I was curious, How do you feel about work? Personally, I could be a workaholic for I love the feeling like I making a difference. To complete a project and see the results is like magic. :)

Honestly, if it was just the work that I had to do I'd be fine. Unfortunately when you go to work you have to deal with people and they are mainly normal people and I get fed up with being misunderstood or ignored when I need help or snapped at etc...
I didn't go to work this week - I've been so grumpy that I thought I'd end up hitting the next person that p*ssed me off. Thankfully I still get paid coz of the workers comp.

I do love my job as I'm a programmer and not only is that flexible in itself but I'm working in 3 totally different areas as well (web design/programming, datbase design and internal software design) as well as doing a bit of user support here and there (they like me to sort stuff out because I don't throw IT terms around like the tech support guys :D ).

I love to be busy and I love how I CAN and in fact HAVE TO work on several projects at once, although I still manage to get bored, freeze, have brain fog or totally forget to continue work on a project unless I am constantly reminded.

I do NEED the routine of getting up and having to go to work though, without that I find it extremely hard to get going. But yeah if I was more able to concentrate, could keep uo with it all day (instead of slumping after lunch at the latest) and stick with a project for longer then I'd be the perfect workaholic.

As things stand at the moment, I have to escape at 4:30 most evenings because I just can't take any more and my brain is fried. if I had to work part-time I'd chose mornings though because even though I'd love to be able to sleep in more often I just know I would never get going or get anything done in the house, just laze about and procastrinate at home until it's time to go to work. The other way round at least I kind of have some drive left when I get home ;)

I have hated every job I have ever had... eventually. The only diference was how long it took me to hate the job.

I want to go back and work at the bookstore again. But I am afraid that I will hate it after a while too... :(

I do love my job now, but I wouldn't use the word workaholic, as I enjoy my time off. I take care of people with Alzheimer's and other dimentias. It is just a weekend job, for now as I have more important things to do at home. It pays for kids school.

It is good for me because there is tons of movement involved and I'm not confined to a desk or cube.

There is some documentation to be done on medications; this is relatively small, but important. I have little ways of not getting distracted when assisting with medications. If I have to count meds, I will bring them someplace quiet so I don't keep losing count and we all carry cordless phones for any emergencies.

I wear a fanny pack that looks like a fuzzy duck. I said duck. So I don't misplace keys, pens or gloves. My duck makes the residents laugh. I said duck.:eek:

My job is okay. I have worked for the same company for 15yrs in January. Hard to beleive. I was a phlebotomist and now I am the supervisor of the department I started in. I struggle with paperwork everyday. I keep thinking I will be fired, but have not yet. I have a hard time finishing what I start. I must be doing something right bcause my reviews have been good. By the end of the day my brain is zapped. I have to work really hard to do things others do easily.

Can you delegate stuff, Jim? Thats what good managers do, right?;)

Flakey girl,
I am starting to try. That is one thing I am horrible at. I feel like I am doing a lousy job if I do not finish everything. I have gone trough 3 assistant supervisors. 2 have quit and I had to fire the last one. Now there is a job freeze so I am without an assistant for a while. I have also made the mistake of being to nice to my crew and some have take advantage of me. My supervisor now has been very helpful. We go over a list of things I need to get done each week. I still wait till the last couple of day to do things.
Well back to answering the question. I am delegating more each week.

Good. It will get better. As long as your supervisor is supporting you, and it sounds like that is happening, you will be successful. :cool:

Good. It will get better. As long as your supervisor is supporting you, and it sounds like that is happening, you will be successful. :cool: It sounds like your company recognized and appreciates your loyalty. Fifteen years, is that some kind of ADD record? Alert Gunness!

Originally posted by FlakeyGirl
I wear a fanny pack that looks like a fuzzy duck. I said duck. So I don't misplace keys, pens or gloves. My duck makes the residents laugh. I said duck.:eek:

Your fanny pack looks like a WHAT??!!! :eek:

I'm not working right now, and probably won't for awhile longer. Later on, I'd be OK with working part-time. Having a routine and having to get ready early in the morning does help keep me on-track. But man, I hated my last job. The bad relationship with the boss and the very un-ADD-friendly-workplace just sucked the life out of me. I'm in no hurry to get back into the rat race, and when I do, I'm going to be very selective about what I take.

