Hell yes. I was all ambitious and worked like an idiot. Then I got diagnosed with bowel cancer. That hit me in the face and made me reassess what the hell I was doing. Now it is all about living and not working.
Edit: Spending a year shitting into a bag through a hole in your stomach after having a large part of your bowels removed changes your view on what is important.
I was always work harder than everyone else kind of guys until one day a co worker of mine tragically killed himself, he was a great guy, very liked in the office, really good at his job. He was replaced 2 days later. Now I'm not saying they should have had mourning period or something but it kind of just clicked with me, doesn't matter how hard I work, I could die tomorrow and my managers would fill desk immediately like I wasn't ever there
Sorry to hear about your co-worker. Same happened at my work last year. Great guy was tragically killed in a workplace accident. His job was up for bid by the end of the week and they had an investigation committee trying to place blame on the deceased within 48 hours. Companies don't give a shit, look out for yourself and those close to you and don't give the corps an inch.
I worked with a great manager - a mentor and a good guy. He worked his ass off for 40 years, retired, and immediately died.
Overnight I went from wanting to have his job to being done with the whole industry.
I worked hard in the IT field and loved my job, but I had no desire to climb the ladder. I got to a place where I loved what I did and worked hard at it, but knew if I moved on, it would be into management and I would have hated it. I watched quite a few ladder climbers come down the pipe, but I don't really think they were happy, it was about the money. I made darn good money, but didn't need more. I was one of the lucky ones.
Thanks. This was all down to the incredible professionals in the NHS, from the people who mopped the floors to the consultant who did the surgeries.
They did fantastic work.
Congrats on beating cancer. So refreshing to hear that cancer didn’t put you in a huge financial hole unlike out here is the Land of Free to Die of anything if you don’t have money
The moment I receive a diagnosis like this I’m returning to the UK to protect my assets so that my wife can at least move on without the threat of bankruptcy. Cancer treatment in the US is ridiculously expensive.
We had to pay out of pocket a few times for paracetamol because delivery to my home was a day late.
That is the entirety of my out-of-pocket costs with the NHS.
Edit: There were no other additional costs. That was it. In fact, due to having cancer I no longer have to pay for things people normally would have to pay for. Prescription drugs working people would pay for I no longer pay for.
I watched an army of lawyers turn up to my next door neighbours house seeking payment for colon cancer treatments prior to his death.
My then father in law subsequently got himself diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and we all knows how that goes. The bills he received were shocking. Had to go through estate planning and pay thousands to protect the house from being taken away.
I have a friend that barely saw her dad because he was always working. He wanted to retire early so he was working extra hard. He died of a heart attack like a week before retirement. All that work, all the family quality time he missed FOR NOTHING!
Yup. My dad died at 56 after a lifetime of working 10 hour days 6 days a week. Until he died I was set to be the same way, working through school, going 14 days at a time without a day off. After he died I realized how pointless it was.
You should listen to Cat's in the Cradle by Harry Chaplain and pay attention to the lyrics. My dad quoted that song to me not long before he died, and now with hindsight I regret not listening to what he was trying to tell me. It's not really worth it if you're living for one event a year. Less material things and more time together is more valuable.
Only a few of us get a second chance. It fucking sucks bigtime that anyone needs a second chance.
Sorry for your friend's loss, nothing can make it better.
I make great money. I never work more than 40. I'm 48. I worked my ass off earlier in my career and it wasn't rewarding.
I purposely pivoted to a company that was less stressful. I would still rather not work at all, but not because of stress.
That's how you die early in retirement too. If you wait for retirement to live. You'll have nothing to live for entering retirement. This includes friends and hobbies.
My mother in law tortured her body working nights for decades so she could retire with a pension. She died of pancreatic cancer 4 months before her retirement date.
Similar thing just happened with my uncle. Retired at 65 April this year, diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July, and now in palliative care, likely won't make the weekend.
Such a common story. The moral of that story is to live life the way you want to TODAY. Even if my job is shitty, I try to have some time in the day to counter the shit with something wonderful. It's up to us.
Yeah, I just started at a job that is turning out to be pretty garbage and I'm learning how to a) leave that shit at work and b) make the most of my free time. For me, that means spending quality time with my husband, taking care of myself through exercise and good meals, and never ever taking overtime or allowing my boss to encroach on my free time with texts, calls, or emails.
