Autism and The Job

My daughter has had a job with Burger King for 3 or 4 years now. She started out doing job training there in high school. She was not paid for it then. Even with the characteristics of autism they hired her during the summer and kept her on.

I thought it was due to the job coach from the school. She really was a good job coach. She really got it about people with autism being able to work. It was not her. She was good but it was not her.

I realized after high school that it was the store manager. The store manager was wonderful. When we did not have the job coach it was the store manager that made it work.

We tried to expand my daughter’s schedule to 5 days a week since she was out of high school. It did not work. The store manager still did not get rid of her. She just put Dominoe back on the two days a week she was accustomed to.

Dominoe cleaned the dining room and the bathrooms. She went in at the same time both days and got off roughly at the same time.

Well the manager retired. The new manager was young but I hoped. It did not work. After the second time that I know of that they tried to let Dominoe go, God forgive me I just let it happen. I could have disagreed and even maybe convinced them that she was not the only person responsible for the problem, but why?

The first thing that happened was the new manager wanted to change the time that Dominoe came in. Of course you know how well that went over with someone who has autism who is so used to structure and rules.

Then she wanted to let Dominoe go because the store was not making as much money. One of the other employees took up for Dominoe.

In the end the new manager took her off the schedule one day and the next weekend because they failed an inspection. Supposedly they gave her time off, because Dominoe filled the disinfectant with water. There are two staff who check after Dominoe, but I was just tired of it. They said they were not putting her back on schedule.

Dominoe cried but I told her there was another job out there for her.