The flipside is that I'm not particularly good at the stay-at-home mom role either. :rolleyes: I'm just making things up as I go along....

My industry/workplace is very ADD-friendly in my opinion. It is not nose friendly. Not for the squeamish. I highly recommend it.

I bet you are good at it, Krisp. Don't let 'em fool ya. We ALL make it up as we go along.

Thanks flakey,
I was lucky in that when I first became a phlebtomist I loved it. I t was easy to stay with. Being a supervisor has it ups and downs.

Thats great you work with Alzhiemers patients! My mom has Alzheimers. She and my father are in assisted living. My mom is slowly getting worse. She can still dress herself and recognize close family members. Her short term memory it pretty much gone.

^sorry to hear about your mom. My short term memory is not so great either, thats part of why I like it so much!

It sounds like she is hitting the hard part. She knows something is wrong and is frustrated, right? Maybe she is a little past that part. It gets better for them. Was your dad having a hard time taking care of her with the medicine and all? It is so nice when couples can age in place together. Do you like the facility? Some are definitely better than others and for the most part you get what you pay for. Ooops, off topic. PM me if you want. :)

Fortunately (don't hate me!) I made what I think is a good, albeit risky, decision: I quit working to go to school, and live on the edge on what LITTLE is left over from my grants and loans. I am working hard to earn scholarships (crosses fingers)

But I selected POSTAL because the jobs I had I HATED and was miserble all the time from them. I had severe migraines about three times a week and stomache cramps from stress! I took what I could get; customer service positions. And dealing with customers and co-workers was really tough. Especially when I served tables (don't you hate forgetful waitresses!), and worked in retail :mad:

I go back and forth....Sometimes I love it...Some times I am bored out of my mind.

Not bad....some days better than others....they vary depending on how I feel about myself.....

My job used to be OK but there were changes recently and now I feel closer to the postal choice. At this point I hope to start on meds and get some coaching and get it back to OK. In the end I do not think I will keep the job too many more years. I'm not in a big rush to get rid of it because it pays well but I don't think it will ever rise above OK and I think I can do better.

Although I admit there are times I have a lot of fun at work (sometimes a little too much :)), I voted for going postal. I've been there almost 8 years and sometimes I can't stand it beyond belief. If I didn't need the money so bad, I would have told my boss where to shove his attitude a long time ago!

Wayward - I used to work in a bookstore for a year or so and I loved it. It was like my own personal library but with all new books! We were allowed to take home 2 books at a time for 2 weeks. My problem there was I got waaay to distracted. When I had to shelve, I would always spend more time looking through all the other books!

Subtlemuttle - I've worked in some sort of customer service job for the past 16 years (wow, that makes me feel old!). And I know what you mean about the stomach cramps from stress. There's many days I'm like that for a good hour before work and for a short time there. Thank god for medication! I'm also very forgetful at work too. Luckily I've known most of the customers for a long time and they take it pretty good and laugh.

I've been at my current job for 21 years. It's a rather large company so I've been able to have many different jobs within the company and with different divisions of the company so it's not like I've had the exact same job for all that time.

My job is okay I guess. It pays very well so that's why I stay. And right now, I could not ask for a better boss! He knows about my ADD and that I'm currently in therapy and I literally could not ask for a more supportive boss!! He's a real sweetheart! So while I hate my job itself, I voted for "it's okay, it pays the bills" because he really makes a difference there for me. If I was working for a butthead, I'd probably go postal! :D

That would be awesome to work in a bookstore!! But I, too, would be waaaay to distracted by all of those new books to be shelved! :rolleyes:

The lure of all those books kept me coming back to library jobs over the years. The books were horribly distracting, but at least my coworkers were distracted types too... ;)

HI,
I also love my job.Quite frankly if I didn't, I don't think I could have done it for so long(27yrs). The last 20+ have been in position I am now and that is where I get the most satisfaction from. Having said that, I intend to become a stockbroker at some point in the future.I dont have a time table and am playing it by ear.It will be a huge challenge which is part of the reason for the change, The other part is dealing with managed care for so long. Either way I love learning about stocks and am looking forward to whenever the time comes around.
Wish you all much luck & happiness.

mctavish23

I love being home looking on the job boards for a new job. Now, if I could get unemployment to raise the maximum rate to something above poverty level income we'd be talking big FUN!