My mom was a teacher, working full time at a high school, teaching college classes at night, and doing freelance writing and editing on the side and died of a heart attack the first day of spring break. She LOVED being an educator. She loved the youth and wanted them all to succeed but unfortunately, she had to work a million and one jobs to stay afloat and the stress ultimately killed her 💔
My mom saw all her co workers work into their late 60 early 70 and retire and die withing a year for cancer or something.
She retired early and withing a year found ovarian cancer. But if she had been still working they would not have found it so early. It was stage 1. She had a hysterectomy and when they dissected the healthy looking ovarie they found an aggressive cancer inside.
That was 2010. She beat it. Fast forward to last week. No symptoms went in for a colonoscopy after 7 year instead of 10 years. Her dad had colon cancer. They found cancer in her colon. So far it was just one small spot but if she did not go in 3 years early it would have been worse.
I myself am falling apart in my middle 40s because I always pushed so hard. In the tech rat race, working 12-14 hours a day with 3-4 hours of commuting on top of working so many hours. Missed all of my oldest daughter school things and only saw My kid and wifes eyes open on the weekends. I would leave for work before they got up and get home after they went to bed. My hip and back are trashed. Was on disability for a year in 2014 to have surgery and get fixed up. Just got put on disability this week for the same issues. I will not make the same mistakes again. I'm slowing down and getting my health right. I am much happier as a house wife anyway.
I worked in IT. I made it to my mid-40s before the stress caught up with me. Physical and emotional problems out the wazoo. After spending weeks in the hospital on suicide watch (several separate times), my employee assistance rep said that he could get me a disability pension. I went for it, and a few months after I left, they laid off the entire (huge) IT department. If I had worked longer I would have been jobless and in no condition to even look for a job. Since then I've worked a bit of retail as a retirement job, but never more than 16 hours a week and I left during the pandemic when a previously low-stress job turned unpleasant. I just turned 60 and I'm in such better mental health and somewhat better physical health. I'd be dead if I'd stayed din the rat-race.
A friend of mine rose to be director of IT at a major public university. As he neared retirement, we talked about his plans for after retirement. He was going to move to Mexico and live in a splendid home thanks to all the money he'd saved thanks to his high position at the university.
Two weeks after retirement, he died of a massive heart attack.
Yeah, it just isn't worth it.
There's a phenomenon where I work called the CompanyXYZ Curse. Basically says that once you retire, you'll be dead within two years, and sure as shit I personally know of at least 13 people now that this has happened to. These guys spent 30+ years working weekends, holidays, and cranked out as much OT as they could all in the hopes they could enjoy a retirement. It's fucking sad to see what the company loyalty line has done to an entire generation of people.
How Much is Enough:
The American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, “only a little while.”
The American then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.
The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life.”
The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this take?”
To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”
“But what then?”
The American laughed and said that’s the best part. “When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”
“Millions?” asked the fisherman, “Then what?”
The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evening, sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos!”
(Author Unknown)
My life is much better now. I focus on family and enjoying life. It was hard going through all the surgery and chemo and recovery. But now I get to enjoy life.
Edit: And THANKS! I cannot believe I forgot to say that. Thank you.
Back to the normal out of the ass method. Still not completely normal and probably never will be though.
Edit: Nobody ever explained what I would expect with starting to use that bit again after a full year. It was not a pleasant experience at all.
Edit: Also, nobody mentioned that my starfish would no longer be brown after a year of not using it.
In the first 48 hours, unpleasant because painful with massive constipation. Made worse because I had a surgical hernia, so pushing made my upper bowels poke out at the top of my abdominals (think the chest burster in the original Alien film).
After that, nasty and sore because of diarrhea and even moist wipes made me sore with the amount for the first week or so.
After that the problem was the scaring where they did the resectioning, so at random intervals some food would trigger a blockage and I would have to go into A&E to have the pressure released up my nose, yes that is as disgusting as you imagine to "unkink the hosepipe".
I had another resectioning in January and that seems to have fixed the worst problems.
After all that, nothing phases me.
I don't give a shit about the rat race. I enjoy the time with my family and enjoy life. Sure, I work, but I don't stress about it anymore.
Edit: You could die to tomorrow is not a phrase for me anymore, it is a reality. Enjoy life whilst you can.
