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Starting a New Job… You Bet I’m Masking
This is a tricky one. Being an Aspie female in my forties, I thought I had reached a place where I no longer care what others think of me.
However, now that I’m about to start a brand new job, I feel the urge to conform again.
Not in the same extreme way that I used to. I won’t be signing up to any group holidays or spending my down time with them.
I will still decline offers of drinks after work. But I’m certainly not brave enough to be my raw, unfiltered self from the get go with a new team.
Small changes
In the job I’m finishing, I let my mask slide some time ago. I stopped eating lunch in the busy lunch room, and started taking that half hour for myself.
I love having that little window of time to myself. I can quickly top up my social battery to get myself through until home time.
In my new job, one of the small changes to my day will be eating lunch with my team. My new team is much smaller, which is great for me. I just hope the lunch room won’t be packed.
I’m also going to have to do small talk for at least a little while. I find this difficult to be honest. But it’s a social norm…