Actually, I'd love to have a real job that even sucks at this point.
As soon as they start asking for old guys with less than a Masters Degree who have bounced around careers like they have ADD or something..... then I'll have a great job to talk about.

Until then.... Until Then...

I change jobs every 2 years almost to the day. Luckily I work in IT where this is OK. The thing I've learned is to take jobs that need adhd for success. In my current role no normal person could do it as you have to be doing a zillion things all at once & completely hyperfocus occasionally. I keep the balls in the air & have assistants who deal with the details for me. It is ideal. I recommend that people with attention deficit get themselves into positions where they can hire anal retentive micomanaging detail oriented people to support them. Anyhow it works for me! ;D

My response would be somewhere in the middle. I love my work but the paperwork and documenatation is absolutely overwhelming.
At some point in the future, I intend to become a stockbroker but that is not in the immediate future tho.

In the past I have only worked jobs for as little as 6 months, and usually at around 1 or 2 years. The longest job was over 3 years, I didn't leave until I was fired.

Work has varied, started out janitorial, clerical work, security guard, CDL truck driving, last two major jobs have been store or office management.

My current job is extreemly stressful, I started out thinking I was applying for more clerical work (filing, data entry...) but now I run the office.

My responsibilities include: Sales, Customer Service, Tech Support, Admin (set up customers in various programs), Help conduct Seminars, Billing, Accounts Receivable, Help choose venders and services to resell... processing membership applications.

I can't keep up with everything, when I started the business earned like $7k per month, and now it is up to $24k per month... the business grew, but the employer ignores my requests for someone to be hired on to help.

I finally told him this week that he has to hire someone else, and it has to be someone not to assist me, but to manage the office instead of me. Otherwise, I am of the mind to just stand by and watch everything just go. He does not work in my office, I only see him 1 of 2 times per month, and he guages my performance from what customers tell him, and right now I get rave reviews for customer service. But he don't keep up with me in the office to know how really backed up I am.

I am at a point that either I help him to save things (and convince him that help is needed now) otherwise I start looking for another job.

I do love this job, I have been here 3 years now, and have learned so much, in fact I want so bad to start my own business, but I don't know how to do it. I know I don't want to work in any other field of work, just I don't want to keep up with the business side, I want to work more with the consumer side.

I am having trouble with procrastinating, distractability, irritable, stress, affected my weight gain, short memory - can't keep up with names at all! I am just misrable right now. And I am not on any medication, just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I am sorry I am new and did not realize I had to subscribe when posting to get e-mail notifications.

I work in long term care so I love my job. There are days that I go home and ask myself why do I do this? But, the norm is that I love what I do. I run constantly that is were I'm above other staff members I can multi task and I never seem to run out of energy at work, the job I do changes every single day almost by the minute because I'm dealing with the elderly their condition can change in seconds, my empathy levels are extremely high that gives me an advantage and well there are times my job is just down right disgusting and unpleasant that is were my ADD proves most beneficial while my hands are doing something completly ICK my mind is off somewere pleasant and relaxing.

Work.......my job is so boring. I probably have one of the worse jobs for someone with ADHD because my job is so repetitive. However, I have found ways to make it more interesting and that helps. I get upset though because I know I am capable of so much more than I do, but it is as if they will not allow me to do more. I do know that part of it is because I went through a period of time of always being late for work or calling in sick a lot. A lot of this was a result of my diagnosis and my meds being off key. Also, the sad thing is that the ones that have access to do what I can't do, aren't all that great. So it gets frustrating for me. Maybe it is a control issue for me, I am not sure. But I am sticking with my job. They pay for my college 100% and you can't beat that.

wow, seems like most people like or have jobs on here(I assume cause you all have to? family, married, etc..) I haven't had a decent job that I have liked for over three years!! I really haven't ever had a job I have liked, actually....:) so bascially I just say....bleep it! and quit.....

