Experience with severely autistic children?

I am going to have an interview for a job pretty soon. The job is a “personal care assistant” for a severely autistic 5 year old. The boy is 5 years old, non-verbal, on bottles, and still in diapers. Because of my lack of experience, I’m not sure if they would be willing to hire me, but I’m still hoping to get the job. I’m wondering if you have any experience working with autistic children, and if so, is there anything you think you should share with me? Any advice, stories, or descriptions of experience, et cetera?
I only have experience working with one girl with mild autism. I also am somewhat knowledgeable about the disorder, but have no formal training in it.

Question re:labourers, your opinion please?

I have recently had the need to consider employing an additional labourer on my estate. My Personal Assistant takes care of the interviews and then puts forward a recommendation to me for approval.

The vacancy is a trivial one and requires no skills or educational qualifications. It is basically an odd job man (for want of a better description) to carry out duties like cleaning the steps, polishing the gates and brushing the stripes into the lawns etc.

My PA has put forward an applicant to me for consideration who cannot read or write (this is of no consequence). He (my PA) tells me that the applicant is currently in the service of a noble gentleman whom I know very well – I shall refer to him simply as ‘R’ for obvious reasons. The applicant has told my PA that his services are currently being provided without remuneration and that he is happy with being given accommodation and food – although he claims that the accommodation amounts to no more than permission to sleep in one of the cow sheds.

He continues to say that the reason he is seeking alternate employment is because ‘R’ is a prankster (I know this to be true) and he is tiring of the continual japes carried out on him by ‘R’ (many of which leave him injured him in some way). He claims that the last jape involved him becoming a projectile having been shot by cannon as they do in a circus act. ‘R’ had insisted that it was safe but then went on to charge the cannon with four times the amount of gunpowder as that used in the circus novelty act.

Now, I don’t mind the man being illiterate or malodorous, (he won’t be allowed in the house) but I really don’t think there is room in my organisation for someone who has no sense of humour.

Would you agree that a sense of humour is imperative in today’s workplace?
edit
Apologies for appearing in “Words and Wordplay” I should have checked – I just assumed incorretly that YA would have suggested “Employment”

Do you think this is a work at home scam?

Does anyone know about www.ZIE.com ? This is what they are looking for: Personal Assistant/Clerk. The pay is $2,000 monthly plus bonus.
1. Receive and process payments from our clients form different countries
2. Make payments to our partners when necessary.
3. Send brochures, proposals, journals and bulletins to our clients.
4. Keying data into a database used to create quarterly and annual reports
5. Assisting with the coordination and compiling materials and sending client communications
6. Maintain and compile legal, and administrative records
7. Write official letters, reports and personal correspondence
8. We shall send to you, all materials in due time and names and addresses of companies or customer to send the materials to, postage will be taken care of.

Benefits includes;
• Stable, competitive base salary plus bonus opportunities
• Three weeks Paid Time Off yearly (Vacation, Holiday )
• Extremely affordable medical/dental coverage
• Direct deposit
• And much more…

I found and applied for this job on Yahoo hot jobs. The guy who wants me to be his personal assistant wants me to send and receive payments and he wants me to cash the checks at my bank (sounds fishy). The guy is in the UK so he needs a personal assistant to work from home. He has just informed me that he has sent me a package with contact information from his clients.

What I found strange is that i found a question on yahoo answers describing the same description but with a different company.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AlKApI9ufnPXLdssop83UbcjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20080922113128AA5njhr

Take a look at it

Do you think it is a scam and should I stop communicating with this guy?

What should I do about this wretched woman who is my Assistant Director of Admissions?

I was laid off recently. My job was shipped to India and there is not much work left in the US doing what I do. This qualified me under the Trade Adjustment Act to go back to school. I really want to take advantage of this. I did a bunch of research and came up with only one school I really want to attend. Keep in mind I am extremely broke in the mean time here. So I call this school, get this woman by default and she tells me to come down and apply in person before she can tell me anything about classes or anything. I ask her clearly what this will entail because it confuses me to hear that she can’t just tell me about the classes they offer. She assures me that I need to just come down in person, nothing more.

I waste the gas to drive down there, meet with this woman, she drags me all over, takes an hour of my time rambling and then tells me for a $100.00 application fee she will give me a class list with descriptions. I let my frustration show, thanked her for her time and said I’d be on my way. She asked me if I could borrow the money from someone. I found this so out of line I lost it. Told her that I am trying to live off of unemployment, keep my house out of foreclosure and if I were to borrow money it would be to save my ass not PAY to hear about their classes and let her know I didn’t appreciate her wasting my gas to come there when she could have told me over the phone what I was clearly asking her.