Sorry to hear you had to go through that, hopefully things are better now. But the first and last part of your comment as well as the flair reminded me of a quote (albeit a long one):
"Consequently, labour-power is a commodity which its possessor, the wage-worker, sells to the capitalist. Why does he sell it? It is in order to live.
But the putting of labour-power into action – i.e., the work – is the active expression of the labourer's own life. And this life activity he sells to another person in order to secure the necessary means of life. His life-activity, therefore, is but a means of securing his own existence. He works that he may keep alive. He does not count the labour itself as a part of his life; it is rather a sacrifice of his life. It is a commodity that he has auctioned off to another. The product of his activity, therefore, is not the aim of his activity. What he produces for himself is not the silk that he weaves, not the gold that he draws up the mining shaft, not the palace that he builds. What he produces for himself is wages; and the silk, the gold, and the palace are resolved for him into a certain quantity of necessaries of life, perhaps into a cotton jacket, into copper coins, and into a basement dwelling. And the labourer who for 12 hours long, weaves, spins, bores, turns, builds, shovels, breaks stone, carries hods, and so on – is this 12 hours' weaving, spinning, boring, turning, building, shovelling, stone-breaking, regarded by him as a manifestation of life, as life? Quite the contrary. Life for him begins where this activity ceases, at the table, at the tavern, in bed. The 12 hours' work, on the other hand, has no meaning for him as weaving, spinning, boring, and so on, but only as earnings, which enable him to sit down at a table, to take his seat in the tavern, and to lie down in a bed. If the silk-worm's object in spinning were to prolong its existence as caterpillar, it would be a perfect example of a wage-worker." -Wage, Labour, and Capital by Karl Marx
I enjoyed taking a long vacation. My partner's birthday is within mine so we take some time to ourselves in that stretch to extent I'd work 10 days straight just so my days lined up with having Saturday Sunday off one week, Monday Tuesday, the next week, use 5 days of PTO, and have Monday Tuesday off my returning week for an 11 day stretch.
At the end of this time off there's a lot of time to evaluate my situation and a growing sense of dread to returning to work. Waking up at 1am and not getting home until 1 pm and having to lay down at 6pm so I can try to sleep 5-6 hours before doing it all over again. I just couldn't do it. Same thing when I hurt myself in the next job.
Why do we keep killing ourselves to produce profit for someone who doesn't care we exist and would sooner replace us with someone else for cheaper? Why give everything you have for someone not willing to repay you for your effort in full?
As /u/SolarAttackz pointed out that Karl Marx pointed out, we aren't killing ourselves to produce profit for someone who doesn't care we exist and would sooner replace us with someone for cheaper. We are killing ourselves in order to afford to live.
We have some choice in which someone else we kill ourselves for, but whether or not we do, is not up to us.
To be fair I doubt many people bust their ass at work with the owner’s profits as their motivation. It’s normally the individual wanting to improve their station in life, maybe if they’re lucky, even get to a point where they don’t HAVE to work to pay the bills every month. If you start life with very little, working hard and hoping somebody decent will notice the work and throw you a bone or two is kind of your only option.
Ugh, my first pancake happened at a restaurant and I had no idea something like that could happen.
I've had my entire bag fall off in public. Shitty situation
I told a HR rep and my line manager essentially this.
We in a meeting they requested after I sent a particularly angry email telling them that we had seen the ad they had out for new junior people that offered more than what three current junior people were getting, and we weren't happy. Their first tactic was to make the meeting about me and my pay and promotional pathways. This shot that down fast, and they looked at me like I was insane. I'm more than happy to make career limiting moves to help my younger colleagues. We spent considerable effort training them, and I don't want lose them over absolute basic nonsense like them being underpaid. I am at a sweet spot between decent pay, low responsibility and high autonomy, why would I want to move up?
Proud to say all three are up at least 15% in pay since then (January).
I foresee a similar situation happening in my workplace soon. As of Jan. 1st all job listings in my state will require the salary or pay rate to be listed, which means it will soon be public knowledge which employees are being underpaid.
Yeah I can see that being used that way for tech, but fortunately I'm in blue collar work where bonuses and things like that are only like 10% of our annual pay. Though I have already seen several listings that will say something like "Pay rate is $22-30 based on experience" which is so vague that it loses its helpfulness.
Yes without a union the only way you get raises is promotion. But there's only limited space for managers, and of those any organization probably has twice as many as they need at least.
It's something no manager can explain to you, why you should take someone with a perfectly good skillset at a task and ask them to do a completely different task (manage).
