I'm fairly certain that one of the new employees at my workplace has AS, so I've been thinking about it in relation to myself lately. Today, I've mostly been thinking about how sensitive i am to sound. For as long as i can remember everyone around me has always commented on how low i keep the volume on my music or the tv or such, or how i jump at everything. I dont jump at every noise cause it scared me - which they assume even when i tell them no - but because it was loud. Its embarrassing when something makes what to me is a loud noise and i startle and someone around apologizes to me for scaring me and i'm like but it didn't scare me but i doubt they believe me.
But anyways, at work i used to get straight up, full on anxiety attacks a lot because i'm a cashier at a really busy grocery store. As a kid my mom always took me in the morning cause she prefers to be in and out as quick as possible and to avoid the lines and a crazy parking lot, so i'd never experienced the grocery store at peak shopping hours before i started working. So there was that shock on top of being a relatively new cashier still learning all the little things about the job that training can never fully prepare you for. I wonder if it annoyed them at first, but i would and still do always repeat what my supervisors tell me just to make sure i got it right. Same goes for with customers - if they tell me a price match, i echo it back to them before i enter it in, same goes for how much they want on a shopping card, etc. Not that i have hearing issues, i don't, its just that unless i'm hyperfocusing purely on the customer i hear too much background noise to fully comprehend and process what i'm being told. I do this at home with my family too.
Focusing in itself is its own issue - i'm either focusing purely on one thing - to the point i dont notice someone coming towards me with their cart, for instance...or i'm noticing everything and absorbing nothing. My supervisors learned fairly early on that they can't come over to my register, turn off my register's light, and give me an assignment like they can everybody else. I might hear them and even respond with an affirmative reply, but at that point i'm trying to focus on too many things to really process what i'm being told. They all learned that they need to turn my register's light off and then i know to come find them when i'm done with my line for my next register assignment. The only way that telling me an assignment while i'm helping a customer will work is if i stop what i'm doing and focus wholly on the supervisor, and then repeat the assignment back to them for affirmation, but even that is iffy.
But anyways, at work i used to get straight up, full on anxiety attacks a lot because i'm a cashier at a really busy grocery store. As a kid my mom always took me in the morning cause she prefers to be in and out as quick as possible and to avoid the lines and a crazy parking lot, so i'd never experienced the grocery store at peak shopping hours before i started working. So there was that shock on top of being a relatively new cashier still learning all the little things about the job that training can never fully prepare you for. I wonder if it annoyed them at first, but i would and still do always repeat what my supervisors tell me just to make sure i got it right. Same goes for with customers - if they tell me a price match, i echo it back to them before i enter it in, same goes for how much they want on a shopping card, etc. Not that i have hearing issues, i don't, its just that unless i'm hyperfocusing purely on the customer i hear too much background noise to fully comprehend and process what i'm being told. I do this at home with my family too.
Focusing in itself is its own issue - i'm either focusing purely on one thing - to the point i dont notice someone coming towards me with their cart, for instance...or i'm noticing everything and absorbing nothing. My supervisors learned fairly early on that they can't come over to my register, turn off my register's light, and give me an assignment like they can everybody else. I might hear them and even respond with an affirmative reply, but at that point i'm trying to focus on too many things to really process what i'm being told. They all learned that they need to turn my register's light off and then i know to come find them when i'm done with my line for my next register assignment. The only way that telling me an assignment while i'm helping a customer will work is if i stop what i'm doing and focus wholly on the supervisor, and then repeat the assignment back to them for affirmation, but even that is iffy.
