Can't proofread = FIRED

Wow, can I relate Lyn.

I’m a college graduate also and in my case I’ve always had jobs that I felt I was too smart to do. The secretarial jobs were the worst. I couldn’t proof read either. I felt that I was smarter than most of the people I worked with but couldn’t show my supervisors that because of all of the errors I made. It was so frustrating.

When I was a clerical assistant at a publishing company I also made a lot of mistakes. I sent out a memo once to a bunch of literary people with a bunch of typo’s and errors that I didn’t catch. The editor-in-chief gave me quite a tongue lashing. I felt like a complete moron. Didn’t feel too smart for that position. That really put me in a funk and I left publishing soon after that. I was also very self-conscious about not being well-read. Not the best place for someone with dyslexia to be in, huh?!

In the secretarial jobs I had later, the same thing happened. I missed spelling errors and typos, skipped over lines of text and didn’t realize it no matter how many times I proofed. I also transposed numbers.

I wish I could tell you what jobs we’re supposed to have and succeed in.

One suggestion that worked pretty well for me was to proof read backwards. In other words from bottom to top. So if I were proofing my last sentence I’d start at my last word — top , then continue with, to bottom from words other In. It helps because you see the words as they are because you’re not reading them in sentence form. They stand out better. I hope I’m explaining that right.

It’s not a best solution but it’s one that might help a little.

Have you thought about working for a smaller ad agency or one where the work load isn’t fast paced? I don’t know if that’s an issue for you or not and I don’t know how feasible that is for you, but it was just a thought. Smaller less crazy environments were always suggested to me and I took it to mean that I was a lesser person. I wish I knew then what I know now about myself and then I wouldn’t have taken it so personally.

In my case, I had very lofty ideas and plans but my self-esteem was so fragile that the slightest mistake I made would make me lose confidence. I hope you can maintain yours. I know how hard it is.

For me, success has come with motherhood. I’m not always the best mom, but I know I’m a good mom, because my daughter is thriving. I wish I could make money being her mom. I’d be rich beyond my wildest dreams!

Ah well.

As hard as it is, try to stay calm and good luck.

The ADA talks about something called reasonable accomodation but it takes some sleaze bag lawyers to define what that is. Is it reasonable to have someone else proof read your work? Will that make you less productive? Should you lose your job if you are less productive? Advertisers get really pissed about typos. Isn’t that what proofreaders and spell check are for? Are you sure your boss can’t be enlightened? The fact is both you and your boss are between a rock and a hard place. The reality of it is. He’s in business to make a profit not to accomodate your disability and I don’t think it should be soley the employer’s responsibility to accomodate because it is not their area of expertise. That’s what Voc rehab is supposed to do and as we all know State VRs are evil virulent quagmires of lies inaction and double talk and did I mention they suck.

Dear Lyn,

Is it not possible to take your work that you are to hand into your boss on the following day, and scan it into your computer the night before, and let your computer’s spellcheck catch these problems for you?

Rob

P.S. Although I do not think that it is time for you to reveal your disability to your boss, what you could do, is to simply admit that you are a “bad speller”, and suggest that you use the above intervention, (on your own time), in order to help both of you out. I think that any boss would be pleased with an employee who makes that kind of sacrafice, and who shows that kind of initiative!

Lyn,

Have you looked into a Franklin handheld computer? I don’t know the official name of it, but it uses a voice to tell you the words you are inputting in it.

If you spell check and the word pops up with 4 different spellings you can input each one into the Franklin and it will read the word to you.

It’s just one other possiblity to think about. I’ve been in similar situations and I know how rough it can be. Good luck.

I’ve been going through this nearly everyday for the last month!!! I’ve been in my job for a year this past Tuesday. I do data entry in a human tissue bank. There have been errors, but it was getting better. Lately, though, my manager has been bringing me back expiration date errors nearly every day for the last week or two. It’s really driving my confidence down because I really want to get into something more geared towards my intelligence, not to mention my college degree of psychology. I was saying to my husband today, how can I handle a counseling job if I can’t even handle the data entry!!!! As I said to Ball earlier, it’s really getting tedious and tiring on my eyes.

Take heart, Lyn. Through this board, and another friend of mine, I’m taking comfort in the fact that there are other people out there who are very bright, yet are underemployed because of the learning disabilities. I wish more of my LD was address after college rather than the vision, hearing and emotional impairments. I’m ready to find my true strengths and use them while minimizing usage of my weaknesses or at least accommodating them.

Good luck!!

Christine

Lynn, why don’t you give Job Accommodation Network a call? Their phone number is 1-800-526-7234. They have a database of over 200,000 accommodations and have over fifteen people who are willing and eager to help.

Be ready to explain the nature of the problem and your disability. (as you did in the letter).

Right on ! They don’t do anything for you.

I too haev A.D.D. and L.D. and I’m had a hard time in work knowing I had this. I told my boss it in one job I had and she was cool with it. The other job witch sucks and they did not understand why I wasn’t fast at it. I pulled out my key chane witch had a Medic Alert on it and said, they have laws out their to help people with problems that I have and other people have. They didn’t care for that, then I said if you give me any more sh** about it then I’ll show you the law on it and make a few phone calls and will see what happens then. They have been kissing my but sence. I’m not recomending you be rood about it but the place I work they don’t care about the employees but how much they make.

Mike, thats what I call great self advocacy. A lot of us have suck jobs with suckier bosses. You get a pat on the back from me. You are obviously a man of guts and honor. Hip hip hooray!!

Lyn,
I try to always use spell check first, then, it helps me when I read it back out loud.

But,sometimes my problem is I proof- read the stuff I’ve typed too fast. Saying it helps slow me down.
Of course there’s always those words like… I will meet you later, and I type instead… I will met you later. Even if I’ve read it five times, I’ll say meet when I see met. That is just a LD problem. Spell check and Thesaurus are my best friends and compensating is ALWAYS a must!

Hi Lyn,

Yes I have gone through that a lot. I wish that there were more support groups out there for us. We could help each other. How about faxing or emailing your work to someone who proofreads well, and they email it back to you? Are your peices long? Often just having a fresh eye look at something makes it easy to catch errors.

I would definitly contact Americans with Disabilites.

How about the Kitty Petty Institure? www.kittypetty.com or something like that. Try looking it up on www.google.com She may have some recources for you.

Do tell your employeer. You have to I think to have a case. Explain that you have a varifiable LD that is neurological and can come and go at times and that it affects your ability to proofread. Let him know that you are as frustated with it as he is and that you want to do better. Tel him that if you had some help with the proof reading, it would solve the problem.

Also tell him that you would be willing to help out the person or Dept. that does the help in exchange. It could be that your receptionist could do this for you. You could take her out to lunch once a week or something or offer her a little money on the side.

If you do this and THEN he says no and fires you, you have a definite case.
You are asking for a Reasonable Accomodation. That is what is required under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
ANN B.