I kept meaning to do these wonderful posts on all these topics individually to make them easy to find again and then I remembered I’m a sick person with no fucking spoons, so here it is, a randoms post.
Disclaimering
@OneGirlAndHerCows made an Instagram story post in March this year about disclaimering abilities. And that’s something I need to unpack more. I keep thinking I’m “past” a layer of ableism and then I find there are deeper layers to unpack. But the basic truth of it is that I will share what I want to share. And if I don’t feel like it, I don’t have to outline the weeks of preparatory steps I took to be able to do and share that one thing I share online. And I feel like I “should” have already known this because the post I share frequently online is “respect does not require understanding“. But maybe that’s why I share it online so often – I need reminding too!
Power, don’t forget the fucking power
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Image description:
An Instagram post of a tweet that says “Successful people have mental health issues, bad habits, gaps in their knowledge, moments of self-doubt, procrastination issues, imperfect routines, insecurities, and imposter syndrome too. But they also know all of these things are perfectly normal. That is the difference.”
There are SO MANY things I could comment on about this but this was my comment:
The “difference” is they have layers of privilege to fail due to those things, or to outsource the parts they’re bad at, or power so people won’t use these variables against them”.
Also, toxic positivity can jump off a cliff into a fiery lava pit.
Your shit is not my responsibility
This email footer is on all emails from a recruitment agency:
“If this role doesn’t not suit your location or experience, no need to reply, thank you”.
(Yes, it does actually say “doesn’t not suit”, that’s their TEMPLATED typo, not my impatience typo.)
I read two things into this:
- we’re going to spam our candidate database with irrelevant jobs and we don’t want you to complain
- don’t contact us if you need accommodations in employment (the workplace location part)
Oh and want this to get one step better? This is a recruitment agency that is (apparently) “certified” as “disability confident”. Yeah, confident in ignoring needs.
Capacity
This one I probably need to expand on in the future… I don’t have the energy for other people, products, or services to be shit. I’m at my limits of capacity surviving and “minor inconveniences” actually fuck me over and harm me.
A post from 19 April 2021
Boundaries. I think having a parking permit is helping; reduced time walking while carrying stuff is making it slightly easier to go to work on my on site days. Today though I had to stand on the bus which has brought back pain, undoing the good of the closer parking. Sigh. I guess at least the backwards step lets me see the forwards step? They are hard to see. Commuting is hell. I have to sit on all public transport. Lesson re-re-re learned. Not sure how I’m supposed to get a seat on a busway bus because busways are an inaccessible hellhole.
We’re not a single ticky box
This is a message I sent someone who asked for neurodivergence topics. But I liked it and also saved it for myself:
I hate how medicalised this term is, but “comorbidities”.
ADHD example: I have ME/CFS as well so my body requires extensive rest but the ADHD part of my mind doesn’t understand rest and it’s sheer fucking hell some days.
Non ADHD example: brain fog/damage from long covid. Changes in mental capacity that are unpredictable. How to cope. How to deal with internalised ableism about being “smart” and things like that which you think you’ve lost.
Random inaccessibility
(From a job in 2022.) When you struggle to get your shit together for a 7.30am meeting then log on and find out the meeting has been moved to midday.
Professional development
“But then, doing a course such as this one is a little luxury in itself. Being able to extend knowledge in a field you work in every day, to gain more insight, more theoretical and practical understanding of what you’re actually dealing with.”
Brilliant post from Phonakins.
When I was unwell I could barely work. Professional development was not an option. And then I saw a freelance job ad… from someone who has been in the depths of ME/CFS. The freelance job ad required you to list your professional development in the previous year and I got so angry. I expected this person to know better. I know people say “just don’t have expectations” but fuck that, I do. I expect people who have been through this hell to know what’s possible and impossible, and yes, I judged the hell out of them for having impossible tasks on their job ad.
Disability fucks you over!
From an ABC article.
“Artists with disability are being paid at similar rates for their creative work as artists without disability. However, their earning potential outside of creative work is significantly less, making an average of $12,400 compared with $16,100 for those without disability. Artists with disability were also more likely to experience unemployment compared to artists without disability, the report found.”
The big project I’ve been working on recently is a DETAILED post on everything I went through while job hunting last year (and a study guide version to sell to businesses).
