John Elder Robison

It’s a cold grey dawn here in Western Massachusetts. I’m headed to work with the plow on the front of my truck, wondering what the day will bring. Somewhere between two and eight inches of snow is forecast, and we are ready. In another hour, Joe will be out salting the parking lot. Austin and Jack have the larger plows ready on their trucks, and they’ll start clearing as soon as snow starts to accumulate. Jose will be watching over the parking lot, keeping it clear as best we can for plowing.

The ambulance operations in our complex never close. We never know when they will be called out, and we have to make sure they can get out when calls come, no matter what the conditions.

We’re pretty good at handling storms now. Having our own equipment and a good staff makes all the difference. We have three heavy duty pickups with 8 foot plows ready. Two John Deere tractors have snow blowers mounted for sidewalks and snow piles. A larger John Deere is ready with a loader and a bigger blower, but no one expects us to need that. There are salt spreaders and several pallet loads of snow melt in the shed.

Lots of people with equipment like ours hire their crews out to the City, but I don’t want to beat our stuff up plowing roads. It’s enough to clear our three acres of yard, the street around us, the short street we live on and our driveways.

So often, I read about “our great people,” as if people single-handedly handle snowstorms and whatever else life throws at us. They (we) don’t. We would be nowhere without machines. With workers alone, it would take days to clear a six-inch snowfall, and it would be backbreaking work. With the right machines, it’s a few hours work from the comfort of heated cabs.

If your machines are well-maintained, you can drive into a storm like this and be confident your equipment will do its job. Properly maintained gear does not break down or fall apart when things get tough. Before we owned plows and blowers we were at the mercy of hired contractors who generally arrived late and did a less than stellar job. Now, thanks to our equipment, we decide when to work and how to do it.

Machines make the life we take for granted possible.

So as you watch the plows go by, tip your hat to all the workers out there keeping the roads clear and as safe as they can be. But don’t forget that we’d all be home shoveling without modern equipment.

J E Robison Service Co

Independence. Security

Over the last twenty years I’ve written about going out on my own because I did not fit into other people’s workplaces too well. As many of you know, I had trouble fitting in because I am autistic. Yet I have certain advantages at work, also because I am autistic. So far, I have mostly written about life as an autistic person, but I have come to realize there is a bigger story to be told.

There are many reasons people might not feel like they fit into someone else’s workplace. Autism is far from the only cause of what we might call “misfit at work syndrome.”

Maybe you feel you don’t fit because of gender, identity, skin color, temperament, or (like me), your neurotype. Neurotype in this case refers to the kind of mind you have. Maybe you are very introverted or uncomfortable around other people. Maybe ADHD, dyslexia, or some other difference shapes your behavior in ways that make it harder to get along. These are not bad things, and they may not feel like disabilities, yet they can make working for someone a struggle.

Despite that, there are millions of people who don’t fit in at work. Many are working jobs they hate. Others are not working. Only a few go into business for themselves.

Why is that?

There is a widespread belief in this society that we grow up and go to work, and typically that involves working for someone else – often a large corporation. We are told from an early age that working a steady job is the path to success, even as we see that the most successful among us are almost all self-employed.

The reason we are taught that goes back to people like Andrew Carnegie in the Gilded Era, when rich people endowed schools to teach workers to staff their factories, railroads, and other enterprises. We still do that today. 99% of business teaching in our colleges focuses on how to work for someone else and not how to start our own enterprises.

Of course, many people rightly say, “I don’t have any money to start a company,” but any of us could start a business, be it polishing and repairing shows, or taking care of lawns, or fixing small machines. We all have the opportunity to save money and buy things to help us earn a living. You don’t need to be born rich to do this. It’s the teaching that tells us otherwise, not real life.

I think my autism helps me see the world – including work – differently, and logically. I believe my experience making it on my own can provide insight to many others – not just autistic people, but anyone with a dream of independence.

Independence is a great thing. So is security. In the autism community, there is a lot of talk about masking and trying to fit in. At my work, people accommodate me. Others may think about fitting in – I don’t, because this is my place. If you have a job today, you can lose it tomorrow. Then what? I don’t have a job. I have a business that serves thousands of people. Customers come and go, and for every person who leaves us for any reason, another takes their place. That is what security looks like, and insecurity is really the job that may go away.

I’m going to continue writing about that, with a view to helping others find the independence and security I have built for themselves. I hope you will join me on this journey. It’s the same advocacy, but different. Let’s see where it leads.

What do you think?