Is it a society/systemic problem or an individual’s problem?

And what does this ‘support’ look like. The jobs are there if he wants one. Do you expect employers to create Mickey Mouse jobs because someone is too precious to work in McDonald’s.

He could work in number of places that aren’t McDonald’s. But until people stop indulging nonsense exceptionalism from self important people who think the world owes them a living, they will always think they can the be the next Jack Sparrow or Ben Ainslee.

Most people are doing jobs to earn money, not because they are passionate about accounting etc. It’s a ridiculous.

We need to stop indulging this nonsense. Where anyone who wants a free ride can get one by referring to being ND. It’s actually quite disrespectful and does a disservice to genuinely ND people, making them out to be lazy freeloaders who can’t manage to do anything in life.

That guy was living on cloud cuckoo land. It had nothing to do with being neurodivergent.

He was going on about ‘well, it feels like work is just a hamster wheel until you die’. No shit Sherlock. You’ve got to do repetitive stuff to get at good at it to make your way up in life.

Then he started to go about how he wanted to be a sailor and if he had the finances, how good that would be. Yeah, and we all want to be Celebrity chefs. But it takes work doesn’t.

What a batshit interview which basically summed up the problem. Too many people, with too high an opinion about what they ‘deserve’ despite having 0 talent or even putting the work in, and expecting for everyone to carry them. They think they are something special out of 7 billion people in the world.

That dude needs to be made to get a job asap, so he can experience the real world, rather than the unicorn and fairies land that he lives in.

I have not done the poll because I don't like your options - too much bias, and very unfair.

Someone who is neurodivergent should never be pushed into working at MacDonalds because of sensory overload - it's bright and very colourful, it's busy, it's noisy in the kitchen, there are endless interactions with people.

I suggest the young person chose sailing as a working environment because of these sensory issues. I am not saying he should be supported in this choice, but realistic options should be explored that suit his neurodivergent needs - eg. horticulture, gardening, parks and recreation

People should be supported to find jobs which complement their strengths and take into account their weaknesses.

There would be far fewer unemployed, and much shorter MH waiting lists if people weren't forced into jobs that are completely unsuitable for them.

Yes, this.

Though several friends’ kids who worked in McDonalds said it wasn’t in fact at all a bad place to work, there was a lively social life attached and if you stick around a bit, lots of promotion opportunities. Admittedly, they were mostly there short-term. But working a full day job while funding a passion project or training is a perfectly ordinary thing to do. The guy who cuts our grass is doing sailing qualifications. The instructors at the water sports summer courses DS used to go to are mostly also into sailing.

Yes it jarred with me too.

I think that young people ND or otherwise should be supported to do qualifications and find work they are passionate about.

I'm coming at this from the angle of how much the education system is geared towards going to university and graduate jobs.

The tax payer lends an academic person up to around 50k to go to university. Lots of further education courses are really badly funded in comparison, or self funding if you have an equivalent level qualification. They also have conditions like having to have gcse in maths/English, even though those skills aren't hugely relevant to the job.

But that said I think McDonald's is a perfectly good employer and it is a great place to work, even if it's to save up and self fund your sailing course and lots of people do works they aren't passionate about because it is life.

I think the difference is if you are ND you won't believe how strongly you are pushed into certain role. The send scheme my LA offers is you can work in a cafe, you can work in horticulture, you can work in IT. Those are the pathways presented to school leavers, with ehcps at special schools, which are supported. Everything else is a battle.

You' re right.

I don't think anybody wants to work in McDonald's. But we can't all be professional sailors. Most people passionate about sailing do so as a hobby and have professional careers to fund it. And excuse my language but many are as 'spergy as they come!

Nothing is stopping him working in McDs while he develops a career in sailing. It's not that hard, pay for the training and find a boat looking for crew?!

Well, yes, I guess you are correct. But this was just one offhand remark a ND man on the radio made. Wanting to sail (or follow other aspirational dream) and not wanting to take lower paid jobs is not something typically associated with ND. Plenty of NT feel the same way too and act accordingly.