That's awesome @klr_guy. Proud you should be, and absolutely worthy of a "brag post".
Happy for him and you. Best of luck with the next steps!
Happy for him and you. Best of luck with the next steps!
Proud dad here (brag post)
- Thread starter klr_guy
- Start date
Mad Mike
Well-known member
I have employed several autistic people. I have a mind and value set that makes it a win win, not all employers can do that. I’m not scared, we just hired a young man who is somewhere on the spectrum, Were letting him try different jobs in the plant and arranging his job around the things he enjoys and the skills he brings to the table.I'd replace scary with amazing, and crazy with astounding but I get your point.
The kid is a bid OCD and likes to clean. Our machinist is the opposite, happy to wallow in a greasy pig sty. So we put the kid in the shop 1 say a week - it’s gone from looking like a camp latrine to a cafeteria. I’m happy, the kid is happy, the machinist is happy too.
That’s just one example. I’m a firm believer in diversity in the workplace. Not the kind that says I need a prescribed mix of race and gender, the kind that values diverse capabilities. I could care less about your colour, choice of partners, age - can you do the job AND do you bring something we don’t have but could use?
Mad Mike
Well-known member
My advice is to help by guiding, don’t press too hard. My son struggled terribly with academics, except for math. In grade 9 he failed math, despite excelling all years prior. He failed because he had trouble showing how he arrived at answers. That’s when I stepped in and change his evaluation to look at his answers, not his ability to explain his methods. The school agreed and he was a regional math scholar thereafter.Congratulations! My son is on the spectrum as well. Grade nine this past year hasn't gone well for him at all. He needs the in class environment for focus as well as the ever important social aspects.
Between covid and the teacher strikes prior to that he is really struggling due to the amount of lost time.
It is good to hear the success stories though, it renews my energy and my resolve.
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later he struggled in college. At 17 he was a scratch golfer and went to Georgians golf pro school. Again, the athletic part was perfect, classroom - not do much so he didn’t make it in the course. Funny thing was he was the only kid in the course that was getting paid to deliver lessons and 2 of his profs were his students on the golf course.
No money in golf, so he stumbled around till he found his calling. Today at 30 he operates a nice small business that pays him very well.
Big congrats. It's awesome as a parent to see your children succeed.
My daughter has always been exemplary and has thrived as a result. She just got a summer job with a government agency that only typically hires university students, and she's 2nd year college. And the only hire about 10 students a year. The 9 others are uni's. We're pretty proud of her, and she's damn proud of herself. Hopefully it's a "foot in the door" thing as well.
My son has also struggled for many years. Was not a great student in high school at all. Cruised through college only going to about 70% of his classes I think, and then cruised into his trade and out the other door after a few job flops and lackadaisical attitudes. Spent the last 2 years bouncing around between a few mostly minimum wage jobs again. Finally seemed to have an epiphany about 3 months ago, got on with the Steelworkers, and has been suddenly adulting. Hard. Getting up at 4:45AM every day and hauling his butt 75km across Toronto to a condo development at 400&7, sleeping properly all of a sudden...and just doing it. $27/hour (with >$50/hour after a few years and getting his welding tickets back up to date, and getting his red seal) seems to have woke him up.
My daughter has always been exemplary and has thrived as a result. She just got a summer job with a government agency that only typically hires university students, and she's 2nd year college. And the only hire about 10 students a year. The 9 others are uni's. We're pretty proud of her, and she's damn proud of herself. Hopefully it's a "foot in the door" thing as well.
My son has also struggled for many years. Was not a great student in high school at all. Cruised through college only going to about 70% of his classes I think, and then cruised into his trade and out the other door after a few job flops and lackadaisical attitudes. Spent the last 2 years bouncing around between a few mostly minimum wage jobs again. Finally seemed to have an epiphany about 3 months ago, got on with the Steelworkers, and has been suddenly adulting. Hard. Getting up at 4:45AM every day and hauling his butt 75km across Toronto to a condo development at 400&7, sleeping properly all of a sudden...and just doing it. $27/hour (with >$50/hour after a few years and getting his welding tickets back up to date, and getting his red seal) seems to have woke him up.
