RE the topic line:
I'd say don't bother. But that's just my two cents, and I usually seem to be the extreme rebel when everyone else is moderate and reasonable.
That's me for ya.
Hmm...
Sounds like company brainwashing to me.
Work is work, and that's all. It makes money. That's all. Sure it's better if your workmates are friends, rather than enemies. But there's no reason why relationships should have to go beyond the occasional "hello".
I'm generally suspicious of job agency pamphlets because the people who write them are usually stupid.
All I can say about the article is .... how very NT.
That's what I'd tend to think too.
^"Some companies are rotten to the core" -
Sounds more like this company was rotten to the CORPS!
Seriously, that situation is terrible.
Definitely, adaptation has limits. Sometimes you have to just acknowledge that a particular work culture, or even profession-wide culture, is not right for you, and move on.
Of course, that's easier said than done.....
It is difficult to fit in at work, because people have hidden agendas and usually do not say what they really mean.
I think that in my last few weeks of work, I have been under the impression that I had real friends at last, only to find that because I had the audacity to actually like a girl there in an intimate way, that I am now a laughing-stock. Perhaps I should have 'known my place' and kept quiet about it, after all, it isn't as though I am entitled to have such feelings, much less expect to get them reciprocated; not while there are so many low-IQ lumps of Beef about who are obviously so "superior" to me.
Now I understand why I utterly despise most manifestations of Neurotypical culture, even if I do not really have A/S (which is always a possibility, though I am getting closer to moving towards a 'self-diagnosed' category).
I do work hard to fit in, I just feel it's more comfortable that way, even though, despite my best efforts, I do always come across as a bit eccentric. One thing I really dislike and which was prevalent in my last workplace but not so much in my new one is where the boss encourages after-work "get togethers" like bowls nights or going out en masse to dinner. I mean, I really dislike those, I get enough of trying to fit in with the herd during work, I don't want to hang out with them after work as well! But nobody else seems to feel that way. And particularly at night, I just can't be bothered to "pretend" to be chatty or want to talk about my day, my feelings, etc. I just want to take it easy and have some quiet time to de-stress from pretending all day at work.
Alison
"Fitting in" may make your time at work with other employees easier, but really, "fitting in" sounds like something straight out of high school.
I work fast food...would I really want to fit in there? No. It does, however, make me feel awkward and out of place. I either work with high school kids or adults with pretty much lack of education. I'm 29 years old. Here by misfortune. I work with kids, I feel like a babysitter. I work with adults and I feel like, when I make small talk, it's as if I were speaking another language.
I guess even if I wanted to fit in I couldn't. How do I fit in? What's the point.
On the other hand, I'm rather liked by the managers and those who have been working there for quite a while, namel the adults (they see me as a kid but that's ok - I look all of 16). I do my job well (if that means anything in the long run).
It's just a job. I go there. Do my work. Then come home. The end.
I was at work training once and a buch of us workers sat outside and talked and suddenly a person came with a really bad rasist coment.I hate such humor.I stood up and left.
This is something I experience at work as well. The majority of my co-workers are very friendly people to me, yet some of them can be completely prejudiced. They can have their views all they want, but I refuse to be a participant. If that means keeping my mouth quiet during their conversations then so be it. I just feel I'm surrounded by so many narrow-minded, unworldly folk it frustrates me.
To some degree, it's possible to do something about it but it always helps to have "deep pockets". There's the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Tribunal and if it is a public service department, the Ombudsman may be able to help if attempts to resolve a bad situation fail.
Public Service Departments also fear ministerials, so contacting the local member's office is another avenue of assistance. If a private firm has discriminated against a worker/treated them badly, a threat to go to the media might make them pull their horns in.
Yikes! She must have been in a bad department. Was it federal or state? I think state can be worse.
Ah yes, I knew a man who had a long running dispute with that department and eventually got a stress-related invalidity payment but oh boy, he had a real slog to do that. He wasn't going to accept anything less than a big payout but he is a big guy and his health really suffered in the meantime. I can't see that a commonwealth department would have got away with pressuring a pregnant woman to leave, even in the early 1990's but the state departments might have been able to (not sure what their guidelines were at the time).
But how much of this is down to people being apathetic and not fighting for their rights?
What about contacting the local member's office? I say that because most Public Service department people fear ministerials. The man I know of got a payout well in excess of $20000 and this was probably 10 years ago but I think he had something over them.
Oh, I wasn't suggesting you pursue what happened back in the 1990's but just that in general, people need to be more willing to use whatever avenues they can to stand up for their rights.