I'm currently in school trying to get my bachelor's in Criminal Justice..but in the mean time I need a job to pay my small bills(I have two roomates)...I just HATE, HATE working at jobs that I don't enjoy...I end up quitting after like 2-3 weeks..its a never ending cycle and it sucks big time! as you can tell I'm frustrated and have been for a number of years now...where are all the ADD people with job instability on here?! thought this was a problem for a majority of ADD adults? I want to feel better about myself knowing that there are MORE people with similar problems like myself..:)! some of you have had ONE job for 10 or more years! oh my god...that's just hard for me to fathom....my problem is my experience is in Computer Software/Hardware sales and I HATE sales...BUT, this is pretty much my only type of job I can get interviews for! I have recenlty(last year and a half) taken menial jobs like deliver driver jobs... last week I quit working at FedEx Ground, hardest job I have ever had..it was like playing footballl again in college, what a experience! I had to quit because it wore me out for school at night(even though I only go Monday nights for 4 hours)...couldn't study, just too tired at night...anyway, jobs and relationships part of my ADD causes me the most problmes in my life....sucks big time..35, and still live with roomates! I envy some of you other folks on here.....maybe the fact that I have Learning disabilites as well contributes to my problems, hell if I know!

no responses? all righty then................

I wish I could work...but too mental so says my shrink and Social Security Admin. :D Does this mean I am retired at 28??

Job? What is a job?

LOL!

ack I am 28 and have had over 30 jobs! grrrrrrrrr

haven't worked in a year though.....and won't till I finish school so neener neener :p

could be worse cameron...could be close to 30 still living with mom!

Job? What is a job?

LOL!

I was going to post that one next.....GMTA and Get out of my head:p

I think how long you work at a job is how matched you are with the job.
I have had years at my job but I unknowingly picked interesting jobs that suited me.
That is till I got my drafting degrees. I researched that field and found it
was a great match for me - an artist with computer skills. So I went for it.
Now I've been drafting over 10 years. I think its very important if you are ADD that you do enjoy your job is staying with your job is the goal. That it has various tasks and let you use your brain. (Or what ever else that stimulates you to work).
My 2 cents :)

I couldn't pick one. I was a nursing assistant for 4 and a half years, I liked home health care best, but depression kept me from working consistently at my best (I always got good reviews). Convalescent home work was too tough, I couldn't multi-task, I couldn't keep it all straight in my head. I've been a M.O.M. for seven years now. I'm not too bad at it, which is good, my contract isn't up until I die. Of course, if I don't get them, they might get me, so it may be up sooner than ya think. I don't know, I love my job but again, I think I could do better. I want to be a non-stop workaholic with never ending energy, happiness and creative ideas, but I'm just not a "magazine Mom", if you know what I mean.


Question for those about ten years younger than me, is there such a thing as someone leaving high school and going to college knowing just what they want to be and do for the rest of their lives? Or is that just what is expected of you but the reality is everyone's clueless?

I've been a M.O.M. for seven years now. I'm not too bad at it, which is good, my contract isn't up until I die. Of course, if I don't get them, they might get me, so it may be up sooner than ya think.
ROFL!:D The pay stinks and no vacations. They can never really fire you.

Question for those about ten years younger than me, is there such a thing as someone leaving high school and going to college knowing just what they want to be and do for the rest of their lives? Or is that just what is expected of you but the reality is everyone's clueless?
I think some do but most don't, even if they think they do. I only know this from working with lots of kids this age. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

Melanie...I want to know how you get disability... I'm HIGH MAINTENANCE ADD, PLUS I have HIV...but my doctors say I don't qualify... AND I'm 37... senior citizen compared to you.

Grrrrrrr......