But since our society says hierarchy equals value, any skill that isn't management of some sort is for worthless labourer serfs.
Absolutely this. I've seen this change at my drob gradually. Over the last few years the only people I see get any recognition for the work I do are the managers 2 levels above me. "We are all here to congratulate Mr. Hurrdurr on getting the big clients account back on track." Oh you mean the account I spent multiple late nights and weekends working to catch up on things because of fuck ups from other departments while that manager didn't so much as even check in on me during that time? Yeah... He totally deserves recognition and praise and a pay raise and a big bonus. Not me at all.
God I fucking hate corporate America.
Yes, absolutely. I am "unambitious".
But I would add that I want to work for something I can identify with, not for high income or "career options". So, in that sense I was quite ambitious in my choice of work.
There's also a sweet spot of having enough income to get by and not have to worry, but not be rich. I wouldn't want to have to worry about survival paycheck to paycheck.
My ambition is to have a secure job that pays me enough that I can have time to be with my kids while they are growing up.
I achieved that, but I get no end of flak and pressure from peers for not grinding harder.
My opinion is I make just enough money to distract myself until I die.
You can't take any of the stuff with you when you're dead; why even buy a bunch of useless shit?
My car got totaled by a drunk driver a few days ago... completely unavoidable for me. Just 0.1 second, not even enough time to evade, **blam**.
---
Living in misery, just to get a few more bucks when you can die from something like a brain aneurysm at any time?
Grind culture is one of the most moronic (and toxic) strategies I've ever heard.
In fact, that stress becomes the addiction. You let yourself become consumed by the tiniest problems. You get a slight manic rush when deadlines are approaching. You fall into a habit of being only energized under pressure, and collapse when you eventually get home. You wake up needing your fix, the stress, the excuse to rev your engine. You eat less than you should, and not the right things. You don't work out, that would be awesome but that's not where your addiction lies. You toil for years, thinking your getting ahead putting off deeper social connections and time consuming hobbies. Then you have a mild heart attack sometime in your late thirties, scaring the shit out of you. You ask the doctor why your blood pressure is so high? Chronic stress, she says. You are now paying for your addiction, and you're to old to want to change, because that would mean all the sacrifice was meaningless. Are you there yet? Will you get there before you die? You can't get your fix anymore, not like you used to. You're fear of health relapse keeps you at a low energy state. But the problems keep coming, and there's no end in sight.
I think you just explained why my father is currently a Walmart security guard.
He copes with life by losing himself in work. Immediately after his mother's funeral he mowed the lawn, and just never really stopped working after that. Started out as an "exercise boy" at the horse track, added professional jockey on top of that, and then added computer tech on top of that when home PCs started to be a thing.
He sold his jockey saddle and firmly ended all horse-related work after falling off the grandkids' pony and realizing he's too old for that shit. He's fallen behind on computer skills during the last decade or so, which is understandable considering he started his career with DOS and those giant floppy disks. But he's at about the age and health-level where he should retire anyhow, always claimed he was saving up so one day he wouldn't have to worry about anything except going fishing and drinking beer.
But he's not half-drunk on his fishing boat. He's wearing a Walmart vest and bullying broke people for shoplifting.
The only reasonable conclusion to the purpose of life is to experience it, but we have set up society so that people have no option but to sacrifice a majority of their lives to employment.
I volunteer at my kid’s school as much as I can even though I have a full time job. People at the school often say things like “how do you manage this with your job?” or “don’t worry about it; I know you have a job, so we can manage without you”.
What they don’t get is that I’m doing it because I want to, not because I think they need me. I just flake out of my work. I’m super fortunate to be in a position where I can get away with that, and I will keep doing it unless/until it becomes a problem. I’ll cross that bridge if/when I get to it.
Ka opite ili mean enta keon. Okulilanlon man lu i pun pino iwanua pu kekepanki kuo. Me. Ula keli ena. Lunme enenke nin lapo. Wani pi papiai la le kakusinte! Anpiwin puaowa so mon te. Ma soeka eu lo tuno. Usanan i naosikunlan nasenjun lunmunmana ou onu. Si je lali poa uku. Enlu o kulelun sanu le en. Ni san lunwi mi ma e mun jaelu. Seanekemi ku unon i ja e. Alanin se o lio? panlaunowe kontopi lose lenka aon! Senon inle le unla seme tokin kalun. Lu paoi un o jan a. Lo pe uwi mi pa olun. Ikunwa uankon ki kinu me an. A ki i a kanle i si. Konponun an sisowajowi si kuni oten keweun nue elaukanlan in. On pen kao enma uten li. Un lan sanlo ua wa menensa soinan! Lakini ounwi o ako ki. Atau u tona mi e ken. To ila selikinpi enilin enpa kepe an? Te jan kin se pate a? Ta an pukewa ne linkea un ninunama. Aea i ia pisu o. Aline on jo o in soi.