She becomes very apologetic and takes me to someone higher to see about getting the fee waved or taking it out of TAA funds. As she is prancing me around to these “higher ups” she is telling them how I am a special case and about to be homeless and she would like to help me. So out of line, unprofessional and humiliating. After all that gets settled she tries to befriend me, talking personal and telling me how she’s been there and will do what she can to help me. Throughout this whole time she is slipping me her cell number and inviting me out on weekends which she never follows through with anyway. At this point I’m annoyed but thinking, whatever works!

I set an appointment with her for the following week to go up and see the director of the department to see what classes I can test out of based on prior experience and what classes will transfer from my previous Bachelors Degree. I show for the appointment to find out she is out sick that day. She did not call to cancel. A few phone conversations later I set another appointment. I brought my official transcripts which I had to drive far to get and pay for. After finding out what transfers etc, I can tell she is too overwhelmed to deal with me anymore that day and she sets yet another appointment to meet with the director. A week or so later I show to that appointment ON TIME for her to tell me she hasn’t had a cigarette all day and asks me to go have a cig with her. I did, she tells me things aren’t going well, she may be losing her job and do I need a room mate to help save my house. (yeah give me a jobless room mate who I can’t stand please) When I get to the appointment with the director he tells me he has a meeting in 15 minutes. UGH! We agree to set a future appointment. She has the nerve to call sometime in the middle and tell me I need to get on the ball. I snapped at her telling her I have done everything asked of me on time. I asked her why I still have not had my appointment with the director. She informs me I was late to the appointment. THE ONE WHERE SHE WANTED TO GO SMOKE!?!?!?!

So I finally email my questions to the director and get an email back saying he is going on vacation and will take care of me when he gets back. He has been back over a week and I hear nothing. I email her, no response for a few days. I call to find out she hasn’t been in all week. School starts next week, there is no way for me to get into the classes on the start date we had decided. Now I can see why she is on the verge of being fired. I don’t want to get her fired but am so mad that she had the nerve to mess with my life in such a way. Do I go complain and get myself in there which means I have to wait til January now?! Do I let it go and look for a new school? Help! I feel bad contributing to anyone losing their job but I am so angry! What would you do? I know this is long. Thanks to anyone who even took the time to read.
Thanks for every answer so far. I probably shouldn’t say this but just to clear up that this certainly should not be a scam, this is The Art Institute. I won’t say of which city but it should certainly be a big enough school to not be scamming me.

I think this woman is overwhelmed by my special circumstances, being that it doesn’t follow the usual routine because I have lots of transfered credits, lots of life experience to test out of certain classes and the money is coming from TAA not traditional financial aid or private pay. Still this is no excuse but that should clear up a few things.

Question re:labourers, your opinion please?

Repost (originally posted in wrong catagory)

I have recently had the need to consider employing an additional labourer on my estate. My Personal Assistant takes care of the interviews and then puts forward a recommendation to me for approval.

The vacancy is a trivial one and requires no skills or educational qualifications. It is basically an odd job man (for want of a better description) to carry out duties like cleaning the steps, polishing the gates and brushing the stripes into the lawns etc.

My PA has put forward an applicant to me for consideration who cannot read or write (this is of no consequence). He (my PA) tells me that the applicant is currently in the service of a noble gentleman whom I know very well – I shall refer to him simply as ‘R’ for obvious reasons. The applicant has told my PA that his services are currently being provided without remuneration and that he is happy with being given accommodation and food – although he claims that the accommodation amounts to no more than permission to sleep in one of the cow sheds.

He continues to say that the reason he is seeking alternate employment is because ‘R’ is a prankster (I know this to be true) and he is tiring of the continual japes carried out on him by ‘R’ (many of which leave him injured him in some way). He claims that the last jape involved him becoming a projectile having been shot by cannon as they do in a circus act. ‘R’ had insisted that it was safe but then went on to charge the cannon with four times the amount of gunpowder as that used in the circus novelty act.

Now, I don’t mind the man being illiterate or malodorous, (he won’t be allowed in the house) but I really don’t think there is room in my organisation for someone who has no sense of humour.

Would you agree that a sense of humour is imperative in today’s workplace?