Thank you for this, I didn't know that. 🙏

Put in that 60% and clock out. That is all they are paying you for.

Same boat friend. I can't hold a job for longer than a few years and I live in an area where there are very few options so my resume is a disaster. Once I'm in a place for too long people start to notice my quirks. At first it's funny and cute, but then it gets difficult and people turn on me. Misunderstandings build and compound. Some people even see my imperceptiveness as a weakness for them to exploit.

But there is one job that I am trying to pursue again. It involves travel, working remotely, seeing new places all the time, and meeting new people for a few days at most. For me it was electrical inspection and investigation. What this means is my mask only needs to be worn for a little bit at a time. Even if someone notices my quirks, it's received as charming and then I'm gone forever. My coworkers are too busy doing the same to really care, and I only see them once a year at best.

The pay was shit so I left but now it's worth the hit. This last year has been devastating for me:

• fired over a misunderstanding days after picking up a new car that:

• I can no longer afford,
• everyone told me was a bad idea,
• and days before it would be discontinued,

• took a job that destroys my soul but can't afford to leave,
• mixed up meds and ended up in hospital
• was involved in a wreck that I may have caused by inattentiveness and ended up arrested and back in hospital,
• diagnosed with functional neurological disorder with nearly uncontrolled essential tremor,
• couldn't afford healthcare so I stopped being treated for CPTSD, anxiety, and SI,
• and the VA just put me on a "watchlist" - a nurse told me that I exhibit every red flag of a veteran at risk of harming themselves. Cool cool cool.

And all of this during the dumbest time in human history. Economy is trash, job market is a veritable dumpster fire, Odyssey was so loud I had to walk out holding my ears because my loops did nothing, and every day I just go home and sit under the kitchen table with my toddler and cry. He holds my face and sings a song he made up for me, "it's o-kaaay, it's o-kaaaaay, it's o-kaaay, it's o-KAAAAAY". That song is my tether to sanity.

Burnout baby. My routine was my foundation for life and it's gone. I don't even pretend to have a long term mask anymore. I don't engage with anyone. When I'm at work, I treat my interactions as if I didn't exist after COB and had no personal opinions. I keep asking short questions that demand a lengthy response and let people crumble under the weight of them listening to themselves carry the entire conversation. But it never comes back on me and I'm such a blank slate that I have no personality at all.

I think I get it. I have no solutions. But I'll sit under your kitchen table and cry with you if it helps. I'll even sing you the song. It really does help.

Oh, and neurodiverse people don't hear this enough, but you are important and you are loved. Even when we don't feel it.

Lol, snowboarding socks here. Are they the same thing? I suppose they would be.

OMG, are you me?

I used to wear only those merino wool socks, but as I've been getting older and colder I've started a collection of oversized snowboarding socks. They are so warm.

And colorful too!!

And several, including Everest, are taller higher.

FTFY

Alaska thinks anyone on the planet talking about mountains is adorable.Laughs in Denali

No, the cost cost goes up sharply.

The deeper you get into engineering, weather, networking, software dev, academia the more your hobbies cost. This is also ignoring the cost of acquiring all that knowledge first (at least $100k at a state school).

Lol, touché.

I am in a similar boat. Or I should say, I wish I was in your boat, so to speak. I'm a highly experienced engineer. The compensation is adequate. Only one problem, I hate design engineering. I have a real contempt for the entire field. Part of the job is calculating estimates that meet the profit expectations of the boss but also affordable for the client, all of which are neuro-fucking-typical and have no perspective at all. Then the projects involve tasks that take weeks, or months, or even years. I heavily rely on people responding to emails or messages and the management are all dinosaurs who don't view email as legitimate communication. If I didn't stand in front of their desk or literally call these rubes and allow them to audibly molest my time with their awkward nonsensical mundanity, then I basically didn't try at all. I can't just turn in a timesheet after doing work; I have to justify every second of my day toward a specific task and then track that task completion for the assholes upstairs that don't generate revenue at all. The HR manager listens to the Harry fucking Potter 2 theme music on repeat ALL FUCKING DAY and the last time I complained to HR about anything it nearly ruined my career.

But, for a number of years I worked in inspections and investigations. The compensation is garbage but the work is bliss. I want to light this office on fire and flee back to that, but it would mean a total upheaval of my family's life. We would need to move, I would lose my garage, go back to fighting for parking or getting hit on my bike by shitty drivers. No more vacations, no toys, and Walmart fucking groceries.

I know what I want, but I don't know how to get there. I'm hoping my partner can get a more lucrative position so I can change jobs without significant effect. I'm not sure.

But that's where I am. No measurable metrics and playing the fucking social game. I hate it. It helps to imagine that we were all cavemen and the neurotypicals are sitting idly while I watch a sabertooth sneak up on them. But instead of alerting them and keeping them alive so they can inevitably destroy our language, society, culture, economy, traffic, planet, etc. I just watch as they get torn limb from limb while screaming in agony. 😊 Our society just got a little less dumb.

The fork is akin to the barbaric abbreviation, IMO.

Lol, no doubt you're right. It just made me lol when I saw the image and immediately thought, "wtf did caplyta ever do?"