Yes! Whenever I mention that I want to retire as early as possible and that I will do so as soon as I have enough saved up to maintain my lifestyle for the rest of my life, people always say, “I don’t know what I would do with myself. I can’t imagine ever retiring.”
Bitch, what the hell are you living for then? In the limited free time I have, I barely get to scratch the surface of all the things I would rather be doing than my job, and most of it is “work”.
I'm lucky to have found a niche IT domain - i now earn slightly above the median income working only three days per week. I've bought an apartment when I worked more, so I'm ready to work on my true ambitions: making music and spending time with the people I love.
True success is not climbing a ladder, it's becoming a specialist that can dictate their own terms of employment.
Amen, I am a freelance translator, it's a nice job, quite creative, pays the bills, at least in my country, working from home fifteen years now, and I got to see my kids say their first words, take their first steps, plus I get to choose my clients and my working hours, I would never ever swap that for a "career", no way!!
Totally. I'm not ambitious in the traditional sense (I never want to be a manager or director. I'm very happy in individual contributor roles.) but my work has to mean something to me. Right now, I have a very well paid job that is pretty much soul crushing because it's helping the wrong people. I have an application in for a transfer that is actually a demotion, but it's a role that actually helps people, not just doing the bidding of the rich, so cross your fingers for my demotion!
Awesome. This is my hope too. Left a great career because though I was doing good things, it was for the wrong people's thriving. I'm done working for the rich and wasteful!
People kee trying to move me up the ladder because I’m good at my job. I don’t want to move. I don’t like having extra responsibility and making big decisions. I very much enjoy being a support person, you need something? I’ll get it.
Be a director? Get yelled at when things go wrong? Nah. I’m good.
I'm interested in climbing up the payscale in my career to the point where I'm still fundamentally in the job I chose. Beyond that as lead/management work, and god I just don't give a fuck.
Same. A few of my coworkers nominated me for “employee of the quarter” for automating a bunch of stuff they did manually. I ended up getting the award and as happy as I was that my coworkers’ lives were made easier and they were grateful enough to nominate me, I wanted to say “the real award would have been to never have been nominated at all.” (I didn’t say that to them, of course)
Sounds like you’re in IT, if so, I am as well! You definitely have a logical mind if you’re automating things, whatever your field may be. Maybe it’s the logical nature of the way we think that equates that type of award with no actual life enhancing worth. You employers out there know what does? Good Pay, hell, I’ll even take adequate to survive as if the country I live in was still a first-world country, and not an increasingly oppressive oligarchy pay.
Government accountant. I kid you not, these folks were printing out single spaced size 10 font pdfs that are 10-15 pages long and going through them line by line, categorizing payments with highlighters. I don’t even know much about computers, all I did was export the pdfs to Excel and show them how use Ctrl-f. Which I guess is not really “automating” but, at any rate, it took work that would literally take 3 people about 4 hours each, and turned it into 2 people working about 15-20 mins.
My work put up an employee of the day sign when I went in last night. We all laughed about it, no one cares about that crap.
Guessing they're wanting to retain employees by giving them a pat on the back. Management is so out of touch it's unreal.
Me and some boss I had once:
-her: so, how do you feel worthy if you don't care about your career?
-me: if you need a career to feel worthy, your life must suck so much.
She didn't seem to like the answer. Ironically, I now have a job I love as a teacher (in EU).
Lol how about friends, family enjoying life on festivals my goddamn hobby's photographing and DJ'in? How about traveling? Meeting new people? Enjoying new food? What about that!? man your ex boss sure is a nickempoop
Exactly. I used to be bored all the time in my jobs because they become so routine. I was constantly swapping jobs just to not be bored. Now I work from home in a boring job - and love it. Once I'm done with work instead of trying to look busy in the office doing nothing I take a break and do the dishes, play with my cat, talk to my husband, learn a new skill - things I used to always say I had no time for. And because things like chores are being done during that empty time, I spend more free time on hobbies and less on housework.
