John is 38 years old. He is married and has a 10 year old son. He has been working in a warehouse driving a forklift for the past 10 years. John’s learning disabilities are in the areas of mathematics and memory.
6:30 am — As he does every day, John wakes up and immediately starts to go through his upcoming day in his head. Having a routine — doing the same things at the same time every day — helps him to make sure that he doesn’t forget anything.
7:30 am — John loves having breakfast with his wife and son. His son has recently been diagnosed with learning disabilities; he has difficulties in the areas of mathematics, memory and motor coordination. John can see a lot of similarities between himself and his son and he hopes that his son has fewer difficulties than he did growing up.
9:00 am — As soon as he gets into work, he is called into his bosses office. He’s worried that he’s done something wrong or forgotten to do something. He uses a lot of different strategies to help him remember everything that he has to do at work. He has made himself a checklist for every job that he has to do; he can then use that list to double check that he hasn’t forgotten anything. He has never told his boss or co-workers about his lists. As it is, they often tease him about his love of routine. When they do, he just makes a joke at his own expense.
10:00 am — John can’t believe what happened during his meeting with his boss. Instead of being reprimanded for doing something wrong, his boss praised him as a model employee who is always on time, who does his job well and who never complains about having to work overtime. Because of all of this, his boss offered him a promotion. John can’t believe that his boss thinks he could be the warehouse manager. John is flattered by his boss’s praise and knows that the extra money would come in very handy, but he’s worried that he won’t be able to do the job. In addition to a lot of other responsibilities, John would have to use a computer. He’s tried many times to use a computer — he has even taken a few computer courses — but he can’t understand how they work or how to use them. This new job also includes responsibility for the warehouse budget; something that John knows would be very hard for him to manage. He knows his boss thought it was strange that he didn’t immediately jump at the promotion. When John asked for a few days to make a decision, his boss looked at him funny and told him not to take too long to decide.
4:00 pm — John spent the rest of the day weighing the pros and cons of the new job. In addition to all of his other worries, he wonders how his boss will react if he turns down the promotion. He doesn’t want his boss to think that he doesn’t have any ambition. He also knows that his wife might pressure him to take the job. She doesn’t always understand his fears.
7:00 pm — John gets home from work late after going out for drinks with some of his co-workers. His wife is really upset with him. She was supposed to go to a movie with a friend at 6:30 and she had to cancel because he wasn’t home on time. She’s often upset with him. He knows that she carries more than her share of the load when it comes to helping their son with his school work. She also takes care of all of their household finances. He decides not to tell her about the possible promotion tonight. Maybe he’ll tell her tomorrow.
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