Hey lovelies  

We'd like to ask you all for your thoughts, suggestions, and ideas to help us resolve an ongoing issue.

The issue

At a high-level, we are a neurodivergent (AuDHD) spoonie with a mixture of health issues that are preventing us from being able to get or do a "typical" job and earn an income.

By "typical" job, we mean one where the company and role just aren't well-suited to many folks who are disabled (including being neurodivergent), have support needs, and/or have other health issues.

Most "typical" jobs broadly:

  • Have fixed hours (start/finish times and total working hours required).
  • Require a minimum fixed amount of time in a physical office.
  • Require a lot of interaction with other people (including colleagues).

... and so on, so you can probably understand how difficult it is for us to find any suitable paid employment that we can do πŸ˜…

This is made harder by the fact that:

  • We only know how to search for "typical" jobs.
  • There is zero support within the UK for finding suitable employment outside of "typical" jobs.
  • The welfare system within the UK is fundamentally (and intentionally) broken

The request

We have zero idea where to even start, so we are genuinely asking for your input and recommendations here.

We have decent reading comprehension, writing ability, and neurospicy pattern recognition, but we also have an inconsistent level of executive function and energy (physical and mental), so we can't do a job where we have to clock in and out at set times, even on a part-time basis.

Even whilst writing this post, we're already out of spoons and on to knives today, meaning that we're pushing through to ask for help.

Any suggestions will be appreciated, and we'll add additional details to the post based on any questions or thoughts from others πŸ₯ΊπŸ«Ά

Thank you in advance for your thoughts, as well as your empathy, understanding, and kindness  

#AskFedi #GenuinelyAsking #GetFediHired #neurodivergent #neurospicy #AuDHD #ActuallyAutistic #ADHD #spoonie #disability #disabled #LateStageCapitalismSucks

Edit 2025-11-27:

Thank you for replies so far. There has been some confusion, which may be due to poor explanation on our part, so we wish to add some further details to clarify some points.

The issue is a health, disabilities, and support needs one, rather than not being able to find a job that meets our skillset.

We're not asking directly for a specific "typical" job, as we cannot work those kinds of jobs.

We're basically asking for advice on where to start in light of all the various issues we have that are preventing us being able to do any form of "typical" job.

There is a slim chance we could recover enough to do some form of "typical" job, but that could take another 6+ months, a year, or longer. And even if we did recover, any "typical" job would burn us out again within a year, possibly worse than now.

We've not listed specific skills, as we're trying to get help on the first steps, rather than which jobs to look for. That said, we're going to clarify outright that we cannot program at all, we've never been able to learn any computer languages, and we lack the underlying talent. Again though, the issue isn't our skills (or lack thereof): it's a fundamental query about how to go about trying to earn income when you're unable to do any kind of "typical" job.

@SleepyCatten

If you're in the UK, have you considered the civil service, including devolved sectors if you're in Scotland or Wales?

What you get depends strongly on the specific organisation, but my CS organisation employs a lot of neurodivergent comrades and has policies that could work?
- flexible start/finish hours
- flexing of hours across weeks
- open to part-time working
- very limited office working requirements
- always looking for people with general skills.

@thecasualcritic We're a trans+ fem / woman in England. The Civil Service is very much not a place where we'd be welcome, ever πŸ˜”

@SleepyCatten
I'm sorry you feel that way. I cannot know what your experiences have been, so I won't argue the point. All I can say is that in my particular employer, we have several open trans and non-binary colleagues, supported by a strong union and equalities network presence.

But not every CS employer is like that, and I completely understand you don't want to take the risk of entering a potentially hostile or unwelcoming space.

I wish you the best of luck with your quest for work :)

@thecasualcritic We appreciate the sentiment and wish you all the best 🩷🫢