Autism Work History

At age thirty, I finally got my four year degree, after ten years of trying, from the College of Staten Island, City University of New York. I then started a checkered work history, ranging from phone solicitor to substitute teacher. By age forty, I was so frustrated and depressed at my work history that I had a nervious break down and went to South Beach Psychiatric Hospital, were I got a job with their second hand shop.

It was there that Tom Siniscalchi offered jobs in a business he was starting, just for the mentally disabled. It was a custom screen printing shop and if they hired you, you weren't there for treatment or training. You were there to work. I had to get that job, so I went to the interview, impressed Tom with my degree and bag of butterscotch candy, and became one of the founding members of Special Tees.

I wish I could say I was still there, but after occupying several positions there, I ended up as a tool and screen cleaner, along side a man with an intellectual disability, my friend and coworker, Micheal Beally. At one point, he said he wished he were intelligent like me, to which I replied, I am as bright as me, and I'm sitting here, doing the same job as you. I hoped it made him feel better, because  it made me feel humiliated. By 2008, I left for medical reasons and never went back.

By Spring 2009, I went to Tom's next business. He too had left Special Tees and started a new custom screen printing shop PossibiliTees. I became the man who found potential customers on the net and gave that information to Tom, for him to solicit. I was quite happy at this job and held it till the business closed down at the end of 2012. After this, I had a short term intenship at a photography shop, finding potential businesses, as I had at PossibiliTees, but here I did some of the soliciting myself. I was quite proud of the fact that I had gotten a job without any consideration for my mental disability. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a short term job. Their internet connection was unreliable. I spent as much time doing nothing as work, so, as an act of conscience, I had to leave, and have done nothing since. 

Do you have a job for me?

Autism on the Rise

It used to be really rare, then it became as common as one in eighty-eight. People have theorized why it's growing. I have my own theory.

First, let me explain what autism is. Autism, for those of you who don't know, is a form of developmental disability, characterized by an inability to deal with other human beings. It's usually associated with intellectual limitations, but there's a subset of autistics that often have superior intelligence. We are called Aspies, short for Asperger syndrome. We have our limitations, but many of us think it's worth it and value our condition. We object to those of you NT's (neuro-typicals) who want to cure us. I, myself, wear a shirt saying my autism make me smarter than you. We also can be rather obsessive over our particular interests. Nobody sweats the details like us, even if it's just a bus schedule.

 A decade ago Thorkil Sonne, a telecommunications executive living in Ringsted, Denmark, as terrified about what the future might hold for his 7-year-old autistic son, Lars. But rather than give in to despair, the middle-aged father started a company, Specialisterne (ASpecialists@ in Danish), which helps high-functioning adults with autistic-spectrum disorders (ASDs) find employment. Today business is booming. Sonne oversees branches in a fourteen countries, including Germany, England, and Spain, and is funneling workers to such IT giants as SAP. Now he has even moved to Delaware to establish a foothold in America.

We object to those of you NT's (neuro-typicals) who want to cure us. I, myself, wear a shirt saying my autism make me smarter than you. We also can be rather obsessive over our particular interests. My theory? I think it's nature taking its course. It's evolution in action! The latest research says we seem to be caused by two mutations. There are certain companies that have taken advantage of our superior abilities and will only hire those of us with our special mutations,

My theory? I think it's nature taking its course. It's evolution in action! The latest research says we seem to be caused by two mutations. There are certain companies, such as my own, that have taken advantage of our superior abilities and will only hire those of us with our special mutations.

Continuing in this vein, I figure it's just a matter of time before the government tries to register and weaponize us and tries to control us. Resisters will be chased by giant robots and men in black.

I think I read too many comic books. That's my autistic obsession.

Autism On The Rise

Autism is on the rise. It used to be really rare, then it became as common as one in eighty-eight. People have theorized why it's growing. I have my own theory.

First, let me explain what autism is. Autism, for those of you who don't know, is a form of developmental disability, characterized by an inability to deal with other human beings. It's usually associated with intellectual limitations, but there's a subset of autistics that often have superior intelligence. We are called Aspies, short for Asperger syndrome. We have our limitations, but many of us think it's worth it and value our condition. We object to those of you NT's (neuro-typicals) who want to cure us. I, myself, wear a shirt saying my autism make me smarter than you. We also can be rather obsessive over our paticular interests. Nobody sweats the details like us, even if it's just a bus schedule.

My theory? I think it's nature taking its course. It's evolution in action! The latest research says we seem to be caused by two mutations.There are certain companies, such as my own, that have taken advantage of our superior abilities and will only hire those of us with our special mutations.

Continuing in this vein, I figure it's just a matter of time before the government tries to register and weaponize us and tries to control us. Resisters will be chased by giant robots and men in black.

I think I read too many comic books. That's my autistic obsession.

David Rubin