SA causing you to be better or worse in the workplace?

[sevenroses]

How does SA affect you in the workplace? I can picture some SAers being excellent employees because they are constantly working trying to avoid any socialization. But at the same time I can also picture some SAers being bad employees having a hard time with people skills etc. My social anxiety for me personally, has caused me to be a great employee at times but also a bad employee at other times. I can also picture OCD being a good thing in the workplace but also a bad thing. What about you guys?

 

[ilmatross]

It's so bad I quit school and my job.

 

[sevenroses]

When I did my practicum in college I did pretty crappy. But when I worked at other jobs, like a department store years back, people knew I was very productive when I did non stop work and even avoided my breaks just to work. The job I currently have now makes me look good and bad at the same time.

 

[Richey]

in my new job i joined a group of eight people who are a tight clique. they know each others inside jokes and play around, have sarcastic comebacks for everything at the same time they are all literally great at their jobs on a technical level and have endless amounts of confidence and a great memory.

the hardest part for me so far has been the ability to concentrate and relax. for the first week i was a silent mute and some days i barely say anything. Even though i work hard for the entire shift i find myself making stupid mistakes and not thinking things through properly. my manager will send me a fairly vague email with instructions and often i'll have to constantly ask "what did you mean by this" because when people explain things to me its like they are asking themselves the question and not a new person .."themself being years of practiced experienced in the company". So its as if they arn't even bothering to train me . They just think "here is the new guy" ...we are going to make him do all the work, all the chasing. he'll have to fight for every answer....

so at work i find it very difficult. i'm often asked to complete 5-10 big tasks within a day and when that happens i get so anxious that the nerves nearly cause me to faint. i suppose i'm fairly sensitive being thrown in the deep end all the time.

so this combination causes massive amounts of stress:

-having to be focused, relaxed and resourceful amongst a clique under pressure
-under vague and scattered training
-having to chase everything up and double check all the time
-self consciousness around very confident personalities
-being asked to complete important tasks in non specific ways.
-the pressure to be social and happy.

so in the end i spend alot of my days at work in avoidance, i give up easily socially. i notice that the people next to me are cliquey and joke around alot in a way that leaves me out of the picture, that is always a hard environment to be thrown in. I try to be nice but struggle to joke around with people because i'm never relaxed enough to find the words to be funny. part of the reason i dislike myself so much.

 

[Ignace]

I think it helps me. I'm recently working on Tuesday and Wednesday in a company for school purposes and appareantly I'm the best school-guy they ever had, I only went for 3 times till now. I'm trying to do it as great I can do it, so I won't dissapoint anybody and then I don't have to look away shy when they tell me I made errors.

 

[SilverFire]

It hurts me a little. I'm a technical writer, and I've got the technical skills, so I don't have to ask people about stuff all the time. However, when I do need to ask people, my less-than-stellar social skills make getting the information harder than it is for others. I don't have real strong relationships outside of my team. I do ok -- I haven't screwed up big-time in many years, but it doesn't feel like much of an accomplishment to say that.

 

[BlueDays]

The affect that my SA had in the workplace caused me to work so hard (physically and mentally) to be a "good employee" that I ended up severely burning myself out.
Great for my boss, disaster for me!