<p>We are brainstorming to try to come up with a place my son can work where they won't fire him. He has Asperger's Syndrome and the world of employement is going to be difficult for him. </p>
<p>Three years ago he was almost fired from a volunteer job!!! He was a volunteer swim instructor aide; we didn't disclose the Asperger's-didn't think we needed to. The thing is, Aspies take things very literally, so when the lead teacher asked him to, "Do X" he ONLY did X, and not the Y and Z that the teacher THOUGHT he should do. Also, he can't read social cues very well, so when the teacher was scowling at him for not doing Y and Z, he was oblivious. After the issue came up, we told him to ask the teacher how he was doing every day.</p>
<p>The next year, he was a paid aide and got quite few hours. Last summer, they hired him again...only they NEVER scheduled him! They told the kid he had a job and to check every two weeks to see if he was on the schedule. The whole summer went by and they didn't schedule him. I finally called the city and was irate that they would tell anyone they had a job and then not schedule him...if they didn't like him, why did they rehire him? He finally was scheduled for 8 hours-8 hours the whole summer.</p>
<p>We know that it will be difficult in the future for him to find and keep a job. But we really need for him to have a job, so he can learn workplace skills before the stakes are too high.</p>
<p>Working at his same boring grocery store job that he's had for the last two and a half years. He'll be counting the days until he can say "I quit",lol. </p>
<p>Actually he'll only be taking "educational leave" so that he can work during breaks and the summers during college or possibly at a branch of his store in his college town.</p>
<p>My DD1 who will graduate high school next month is planning to SLEEP for most of the summer. She sometimes says, "Oh, I should get a job or internship or something or go volunteer." And I say, "Nah . . . let's just LIVE for three months."</p>
<p>We are insisting they get jobs. They will also play lots of soccer, spend lots of time on the lake, do summer AP work and get ready for an ACT retake.</p>
<p>The summer before college she worked at the local Mexican restaurant. THey have been kind enough to hire her back at each break. She'll be there again this summer, waiting tables, and then an intensive language program. Found the freshman year academics too overwhelming to make connections for an internship in her field - or to decide on a field for that matter.</p>
<p>Missypie,
That's really awful, to mislead your son so.</p>
<p>I've worked with Voc Rehab in my area several times, and they've helped people with far greater issues than your son to find work. Two places that are sensitive to this issue, in my neighborhood, are Target and the large grocery store Publix. Walgreens also seems sensitive.</p>
<p>As I am fortunate enough to get tuition benefits, I told my D that if she went to a school where they were very helpful, she could go to France over the summer. She's taking 2 courses through Columbia Reid Hall. It will be a lot of work, but ah- it's Paris! Now if I had known the dollar was going to sink into the Atlantic...</p>
<p>My D wants to have some part-time job this summer, but I want her find the job which allows for:</p>
<p>1)have flexible and/or limited hours - so that she would have enough time left to sleep, exersize and spend with friends ... and us ;);</p>
<p>2)get an interruption somewhere in the middle if we decide to take some 1-2-weeks family trip (unfortunately, we can't plan it in advance for just the very begininng or the end of summer, so that she could work uninterrupted for the rest of it)</p>
<p>or </p>
<p>3) work only for a month or so - not all or most of the summer.</p>
<p>While she could use those little personal earnings, I feel this particular summer, after those 4 crazy years of h/s, gaining back the health and sanity for the upcoming college years should be high priority.</p>
<p>But we have no idea what kind of summer jobs for teens could allow all or part of the above; probably, none (and she hadn't started looking for them yet, anyway).</p>
<p>myau, our D had a job much like what you describe, working in a mom-and-pop toy store. She told them up front that she would need a 2-week break to go on vacation with us, and they were fine with it. On their end, they wanted her flexible enough to change shifts (either 9-3 or 12-6), giving her the schedule at the beginning of each week. It worked out great for all concerned. D looked at Borders, since her dream job would have been in a bookstore, but they are a large corporation and couldn't be flexible the way the small store could. So your D might want to check out small, independently owned stores.</p>
<p>A few years ago, after having been focused on the college admission process, we suddenly realized S had no summer plans. He mostly just sat around and was okay with that. D has a very different personality and had said for years that she wanted to be a camp counselor after her senior year in HS, that she would be really bored with nothing to do. Well, she got a job as a cabin leader at a nearby YMCA camp but didn't ask about time off during the hiring process; she had attended another Y camp where counselors had a free evening off-site, and she just assumed it would be the same.<br>
She found out yesterday that staffers have some free time during the week but can't leave the camp except between sessions. I guess she's learned a valuable lesson for future job hunts ("never assume") but that we will be seeing very little of her, as she'll be trying to catch up with friends during her limited free time.</p>
<p>My dd is running a summer camp at our house for three weeks in July to earn money for school. Although we did not apply for financial aid, my dd is expected to pay for one third of her college education. Her dad pays a third, I pay a third, she pays a third. We think this is fair, and a positive thing for our daughter. I've gotten to read all manner of lovely sentiments in another thread about how privileged my daughter is, but she is actually responsible for coming up with $60K-$70K for her four years of undergraduate study. I'd venture to guess that's more than most kids on CC are going to have to fork over personally for their educations. Over the course of her life, she's gotten together about $29K so far but has a ways to go. So, she's creating and running an all-day summer camp, with SAT prep classes, Shakespeare, creative writing, swimming, games and activities.</p>
<p>She was also invited to perform in a master class at the World Harp Congress in Amsterdam in July, so we will head there and enjoy a trip to a part of the world we haven't visited - because she earned the right to go there with her talent and hard work.</p>
<p>The rest of the time she'll be relaxing and enjoying her time with friends before they all scatter to their various colleges in the fall. Oh, and taking a class she can't resist at the Newberry Library on the works of Ivan Turgenev.</p>