In So Many Words

Asperger Awareness: A Key To Success For IT And Technical Managers is a great introduction to the benefits and challenges that can arise when managing employees with Asperger’s or Asperger’s traits.

Although directed at those in the IT and technical areas, the information can certainly be applied to varying degrees in other settings (in fact, I think I may pass it on to my boss the next time she is in town!). As one of the reviewers put it, “Diversity once understood and valued can only enhance productivity and knowledge.”

Plowright opens the book with a description of what Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) is and also references the informal Autism Quotient (AQ) test developed by Simon Baron-Cohen to look for AS tendencies. As he points out, many individuals who gravitate to technical areas of work may have high AQ scores, or AS tendencies, even if not diagnosed with Asperger’s.

The labels aren’t as important as recognizing that people who have these tendencies often bring similar strengths and challenges to the working environment and will perform best when those are taken into account. Some of the strengths may be:

• Problem-solving ability
• Perfectionism (yes, this can be a good thing, especially in a technical environment!)
• Persistence
• Intelligence
• Independent thinking and interdisciplinary insights
• Honesty
• Loyalty
• Focus and Attention to Detail

Of course, any of these could also be perceived as a weakness, such as when direct honesty comes across as arrogance. The author provides a number of examples of how AS traits could be aggravated by conditions within an office environment, such as extreme focus making it difficult to deal with too many demands or the sudden addition of new tasks, or with perfectionism causing deadlines to be missed.

He continues with a discussion on how to optimize an employee’s ability to work by reducing the stress caused by his or her innate tendencies. “The keys to reducing work related stress,” he says, “are order, clarity, interest, and autonomy.” I couldn’t agree more!

Many individuals who do quite well as part of a technical team face much greater challenges when given a management role. While acknowledging that this may not be a good move for everyone, Plowright offers some suggestions for how to handle a new supervisory role, including using a mentor to give some guidance during the transition period (and beyond, if needed).

I would highly recommend Asperger Awareness to anyone who is in management, especially those in areas that attract a higher number of individual with Asperger’s or AS traits. It could also be helpful to the individuals with AS themselves to assist in identifying their own strengths and challenges and give them some direction on what types of accommodations could improve their working experience and output.

Thank you to the author for providing a review copy of this book at no charge and with no expectations regarding the content of the review.

Well, it is Christmas Eve, and what a busy day it has been.  But I am happy to be able to get so much done again, so I am not complaining.  We had ice last night but then it rained most of the day; this morning I didn’t get three feet down my sidewalk before I fell down.  Ugh!

I got a good start on the 2009 pricing that is supposed to be in the system by January 6th.  That sounds like a long ways away until you realize that there are only 4 more business days between now and then for us, and I only have two people helping me.  I am hoping to work on it quite a bit next week while I am home with Michael.  I’m hoping he will be happy to watch some of his new DVD’s while I log in.

Bob & Michael went shopping today for groceries and also for birthday and Christmas presents for me.  It sounds like they had a good time, and Michael hasn’t let anything slip out about my gifts (darn it!).  They also took me out to Ruby Tuesday for a birthday dinner (the night before since we are going to a friend’s house for dinner tomorrow on my actual birthday).  Michael was a bit nervous because he had never been there before, but later pronounced it a very good choice and said they had the best French fries he had ever had.

While they were out, I got all the presents wrapped and just have to put together Michael’s Santa gift once he is asleep and Bob finishes his secret wrapping project downstairs.  I am excited – I think this is going to be a good Christmas for us, even if Bob feels like his “vacation” has slipped away without any real down time.  I’m hoping he can get some time off around his birthday when there won’t be all these other things that need to be done and when he can truly rest and relax.

The rash from the scarlet fever is almost gone, although I feel like I have been sunburned and am afraid the skin will start peeling.  My face is rough and dry no matter how much lotion I put on, but I don’t think you can really tell unless you get close, so maybe I will be alright for Christmas photos this weekend.

On the bloggy side of things, I wanted to put a nice widget of some sort on each of my blogs with the feed from the other one.  I like Widgetbox but I can’t get it to work; the customization page just won’t load.  So I ended up using Spring Widgets, which are similar but just not what I like.  Oh well.  If you know of another one that is similar or better, please let me know.