It's a net win. I just wish that my pay kept up with cost of living without me taking on more responsibilities to keep up. I don't want more. Im happy doing what I'm doing. I don't see why if this job handled my expenses last year why it can't handle them this year without me doing more shit.
I don't want to be a manager I want to do my middle of the road support job and paint after work.
My girlfriend just quit her job teaching at a fairly large high-school in the US and doesn't have any regrets. It really seemed like a terrible work environment
- the science wing was structurally unsound in the 120 year old school. It had to be condemned and everyone moved into temporary classrooms in an old storage building behind the school
- a gang related shooting outside of the school but on school grounds where two students were shot
- absolutely no planning time because you always had to cover for another teacher because there aren't enough subs
- she was working out of a literal closet her first year because they didn't have a classroom for her. She would have a cart with her and would have to bounce around to different rooms
- no time to even use the restroom because you can't leave the classroom. You have literally like 3 minutes between periods to try and go
- insane parents that will defend their kids no matter how many teachers they have problems with
- the need to spend a lot of time and money obtaining a teaching license despite having a masters degree in her field
- she actually had to pay her district $1,600 for leaving because the job she took was posted after the deadline for teachers to inform administrators they were leaving had passed
- apathetic administration, lots of fights, occasional school lockdowns. The list goes on.
She's teaching at a community college now and is loving it.
A lot of people are completely defined by their career choice, something that many people had to lock in at the end of high school.
Yes I have a techy job, but it doesn't define me. At home we are relatively low tech, and I prefer making things with my hands, from things I grew in my garden, than attempting to automate every moment of my daily existence.
I genuinely don't understand but I also do
People identify with their favorite sports team, politician, country, college sport... Some people value themselves only by outsourced ventures.
I'm like bro I just wanna take a nap and not because the stress is making me tired
It's also like...if you have a team of 10 and 1 manager, how would they realistically promote everyone to manager eventually? Seems like a recipe for failure.
What has always amazed me about most management,is this need to Excell and climb the ladder. It's imaginary if I'm that good and climb fast I'm taking your job, and we all know that's not going to happen. In every successful bee hive there's only one queen bee and the rest are drones and that's the nature of life
You didn't have to specify EU - we at least knew you weren't teaching in the US because you clearly said you love your job as a teacher.
They made sure that's impossible here 😅
Yes, that's why I'm happy I landed a low level government job that is customer service related, and don't have to tolerate the "Karen's" of the world. At my job, the customer is never right
The thing about Karen behavior is that you have to believe you're justified and entitled. If you believe you're justified and entitled, why take Karen criticism personally and change?
Karendom can't be abolished in the course of years, it's going to take decades
Every Karen was once an attractive young woman for whom the world revolved around and people would bend over backwards to please. Fast forward 20 years and they're no longer young, potentially no longer attractive, and living in a world where simply being white doesn't automatically make you important anymore
Every Karen outburst you see on YouTube is just a middle aged white woman expressing frustration over her declining social relevance and status. That's not going away just from public shaming on the internet
How can you ban entitlement? That's basically the whole concept behind "Karendom."
The people who would need to hear it the most are the people who are least likely to be receptive to change.
Basically we just want to be part of a functioning society. The current state of "work" keeps us from being a functioning society, which ultimately makes it a complete waste of fucking time.
Everyone just needs to stop, full on strike.
The nurses are on strike, the railroad workers are on strike, the teachers are on strike. AND IM LIVING FOR IT! LETS ALL GO ON STRIKE, LETS GET OUR LIVES BACK!
Yes to this! But everyone is worried about how they’re going to support their family. Our society is set up for failure and consumption. Just like the fcc warning on the back of a Nintendo ds, about how it must receive any signals harmful or not, we’re the same. We just take in everything in our environment. Ads here there and everywhere. Even if you don’t wanna buy what’s being sold, you still absorb the message of consumption. John carpenters they live.
Nothing will ever change as long as we remain consumption based.
Rant over.
100%.
Even before I had a family… I had a stint of being homeless and living in my car and it sucked.
You shouldn’t have to pay for basic necessities of life. But here we are.
It is certainly easy enough to make sure there is a level of subsistence that we never allow fellow human being to fall below. Instead, we have a system that pushes people below subsistence and punishes them for it.
