So let me get this straight.....

[De Leonist]

This Peter Schiff asshole says it's okay to underpay people with Neurological Disabilities. I would like to say something to those who might own a small business or work in a managerial position for a larger company . Understand that many employers even with what laws or regulations exist end up treating us like shit even they do hire us. They alter our timesheets. They over work us and than refuse to pay the hours we actually put in.

I've had this happen to me more than once when I've informed past employers of my own mental health issues. I've had more than one acquaintance who like me has a Neurological Disorder tell me than that when they confronted their manager about it they end up being told that they don't put as much effort into their work as their normal coworkers so they deserve to get paid less. Who knows though perhaps this would be different if I didn't live in a red state.

Now is it true that many of have problems that make it hard for us to always work at the same pace as our normal coworkers ? Yes, but what our employers often fail to realize is that while we are often just as intelligent as our normal coworkers because of our issues, most of which usually are not our fault, it can take us longer to learn the skills needed in a particular workplace to get up to the levels of productivity desired by our employers. The fact is for a lot of us our brains learn in ways that a normal person's usually does not, again something that is not our fault.

Not to mention that in many cases we put just as much effort into our work as normal person if not more simply because we know that when it comes time to put heads on the chopping block ours will probably be the first among them because we know that even if we do work hard or make contributions to our workplace our employers see us far more as a liability than an asset. Especially if your working in a low skill job.

What's that you say, we should keep to ourselves than. Don't tell anybody who doesn't need to know. Well what if we're not so good at hiding it or maybe we know that somewhere along the line a problem will come up caused by one of our issues ? Quite frankly I don't think we should have to hide it. I suppose some might say we should be grateful that we were hired at all or that life isn't fair.

Well what if I said I thought that was bullshit ? That maybe it was time you Normal People stopped treating us like pariahs and burdens ? That just because we might deal with problems that most of you don't have to doesn't you're entitled to pay us less for the same hours of work ? Just because life isn't fair doesn't mean we can't be.

[malokvale77]

1. I'm all in with you on this

My brother suffers from neurological problems due to visual deficiency in his early development stages. He is extremely intelligent, but cannot process more then one task at a time. He has to have a list of steps to follow. Only after many repetitions, can he follow a routine. He goes into total panic mode if you try to interrupt the order of things with a different task. This is frightening in emergency situations. I've had to stage emergency drills so he can step into a new routine in case of a real emergency.

The one job he had (he loved it), he was paid $5 an hour. He was let go on the pretext that the budget was tight. The real reason was that he upset a customer (he became confused) when she interrupted his routine to do something outside his given job. His job was not connected to customer service. The person on duty, who was responsible for customer service, still has their job and makes good wages.

It was a totally humiliating situation for him. I've never considered my brother a burden. I have developed a sense of patience in my interactions with him. I consider this a plus in dealing with the rest of this not so civil society.

Oh, in addition, fuck Peter Schiff and the US government for allowing this exception to the rules.