Community Forum Archive
The Epilepsy Community Forums are closed, and the information is archived. The content in this section may not be current or apply to all situations. In addition, forum questions and responses include information and content that has been generated by epilepsy community members. This content is not moderated. The information on these pages should not be substituted for medical advice from a healthcare provider. Experiences with epilepsy can vary greatly on an individual basis. Please contact your doctor or medical team if you have any questions about your situation. For more information, learn about epilepsy or visit our resources section.
Causes of Underemployment.
Wed, 08/20/2008 - 13:38For those of you who are able to work, but cannot find employment, I was wondering what you think the cause of this might be. For example, is it lack of transportation, experience, education, etc.? By "employment" I mean something commensurate with your abilities and experience. Something that you think is reasonable and beneficial for you.
Re: Causes of Underemployment.
Submitted by 3Hours2Live on Tue, 2008-11-25 - 05:57
It is important to distinguish between "social skills" in the workplace and university versus "social skills" in a job interview. And certainly, speech impediments are not a lack of "social skills," even though a Federal District Court Clerk once refused to listen to one of my relatives read to him over a telephone what I was writing down on paper since a seizure stole my voice that morning; once, a Federal guard also refused to read my written word in response to his security questions, and refused me entry to the court building since I "refused" to orally answer his questions before I could attend a hearing by the EEOC addressing possible accommodation for my handicaps. Another EEOC judge terminated a conference call for a hearing, and the hearing, because of sporadic speech gaps from seizures I was sufferring at the time; how does discrimination in the address of discrimination cure the discrimination? I hope it is not a fact that people who can't speak at all don't have any legal rights and are held to lack "social skills" overall, especially since I am frequently in that group from the effects of epilepsy, but it certainly appears that way, and all promises of accommodation are just tokens for a very select few to be flashed about for publicity. I believe social skills in the university more closely match social skills in the technical workplace than either match social skills in the job interview (my university wasn't a mail order unversity); the first two never ask why a person wants this job and other general job interview questions, personal relationships with the interviewer are generally frowned upon (especially when a TLE sexually apathetic Tadzio is before them), you don't split work with the interviewer, and the interviewer is suppose to be objective and address valid factors, not subjective "feel good" sensations judged by illusory skills in "reading people" with self-assured blind guesses based on, at best, a very limited history. Prospective appealate lawyers, who warned me of the futility of seeking any justice with discrimination laws in a Catch-22 society, joked that the the FDIC wanted someone with bulldog tenacity to elicit incriminating information from recalcitrant bankers (what a great Social Skill!, but probably better than just giving them a few trillion dollars to trickle down with) and got me, who bit them in their Catch-22 hindquarters and took them ten years to finally beat off! But my voice is so TIMID! Aspects of psychological testing in an oral interview are polluted by many more factors, mainly the interviewer and his/her own bag of luggage, than written psychological testing (though you have to be aware that a person with eye problems instead of speech problems might suffer from the inherent bias of the test, but with "eye-contact" being so important otherwise it is the catch irrelevent). Even then, as the MMPI so greatly illustrates with Temporal Lobe Epileptics, social skill "cookbooks" are better at cooking the cook than the subject. By the way, since my time's up for now, which part of the social bus does this great society dictate the epiletics to ride, so we can try to minimize the tension epilepsy gives to other people?