Aspies For Freedom

I phoned up for a job as a part-time housekeeper.  This is the ad
"great part-time job for experienced lady with good housekeeping, ironing, cooking skills".  I was asked if I had experience.  She asked where I was working now.  I told her I was a housewife.  She said I needed experience.  I asked her how could the job be any different than what I do at home.  She could tell me what she wanted me to do and I would do it.  She said the job was more involved than that.

What the hell was she talking about?  

I am so *&*^%&^%*&  feed up with looking for a job.  Too bad they put their real phone number in the ad.  I looked up the name and address and in the internet reverse phone directory.  

Should I write to the person and ask for a job?  I was going to tell over the phone that I have a disability and it is difficult to get work.

She sounds awkward, so I would avoid her anyway. I dont know what experience the woman would have wanted. Cleaning royal palaces maybe? :roll:

cleaning the palace.   I looked up the address and it is half million to million dollar condominiums.   The phone number was for a private residence not a business.

Once I applied for a nanny/babysitting job.  The person was surprised that I was not an immigrant.  "If you were born in Canada, why are you applying for this job?"   well, stupid.  I need money.  

Check out  http://notcanada.com  and tell everyone you know not to emmigrate to Canada.  They only want slaves and I appartently can not compete with slaves since I speak one of the countries official languages and I know my rights.

:?

What does that face mean?

I am not feeling nasty to immigrants.  I just feel that they are often exploited.  They save money and come to Canada and end up broke because they are lied to by the government.  They are not hired and told that they do not speak English well enough or they do not have enough "Canadian work experience".  

Actually I have have been given the "not good enough English" excuse and I am a native English speaker.  I always get "but you have no experience in this field" excuse.  I am always asked where I went to high school even though I have a college and university degree from Canadian institutions.  Then I am told that I am "over qualified for the position" or "a more suitable candidate was chosen".  

I just can not understand the counsellor at the disability placement center telling me that I should disclose my AS even though he did not really understand what I meant by my when I was explaining about my lack of understanding facial gestures was "fascinating" when I tried to explain it to him.  How is he supposed to help me find a job when he can not even understand how my AS poses a barrier to me at job interviews.  He kept telling me that I can not apply for jobs that I do not have experience for.  

I am so frustrated.

That emoticon means kind of 'oh dear'.

M, I know you said in an earlier post that you didn't want an unpaid volunteer position, but in light of the difficulties you're having, you might think about reconsidering this--first, because it would give you something productive to do while you work on the job search thing, and second, because you can cite it as evidence of your work ethic, and use references you'd get from the powers-that-be at the organization you're volunteering with--assuming you found yourself in a volunteer environment that plays to your strengths.

Sorry the job search is proving to be so frustrating!

M, when that woman said you needed experience, she meant that she didn't want to hire a person who had no references from previous employers.  She wasn't talking about whether you knew how to do housework.

I agree with energeia that volunteer work would be a good way to get a reference.  If the disability placement center doesn't have anything suitable for you, I suggest that you look for volunteer work on your own.  Are there any charities in your area that you might want to help?  Just ask them if there is some volunteer work you could do.

Sometimes volunteer jobs turn into paid jobs eventually, if a paid person quits or if there's more money in the budget for some other reason.

If you're happy just to be a cleaning lady, it couldn't be easier to get part time work, as people are crying out for cleaning ladies everywhere.

Just put cards in newsagents windows in your area  where people advertise>

***********************************************************

Cleaning Lady Available.

ironing and cooking if required

Friendly Local Service

£7.50 an hour.

Your Telephone number.

*************************************************************

That should do the trick!  :smile:

Stella

oh dear I've got into a muddle with this posting somehow  :roll: but I think the point is still there.

Stella

Thank you for your replies.  But I do not feel any bettter today. Sounds like a good idea to put up ads.  I will ask my husband about using an ad.

I did have a volunteer job (one day per week) that I really enjoyed.  Unfortunately it ended in April.  They keep calling me with more volunteer jobs but I can not make a committment because my husband wants me to get a paying job.  They never seem to have any paying jobs available anyway.  

The problem with cleaning is that I have chemical sensitivities.  It is not really the best job for me but I am really trying to think of anything that I can do for money.  I am also trying for nanny jobs.  A few families have called me but no offers.

This is what I do not understand:  
"M, when that woman said you needed experience, she meant that she didn't want to hire a person who had no references from previous employers. She wasn't talking about whether you knew how to do housework. "  She never asked me for references.  She asked me where I was working now.    If there was more to the job, as she said, she never put that in the ad.

I have to make that disability placement place understand that I need someone to come to interviews with me to "translate NTese"  I usually do not understand what these people are asking me.

"Where are you working now" is the same as asking for a reference.  The purpose of the question is to get contact information for an applicant's current employer, so as to ask whether the applicant's work was satisfactory.

LOL, it's so true, there are hidden meanings everywhere!

edit: For nanny jobs, you could try asking your local autism society if they know of any parents who are looking for a nanny for an autistic child.

Sorry I'm a late joiner on this one - I'm checking out different topics and jumping in as long as too much time hasn't passed...

This could be one of my hairbrained ideas (and I apologize for the unsolicited advice), but I'm wondering what you'd think of working your sensitivities as an angle to market yourself:  "Environmentally friendly cleaning service"  

People (who can afford it of course) might go for a thorough cleaning service who is educated on chemical sensitivities, and would know how to NOT pollute their homes with chemicals when cleaning.  

I'm hearing you on that one - frustration central.   :mad:  If only NTese were Google-able.

I did apply for another housekeeping job and I got an interview.  I have my suspicions though.  My husband tells me that I am paranoid.  I was going to disclose my AS but instead decided not to.  I did discuss my chemical sensitivities.

I have my reservations about the agency though.  They charge families a $900 fee.   Their website says that they hire "live-ins" from China.  The interviewer made an appointment for me and then phoned me two hours earlier and asked me to come right away.  She "forgot" what job she was interviewing me for.  She told me that the mother of the family was Chinese.  They had just fired someone after two weeks because they were "driving the family car allover, not cleaning the house and stealing from them".  Somehow I did not believe her  (even difficult for someone with AS).   She did not ask to see any ID.  She asked me to fill out a "security criminal check form" that was a photocopy.  She did not really ask me much about my experience with children but mainy focussed on my cooking and cleaning.  (I would think that people value their children more than home cooking).  

So now I am waiting to see if I will be called back to meet the family.  I am sure that I might be told that they prefer someone who is "Chinese speaking".   So she could then tell the government that there was noone suitable in Canada to hire for this job so she could import Chinese women to work.  In fact, "live-ins" are paid much less than "live-outs".