Well, I think I am going to go play around online until it is time to get out the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to set up for the morning.  Merry Christmas Eve, all!

As much as I thank God for helping my son learn to talk and communicate with us, there are days his incessant chatter really gets on my nerves.  Question after endless question, and he doesn’t really seem to listen to the answers sometimes before asking the next one!

Today was a good day, despite my irritation.  My husband is back home from Virginia, so I am fortunate to be able to escape up to our room and do my own thing for a little bit while the two of them watch “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” on TV (the newer version, I think).  I stayed home from work today because I am still extremely tired and still somewhat uncomfortable due to my rash (don’t think I mentioned here earlier that I have contracted scarlet fever somehow).

Despite staying home today, I did log in and do about three hours of work.  This makes up for leaving early on Friday when Michael didn’t have Stepping Stones, plus one hour from today.  I am hoping to go in early the next two days since Bob is off work and get some extra hours in.  My work week goes from Wednesday – Tuesday, so working just my regular hours for tomorrow would put me at 17 for the 1st week.  I am only scheduled to be in the office for 4 hours the 2nd week, so anything beyond that will have to be done over the next two days in the office or from home after that.  It is just so hard to put in a significant amount of time at home with everything else going on around here.

There are some major changes in my job responsibilities coming up after the beginning of the year.  I am excited about passing on a couple of my duties and learning some new stuff (especially since it relates to SEO for our company website, a topic that has been on my “to learn” list since I started blogging), but there are also a few projects I would really like to finish up before my days become taken up by the new stuff.

Hopefully, once I recover my energy from this illness, I will be able to focus on those projects as well as some of the ideas I have for cleaning up our home and for improving my blogging.  I am trying to just focus on what has to be done for the quickly approaching holidays right now!

What a weekend! I couldn’t find childcare for part of this week, so I was supposed to work both Saturday and Sunday to make up for the fact that I can’t go in today or tomorrow. But I had periodontal surgery on Wednesday (my second one) and by Saturday was really swelling up and feeling uncomfortable.

I got through the four hours on Saturday and even posted a very brief Saturday 9 post, but then just came home and slept. Sunday morning I felt even more swollen and in more pain. I worked for an hour and then gave up and came home, after calling the dentist to complain. I couldn’t even sleep because it hurt too bad.

Well, he called in a prescription and I am slowly starting to feel a little bit better. I’m glad because today we are going to Michael’s elementary school for a tour with the principal; it will be good for him to look around on his own and we will take pictures to make a little book for school.

I can tell Michael is really nervous about school because he has started twirling his hair a lot, which he hasn’t done since he stopped going to in June. He is also now telling me that he doesn’t want to go and is just going to say “blah, blah, blah” the whole time we are there. Guess I need to come up with a good motivator for this one, even though I really just want to come home and go back to bed.

Our new TSS may come over later, so that would be a big help. The last couple of days have been so frustrating, and I don’t really feel up to playing all day today.

Saturday 9: Working in the Coalmines

1. What is your job and do you like it?  I work part-time for a promotional products distributor and yes, of course I like my job (what else do you want me to say – my boss has this URL)!  Seriously, they are very flexible with my schedule needing to work around my son’s changing placements the last few years, and that has been a lifesaver.

2. What to you do to unwind after work?  Read or blog or see if Peter Perfect is on the Style channel (we don’t get too many channels, and he is my newest favorite to watch).

3. Who have you known the longest of your friends?  I am still in touch with one person from my high school youth group, so she would be the winner of that contest.

4. Who do you go to for advice?  L. or R. and sometimes my husband!

5. Not counting your current relationship, how many times have you been in love?  3.14159

6. What is you favorite snack food?  Tostitos with the spinach and artichoke dip from Trader Joe’s

7. What is the best meal you ate this week?  My hubby and I went out to eat for lunch at Red Lobster yesterday since we had one more day off work.  I love their coconut shrimp and mashed potatoes, and the meal I ate this week came with glazed salmon, which was also very good.

8. What to you is the most important factor in romantic attraction? Trust.

9. What do you think is your worst habit?  Biting my fingernails.  I stopped once while I was pregnant and once after my finger got infected last year, but it didn’t stick, I am ashamed to say.

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