very touching young story - I bet this kid is a lot of fun to work with. The fact that he was on time every day for 6 months probably whips all the other employees into shape from an HR perspective. "If this kid can be on time and take the bus, then so can you."
For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
11–20 of 118 posts
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#12I barely made it through this article. After the 10th minute of pushing through my tears to read, I had to resolve that nothing would stop me. On HN we dream big. And we all agree that we can dream big and maybe hit it big. Imagine what it feels like to realize at a young age that you DONT get to go after your dreams because you are missing the tools. Imagine what it feels like to believe something is wrong with you…
I totally agree about the sadness that must accompany realizing you are "missing the tools" to follow your dreams.
A wonderfully written account by his father, one which makes me hope I can be continually thankful for the gifts bestowed upon me going forward.
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#13I have a strong sense that online work - on CrowdFlower, Mechanical Turk, or Elance - could be the path forward for someone like Jaime. Please do note: I work for CrowdFlower. The beauty of online work is its promise of operating as a meritocracy. Access to the labor market is not about who you know, or how you appear, but about your ability to perform. Everything about Jaime, from his diligence to his incredible cat…
The problem is that this kind of work is very isolating, and from the article it seems that he really needs human interactions.
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#14I have a strong sense that online work - on CrowdFlower, Mechanical Turk, or Elance - could be the path forward for someone like Jaime. Please do note: I work for CrowdFlower. The beauty of online work is its promise of operating as a meritocracy. Access to the labor market is not about who you know, or how you appear, but about your ability to perform. Everything about Jaime, from his diligence to his incredible cat…
Online work solves the problem of not having something to do, but in some sense, going on YouTube also solves that problem.
In my opinion, the value of work for someone like Jaime mostly revolves around the perception of independence (I can take the bus by myself) and the social interactions (having co-workers), and online work doesn't fulfill these as well. That Jamie has something to do and that there is useful economic output is a nice-to-have, and likely a subsidized one at that. I would not be surprised if, for example, Jamie's companions cost more ("contribute more to GDP", if you will) than Jamie earns in wages.
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#15I remember when I worked in an auto-industry factory (as part of my training) in Japan, we wore caps with colored bands that denoted rank/category. New employees were dark blue. Equipment/facility maintenance people wore yellow bands. "Management" inside the factory, as well as the white-collar employees had light blue. Outside guests wore red. Amidst this, workers with disabilities wore caps with green bands. Many w…
> This kind of categorization perhaps wouldn't fly in the States I see this as a bit of a paradox in the States. There is always some discussion about how everyone should be treated as equal, yet your "race" (whatever that means in the age of genetics!) is recorded by the government, and minorities are tracked by employers even though this is absolutely not related with their skills. If i think too much about it, I'd…
I also never understood this. Why ask about race if race is supposed not to matter?
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#16I remember when I worked in an auto-industry factory (as part of my training) in Japan, we wore caps with colored bands that denoted rank/category. New employees were dark blue. Equipment/facility maintenance people wore yellow bands. "Management" inside the factory, as well as the white-collar employees had light blue. Outside guests wore red. Amidst this, workers with disabilities wore caps with green bands. Many w…
> This kind of categorization perhaps wouldn't fly in the States I see this as a bit of a paradox in the States. There is always some discussion about how everyone should be treated as equal, yet your "race" (whatever that means in the age of genetics!) is recorded by the government, and minorities are tracked by employers even though this is absolutely not related with their skills. If i think too much about it, I'd…
"Race"? In France it is forbidden to ask or record the religion or color of skin. Thus, it is forbidden to make statistics about it. Of course it is not the same about people with a handicap.
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#17If anyone is interested in a good film about a young man with Down Syndrome and how he gets on in life (work and love), check out the Spanish film Yo Tambien (Me Too). Here's the trailer, with subs.
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#18Not downs, but we had a guy with a pretty bad speech impediment interview with us a while back. He had a well controlled stutter which resulted in pauses of 10s+. The guy was awesome (better than the average across our team) and had wonderful written communication skills. That's all we need as we email each other all day (we're a very disparate team). Unfortunately my asshat boss decided that he wasn't suitable for the position due to a number of made up concerns and vetoed our acceptance.
Pisses me off every time I think about it but that's how a lot of companies operate.
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This kind of categorization perhaps wouldn't fly in the States I see this as a bit of a paradox in the States. There is always some discussion about how everyone should be treated as equal, yet your "race" (whatever that means in the age of genetics!) is recorded by the government, and minorities are tracked by employers even though this is absolutely not related with their skills. If i think too much about it, I'd…
I also never understood this. Why ask about race if race is supposed not to matter?
To help get to the point where it truly doesn't matter.
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#20Would something like a google glass app, or another semi-automated assistant work for augmenting his capabilities?
Sounds like he's totally motivated and capable to do e.g. the janitorial work, but his capability needs to be paired with intensive supervision. Could that supervision be implemented as wearable interactive instruction or cheat-sheets?