean that my immediate colleagues believe that I'm a lazy slacker as a result?