It still seems kinda unreasonable to me to expect people to know what they want to do right out of high school. I didn't really know then ... and I'm not entirely sure now! :p I've learned a lot in the years between, and broadened my horizons, but un/fortunately (depending on how you see it) this did not make me any more focused on any one thing!

Ok, finally counted and I have had 27 jobs total, I am now 32 only 2 of them has lasted up to 3 years. Unfortunately a few of them didn't even last a day (know when you start that first day and know you are in the wrong place kind of thing, or the employer realizes you are not the right person).

For a few years was on disability - which was revoked once I got married because of husbands income.

Currently looking for my next job.

I know this is an old thread, but...

I love the "hands-on work" of my job (speech therapist for autistic kids and other kids with "neurologic differences"). I am ADD-inattentive & I am a very low-energy sort of person --I feed off of the kids' energy. I can relate to some of the sensory things that stress them out (sights, sounds & textures). I love the mental challenge of figuring out how to help a nonverbal kid communicate. I love that no day is the same as the previous day.

I hate the paperwork. Daily notes home to parents, daily session notes, progress reports/evals 3 - 4 times per year for each student.

There are tons of meetings which takes up virtually all of my free time --I actually enjoy the meetings (great time to think and generate ideas for tough problems), but I am always so far behind that I resent them because I could be so much more productive if there weren't so many meetings.

The amount of prep work is immense.

All of my students need communication boards/books made for them to help them express themselves and/or to help them understand what other people are saying to them.
Several of my kids use communication devices that need to be programmed ...we have an assistive tech person who is supposed to do the programming, but she has soooo many kids on her caseload, that programming devices often falls to the speech department --or we at least have to take on the responsibility of hounding the AT lady until she gets the devices programmed.
In addition to creating communication systems, I need to gather & prepare materials for my sessions with the kids. I have lots of great ideas, but often don't get to do them simply because I have no time to set up the activities.
I get 40 minutes of prep time during the school day. If I'm lucky, the one computer with the program I need is available. I usually scramble together materials for sessions during my lunch and during the 5 minutes between sessions. I end up staying at work after the kids leave ...until they kick me out so they can lock up the building for the night.
I hate having to "make nice" with the staff. I'm not gonna elaborate too much on this one -- most of the staff drives me insane with their boring conversations, complaints about minor inconveniences, their apathetic acceptance of the major problems, & their lack of understanding about the amount of work the speech department has to do (and why we can't get XYZ done for them in the same hour they ask us to).

guess ive either been lucky or my subconcious's been looking out for me.
last 3 major jobs ive had i really loved. didnt have to sit in one place all day,
last ond (driving a truck) didnt even have to be in the same building all day:cool:

this one, the jurys still out, tow years pushing a mop at a hospital ( or as i like to say it, riding my broom :D ) & so far it doesnt bore me. Most of my co workers get along (or at least tolerate) me, & the couple buttheads (can i say that?) ive learned to ignore, kinda.
believe the main thing is that i cant stand staying in one place very long
gots to move on.;)

I love my job...but I work doing what I love, so that's why. Unfortunately, my job is only part time now, during the summers.

I work as a daycamp counselor for middle school aged children during the summer. I also work with some kids during the school year as a tutor, etc. and as a sort of unofficial ADD coach for one (but I don't get paid for that).

I love working with kids...I'm in school studying Mild-Moderate Needs Special Education. So I do love my job, but I don't necessarily love it so much day to day (those kids can drive you insane. I actually chewed THROUGH my TMJ retainer because of stress one night LOL).

I work as a supervisor for Tier II staff at an Internet helpdesk.
:) What I love about my job:

I love how the technology is always changing.
It is a high-energy job because things are always breaking and I have to stay on my toes to make sure it's getting fixed as quickly as possible.
We are just about to start supporting a new product, and since it's a new technology all together, it's going to be quite a learning experience. I get to help my staff learn all the new techniques and equipment.
I get to coordinate efforts between the Customer Service (non-technical), helpdesk (1st level techs), my staff, and the Engineering group, as well as working with marketing to make sure they aren't advertising features the product doesn't have :)
There are lots of fires to put out, and I can usually stay with a sticky (and interesting) problem until it's fixed.
:( What I hate about my job:

