Has anyone else lost their job due to dyscalculia? (Or been close to that happening?)
I'm sorry, I just need a place to ramble and frankly you're the only people who get it.
A couple of months ago, I was making decent money (well, nothing great, but better than I had ever made) at Whole Foods. For the first time in my life, I thought I was becoming a self-sufficient individual and that I could finally begin to climb out of my financial hole. Unfortunately, although I thought I was doing well on an overall level, I didn't meet the company's expectations. I was terminated after the month-long trial.
After having things pointed out to me, I understand how I messed up some things. For example, I worked far slower than my coworkers, and in addition I was clumsy in how I did things (organize the refrigerator, pull the breads, etc.).
Now I am working for Victoria's Secret. I'm messing up again.
One way I'm messing up is in how I measure customers for their appropriate bra size. For the longest time, I thought I was counting the inches wrong. Turns out I was actually getting my measurements incorrect because I was HOLDING THE TAPE INCORRECTLY. And that just baffles me. I was shown how to hold the tape over and over and I just... I just kept doing it wrong. It's like my hands aren't listening to my brain! But this is so humiliating because my coworkers mastered this simple skill many weeks ago. Turns out I'm far behind everybody, and now they're getting promoted up to specialists. I can't be promoted (which isn't as glamorous as it sounds; you HAVE to be promoted) until I master measuring. So guess what my supervisor did? She had me practice over and over on my coworkers yesterday while they all gave me "wow, you're an idiot" expressions.
I messed up in other ways as well. For example, a customer came to me looking for a specific bra. I checked the drawers, concluded we ran out of that bra, and paged the downstairs to see if there were any in stock. None were down there. So I apologized to her and said that we were out. ...Turns out I confused the style. She complained to someone, then over the walkie-talkie it was announced that the customer had been wronged and she was very upset. It was easy to conclude that the person who messed up was me because I was the only person in that room at the time.
Finally, a coworker and I were given bathing suits to put back from the dressing room. There were BAGS of bathing suits. To make it quicker, I focused all of my attention on putting them away while I thought my coworker was okay helping customers. It turns out she was overwhelmed, but instead of explaining this to me she instead told a manager. So then the manager chewed me out. I wasn't trying to be rude!
Every time I post here it's always over something negative involving my dyscalculia. I'm sorry about that, really. I swear I have tried to look for the positives in our LD (creative ways to solve problems, etc.) but it just seems like I'm deluding myself. Sigh...
It's obvious that I'm going to have to talk with all of my supervisors about my disability. How do I go about doing this? I cannot afford to lose yet ANOTHER job.
Edited by Fennec on July 02 2012 01:01 PM
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If you bring forth what is within you,
what you bring forth will save you.
If you do not bring forth what is within you,
what you do not have within you will destroy you.
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6135 Joined: 2008-05-25
7/2/12
Hi Fennec,
I'm always glad to see that you've come to post, so this must show that your posts (although about some small tragedy) are very entertaining! I hope you can keep that job at Victoria's Secret, and I'm sorry that you couldn't stay at Whole Foods. But in fact, you've made me feel much better about myself and how slow I am at getting work done. I'm careful and I enjoy putting things away, but time flies by, and just like you, when compared to others, it's like they know some secret about organizing that I don't know.
As for trying to see a 'positive' in MLD. No, I don't see one at all. I see a 'positive' in having my diagnosis and knowing that dyscalculia is my problem, but I truly believe that this is a 'deficit' and that having it is not something to celebrated. Sometimes when I see that people with an LD are 'going on' about how their LD makes them so 'creative', I feel sorry for them. I'm able to accept that I have an imperfection that makes life more difficult for me. I don't have to pretend that being dyscalculic is some special 'gift'. If I've become more insightful or more creative,... (after all, 'necessity is the mother of invention',) ... then that's good. But I would prefer not to be dyscalculic than to be dyscalculic. I would still be 'me', and I would still be an artist and 'creative'. I'm pretty good with a tape measure. I so wish that I could help you with that. Gotta go to class now. Take care, friend. - jus'
to be honest - yes, more than once.
I don't know how to use ruler or tape measure myself. I've also been clumsy at jobs and had difficulty with multi-step sequences involving physical/motor skills and had bosses not happy with me.
So yes, those have been negative things.
If given the chance to -not- have math LD or dyscalculia somehow - would I take it? Honestly, I don't know. It has made me more creative about certain things and more patient.
This is how I am.
