Work

I'm Janine Booth. I'm autistic, and I write and deliver training courses to trade unionists and others about autism and neurodiversity. As part of the courses, we look at real-life case studies of neurodivergent workers' experiences. It is important to use up-to-date case studies, so I am interested in hearing your story.

Teachers say:
Let Daily Mail writers be heroes

Let them walk naked through war zones
Let them battle with an invisible enemy

Let them fall on the battlefield
in even greater numbers than they already have

Safe in the knowledge that they will be
lionised at the Daily Briefing

And that Matt Hancock may
issue a badge in their honour

This is a poem to tell you your rights,
if you find yourself working at dangerous sites
So please brush up your knowledge and uphold the law –
know that workers at risk have the right to withdraw

So if you’re facing danger that’s imminent and serious,
working conditions that seem deleterious
Call up your boss and then step right away –
you can not get in trouble, they can’t stop your pay

personal protective equipment
proves particularly effective
preventing pandemic excretion
polluting public environments

profit pursuers expect
priority, private enterprise
prevails: purchasing essentials
proves prohibitively expensive

production postponed, exhausted
public protectors endangered
political patent expired
pay packets empty

Also on the RMT London Calling website here.

Disabled transport workers are a significant and valuable part of the workforce that delivers transport to millions of passengers and freight consignments every day. Many of us are also particularly vulnerable during the current Covid-19 pandemic.

You have no skills – you’re just a carer,
a labourer, an apron-wearer,
You smear on cream and dish out pills –
you don’t have skills.

You have no skills, you just wipe arses,
the underside of the underclasses,
You wipe up drool, make tea and chat –
Where’s the skill in that?!

I wrote this for my employer's intranet Living With .. series written by disabled workers, and thought I'd share it here too.

What is monocular vision?

I only have sight in my left eye. Some people lose sight in one eye gradually, through illness or disease. My sight loss, though, was rather more sudden and dramatic.

My monocular vision

Call centre working is a danger to your mental health. 

Depression, anxiety, panic attacks, high blood pressure, sleeping problems and even suicidal thoughts are common among call centre workers.

More than 4 in 5 respondents to a Unison survey said that work made them stressed.

In another survey [Mind], when asked how workplace stress affected them: