…I’ve been considering hiring some help with my online businesses. But even though I’ve not been diagnosed, I’d bet that my score on an Asperger Syndrome test would be fairly high. From your viewpoint, would hiring be a recipe for disaster? Would it depend on the type of contract/work understanding I had with the person?

I’m probably the last person of whom to ask these questions. Whether you have a disability or not, you need to hire your weakness. With clients… well… this could be a roundabout motivation for why I wrote a book -specifically to outline the ground rules of a working relationship. Even today it really throws me if a client doesn’t have style numbers or they’re really bad ones. It hijacks everything else I’m doing and derails the whole process. That may sound a little odd but if I don’t have the means to organize the work process itself, I can’t step through it. So, my strategy has to become very selective of those I work with. I don’t think I’m alone in this. I think plenty of contractors share some of these characteristics and with so much competition btwn DEs for contractors, it makes it easy for service providers to say no if somebody doesn’t have their ducks in a row. There’s other work out there that’s not as much hassle.

…as I get older I also am finally realizing that I likely have very little clue how to get help from other people/employees as an employer.

I don’t have employees now but I had four at one point. At that time, we didn’t have a word or a diagnosis to explain my oddities but there was a pattern. If your impairment is significant and whether you work for yourself or someone else, you have to ask for accommodation. That’s what I did with my staff. There were some things that Kathleen just couldn’t do or did poorly. That’s why I hired them. And that’s not to say that I wasn’t diffident about it because I was. Here I am, I’m supposed to be the boss but I’m largely doing what my staff tells me to do. Believe it or not, it can work with the right people. Frankly, I would LOVE to hire a boss (of me) even today. I do not like telling people what to do. I dislike it so much that I think my resentment is sometimes interpreted as annoyance because I don’t like being in that position. That probably explains a lot about some of my posts right there.

(No, most people don’t know how to do the things that seem relatively easy to me but yes, they do know how to do things I barely even understand that I don’t know, like stay organized in my work areas).

This is a problem of executive functioning; many autistics are notoriously bad at it. It’s something you learn to live with if you can’t find a boss (of you) to hire. If you do figure a way around it and can effectively teach it to others, you’d be a millionaire. A some time strategy I use is to have a private class. If I know I have people coming in, I have to clean up. That’s probably the real reason I rarely have classes, having to clean up. eek. I should do them monthly to keep me on the straight and narrow. ~sigh~

I do believe strongly in what you have outlined above; however, as I get older I also am finally realizing that I likely have very little clue how to get help from other people/employees as an employer. (No, most people don’t know how to do the things that seem relatively easy to me but yes, they do know how to do things I barely even understand that I don’t know, like stay organized in my work areas).

The only persons I know personally with a higher AS score than me might be my dh and one of my brothers. And after being in public, like at church for a few hours, dh and I head for opposite ends of the house for a few hours to decompress… . Luckily we do get back together for meals, etc. lol.

It’s amazing to me how many comapnies can be in business for 20+ years and after 1 bad quarter, go under. I want my (future) company to be around as long as there are customers who need our products.

I use a manufacturer overseas in Pakistan and I will say that before I started this venture of a clothing line, which by the way, was never a huge dream, goal or anything but I kind of fell into it, I had so little understanding of that culture; they were just “over there”.

Nevertheless, we now have a manufacturing factory there run by a married couple who have become my best of friends yet we have never met in person. One day we will I am sure.

The factory is run with about 30 people, these people all depend on their work to feed their families. It is not a sweatshop and the people there like the work they do and have pride in what they do, so I am told. The couple that runs the factory tells me it is my factory and I have said NO it’s not mine but in actuality I can see their point.

When I am here going over the numbers, profits etc. I often thing maybe this just won’t work. I mean it has been a lot of work, learning, trials and tribulations and do I really want to continue it? Then I look at the other side of things. We are going into our 4th year of the brand and have improved so many things it would be stupid to stop now. And, yes, I have certainly looked at the point that I am now responsible for feeding about 30 families in an Asian country. Did I ask for this responsibility? No but now I have it so would have to really think it all through before I stopped everything.

So Kathleen you can take a little comfort in knowing some poverty has been prevented by your work too.

Thanks,
Pam

I don’t employ anyone yet, but I am working with a couple other people in the “trading stages.” I know that one day things will emerge to a bigger place where I will be able to have full-time employees.

I don’t think anyone minds that you are using us, because we are grabbing on to everything you say. I guess we are using each other! Thank you. -Rachel