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I do applaud those with autism who try to maintain employment & those employers who try to work with them but it won’t be long before one out of every 58 adults will be largely unemployable.
I'm not sure why you say that. There are many autistic people living and working here in Silicon Valley. They are needed and valued.
I'd be more for boycotting them for having a religious bent. Unless they're religiously-oriented (e.g. a religious bookstore) religion has no place in a business. Talking about hiring all of "god's children" in literature displayed to the public is inappropriate and some may even consider it discrimination since it favors a specific non-neutral view.
(I'm sure somebody's got some snarky comeback waiting for me.)
snarky? what you said is insane. what are people supposed to respond with?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ttark
I'd be more for boycotting them for having a religious bent. Unless they're religiously-oriented (e.g. a religious bookstore) religion has no place in a business. Talking about hiring all of "god's children" in literature displayed to the public is inappropriate and some may even consider it discrimination since it favors a specific non-neutral view.
(I'm sure somebody's got some snarky comeback waiting for me.)
Get over it life doesn't always come in a neutral vanilla wrapper with no potential offensiveness to everyone.
Also what's difficult is the customer has no idea the clerk has autism. It's not like someone with downs syndrome. If those diagnosed autistic keep messing up, they'd be out of there anyhow. It's not good for business
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I'm kind of struggling with this topic.
Our local grocery stores (HEB) pride themselves on hiring sackers with developmental delays, and for the most part they do a really good job and are a pleasure to interact with. This one, though, that didn't appear to have any obvious delay but had some kind of severe OCD type behavior, you would notice right away when she began sacking. She'd open the paper bags, put a few items in, get irritated by it and open another one and rearrange the things. The first time I saw her it was clear to me that she was never going to be able to complete the task for sacking my 12 items - somehow, the combination of the items in each bag displeased her. I started avoiding her because you just kind of had to sweetly push her out of the way and put the items - with no sacks - into your cart so you could get out of the store, while the cashier watched helplessly. She didn't last more than a month, but truly, it would have been MUCH easier if she weren't there.
Just last weekend I went to an iconic barbecue business, and a young man with an obvious developmental delay was at the front door. I'm sure his job was to greet customers, and open the door for customers who were carrying large to-go orders (most of their business). Instead, he was standing in front of the doorway and you had to ask him to move a few times before he actually got out of the way so you could use the doorway. I went there twice that morning, because I hadn't gotten all the stuff we needed and when I returned an hour later he was still doing it, basically requiring each customer to tell him to move out of the way.
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Many businesses try to provide an opportunity for those with learning challenges to develop work skills and have the opportunity to provide for themselves. Like any new employee some work out some don't, how often have you encountered a "normal/regular" teen working in a business and thinking "this person is dump as a stump".
What's really the difference?
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(set 3 days ago)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VA Yankee
/\
Many businesses try to provide an opportunity for those with learning challenges to develop work skills and have the opportunity to provide for themselves. Like any new employee some work out some don't, how often have you encountered a "normal/regular" teen working in a business and thinking "this person is dump as a stump".
What's really the difference?
And I admire those businesses and respect them greatly, and as I said, usually the employees with disabilities (especially those with down's syndrome) seem friendly and more pleasant than the average employee. For awhile, I worked in a sheltered workshop where employees with cognitive impairments put together those packets of plastic knife, spoon and fork and a packet of salt and pepper and a napkin for fast food restaurant use. So I get it - offering work to those with compromised abilities.
I was responding in the context of this thread, that apparently the restaurant owner didn't think a customer should be able to complain about an employee who had special needs.
It's not at all clear what happened in this article, and whether the customer was right and respectful in her complaint. If a job needs to be done and the person isn't capable of doing it, you're still sitting there needing it to be done, like replace the salad bowl while we're here eating, please. A respectful complaint is warranted.
And yes, there are many, many "normal" teens who wait on you somewhere and you think that girl's not going to last through the business week before she gets canned.
Apparently it was refilling a "lettuce bowl," whatever that is.
My guess is the salad bar was running low on lettuce.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KCZ
It seems quite possible that the real cause of this whole incident was that the person who had this task in his job description was either slacking off and/or being inadequately supervised by the outraged manager.
Maybe, maybe not. The Pizza Inn here in my town gets busy at lunch with people eating off the buffet. There may have been a run on the lettuce at that time
yeah...fair enough. I'm guessing that maybe the autistic kid came off as rude, without meaning to.
I feel like a lot of background information is missing. LOL
There IS a lot missing. I'm still not clear as to why the owner's response was what it was: "All God's children".
Nothing that leads one to believe the customer acted inappropriately or flipped out; they reported something to the manager, which is the way most places of business prefer that complaints are handled, so they don't lose a customer.
It is not the employee's fault & it's not the customer's fault either. If you assume responsibility for a person with autism; you need to be able to predict issues & grow a very thick skin. You say "Excuse me" & "I'm sorry" a lot. Alotalotalot ...!
There have been so many social media "outrages" involving autism "going viral", lately. Entertainment media "features" autism in the form of flapping muppets on Sesame Street & brilliant, adorable spectrummy young doctors on prime time. The Neurodiversity agenda is prominent online.
Suddenly; everybody who was anybody must have been autistic: Newton, Beethoven, Einstien (well, okay; he probably was, in the phenotypical sense), Steve Jobs ...
Somebody is going to quite a bit of effort to lie about Autism & it's hurting people like my son & I, versus helping. Look:
I love my autistic son with every fiber of my being. I have seen something in him that is not of this world; an innate spiritual connection that defies the influence of any mortal man. I am ASD (but high functioning) as well & I have fought part of his fight before.
I have never needed his words in order to know him; nor has he needed mine. If I were to sense that he was in danger from any living thing on this planet? They no longer would be.
That being said: Autism is hard. Autism is so freaking hard. Portraying only the highest functioning of us while ignoring the most vulnerable & compromised is offensive & wrong. This is not something to embrace ... this is brain damage.
In the last decade; autism has become the most financially mitigating of all chronic childhood disorders. If you cross that poverty line; it's for life. Forever. No coming back. A study measuring cortisol levels of primary caregivers of severely autistic people; found levels comparable to the levels found in combat soldiers.
For every whiz kid or "Good Doctor"; there is a 20+-something grown man in diapers, bashing his head into a wall while his mom locks herself in a bathroom & cowers in fear. A classmate of my son's died the weekend before last from a seizure she had in her sleep.
Just fill the damn lettuce bowl, lady. Say "I'm sorry; he has autism" & carry on. There is good reason for mass public outrage concerning autism... but not for that.
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I went there twice that morning, because I hadn't gotten all the stuff we needed and when I returned an hour later he was still doing it, basically requiring each customer to tell him to move out of the way.