Being told to write people up for stupid things like "Not taking the initiative to learn how to perform job duties that are part of your job description, but were assigned to someone else as primary duties.", and not being allowed to help them learn so they don't have to be written up. Also, I'm not allowed to set time aside for training or writing documentation.
After my boss disagrees with a judgment call I made, being written up for stupid things like not knowing the details of unwritten policies, then instructed to review the written policies like that's going to somehow help.
My department is very strict about being on time for work. (There are other departments where salaried people are not held to a set schedule at ALL.)
My boss cares more about whether or not I'm on time for meetings than about how superhuman I was being the remainder of the day because she waited 5 minutes for me, but I took care of work for her that would've eaten up 4-5 hours of her day in addition to the rest of my work.
Dress code is as important as job performance and efficiency. (More so, actually, b/c it's apparently easier for my boss to measure.) So she pulls me aside after I pulled an all-nighter to complete her "emergency assignment" that she didn't touch. I actually made it to work on time (OMG), and she tells me my wrinkled clothes were unacceptable. (I took a shower and put on my work clothes b4 crawling into bed so I wouldn't be late) This was in the same conversation that I found out that her job was on the line if this job wasn't done. I am NEVER seen by customers. I'm not even in the building they come to.
Unfortunately the bad stuff gets me so sidetracked I can't enjoy the good stuff anymore. This is why I chose postal.

Xera, sounds like a great job! not! defienlty couldn't work for that company! I HATE the corporate world!!! I have had so much bad luck(laid off three times, fired twice,etc, etc..) with f$#$## companies that I have had it! I'm in school finishing up my degree so HOPEFULLY I can get into Law Enforcement(Probation)...just need to pass the STRENUOUS background investigation....if this doesn't work out, I would like to become a PE teacher(my loves are sports and music) and football coach. Time is ticking away for me though......

Fortunately, I like my job. I have been at the same place for 7 years now, and that's the longest I've lasted anywhere. The upside is, it is seasonal, which means I work for about 6 months, then collect unemployment for 6 months. But that's also the down side. I have to tighten my belt during off-season, or find a supplementary income where they understand that come January, I'm back to my "real" job.

I work at a group home for people with developmental disabilities. Before that I was a sales associate at three different places for three years.


A typical day for me when I'm not at school is:

1. wake up at 5:15am

2. go to work from 6-9am

3. go home and freak out because I am stir crazy

4. go back to work 2-9pm


A typical day when I have school is:

1. wake up at 5:15am

2. go to work from 6-9am

3. go to school from 11-2pm

4. go back to work from 3-10pm

*I have a very irregular schedule so I don't work everyday. I was working about 30-40hrs with 18 credits. Now that my real supervisor is back from her leave I'm getting about 25 hours. This is great since I'm already failing and have dropped out of one of my classes because the person who was her replacement had completely disregarded my availibility schedule and doesn't understand that 18 credits means 18 hours of in class time a week which I had explained in my availibility form along with my preference of under 20 hours a week but they seem to have overlooked this. Therefore, I HATE MY FRICKEN JOB.

Love my job because im my own boss
Hate my job because im my own boss and he takes to many days off

I love my job too. I am a musician. Been a full time guitarist vocalist for 18 years, and now am also a part time music teacher (for the past three.) It is a creative job where I mostly work for myself, and I get a lot of possitive feedback that a lot of people in other jobs don't get. There are also downsides - stress, rejection... parts that seem like work. As with anything. Oh and also, I'm not getting rich - obviously. Oh well. I am one of the lucky few who makes enough, doing what I love most. So I'm pretty happy about it.

I work in education with elementary school children. I LOVE my job! There's a huge emphasis on structure and routine, which I need, but never a dull moment so it's never boring. I would recommend it to everyone.

SubtleMuttle, I've also had my fair share of serving and retail. They were the most stressful jobs I ever had! If I were you, I'd keep apply for loans in order to get through college. That's the only way I could get away from waitressing, bartending, or sales was to finally get through college and do what I loved to do. Good luck!