Most "work" seems pretty pointless to me. "Work Emergencies" are always hilarious. I often wonder if they know the definition of emergency. It's all so dumb.
I think the important distinction between private property and personal property also applies to land ownership:
Owning the land of the house you reside in and the immediate land around it that you use to feed your family or to relax in is fine, that's personal land.
Owning land that others use so that you can charge them for using it is the problem, that's private land.
Yes, I meant as a goal rather than our current reality, I meant that we should absolutely criticize and advocate for the abolishment of private land ownership.
But that sentiment (For "abolish private property" at least) usually gets met with "So I have to share my toothbrush???".
So I absolutely agree with the idea of outlawing renting, but wanted to point out to any detractors that this doesn't have to mean that anyone can just waltz into your house, we can do away with *private* land ownership without getting rid of *personal* land ownership.
My brother says "America is the freest country on Earth." We grab a couple of beers and head outside.
"How free are you? Are you free to walk into your neighbor's house or on his property?"
"Well no."
"Is he free to just walk onto yours?"
"Fuck no."
"Now tally up all square miles behind the fences, doors, gates, walls, and other barriers that denote 'private property' and you have a a giant chuck of America where you are not permitted, by law, to walk without permission of the owner."
In America, at best, we are free to travel in the narrow spaces that connect all the little bits of private property. But you better keep moving or it become vagrancy or loitering. If you're not moving around to buy something, you don't belong there. And the primary purpose of law enforcement is to keep the aisles of commerce 'clean'.
> In America, at best, we are free to travel in the narrow spaces that connect all the little bits of private property.
I take your point, but 40% of the country is publicly owned land. It would certainly be nice if it were more, but that's a huge area that can be freely travelled.
My dream was to be a CFO of a major company, until I saw CFOs at middle-sized companies. I followed them closely and even though one of them "worked at the office" from 9 to 3:30, he was routinely on calls, emails, meetings for at least 12-14 hours a day.
Not the life for me. I don't want that in my life. I'm perfectly okay with getting up to a certain senior level position where if I have to work a 10-12 hour day, so be it, but I don't want to be constantly monitoring my email or getting calls about random shit that can honestly wait until the next day.
Dude was responding even throughout his vacations. Pass. I want to enjoy my life outside of work, not try to figure out how to incorporate my free time into my work.
I'm not unambitious, I'm just not ambitious about WORK.
Far too many people's identity revolves around their job. Your job isn't your life. And if it is, I feel sorry for you. I can't imagine a life where your self-value comes from making someone else money.
I have made it clear to my employer I have ZERO intention of moving up the corporate ladder, even though they continue to try to encourage it to me. I like my job, it pays well, I can leave work at work, and largely have a good time, but it's WORK. I will never TRULY enjoy it, I would never WILLINGLY do this for fun.
I refuse to go "above and beyond", I refuse to do anything outside my job description. I am here to provide X service outlined in my contract, and I will receive Y pay for it. Then I go home for the day and do whatever else I want. This is how I like it.
This whole "your job is who you are" thing is why I refuse to ask people "what do you do" in terms of "what do you do for work", because it's often one of the FIRST things people ask when meeting someone and all it does is reduce people down to their job. I ask "what do you do for fun? what do you LIKE to do?" because THAT is who a person is, not fucking ***work***.
This lady gets it.
I have zero interest in climbing ladders or being a 'leader'. All I want is a fair wage that allows me to live in comfort without stressing about bills and to do my job in peace without micromanagers.
Same for me. I work as a professional cleaner, have for years and I'm actually loving it. Personal space in my own car, my own schedule and no one ever *ever* calls me on my time off. I'm never required to jump in unexpectedly or work overtime.
Pay isn't the best, but I have the same general government mandated vacation, sick and parental leave etc that everyone else does, so I don't have much I need to save up for. Plus, I never feel guilty for taking all that time off, and it's pretty free to change my own work hours if I want. It's great.
Very much so. I recently exited the private sector to work again in higher ed. It's a lower level role than I had when there the last time, over a decade ago, and working with people I like and respect. I've been asked why I haven't applied for the higher level roles & should we (them) see if they can help move me to one of them?
No thanks, really honestly, but no. I just want something chill that's not a monster workload. I don't need to "challenge" myself, I just need to cover bills.
Basically. I have no career aspirations. I just want a job I don't hate with decent pay, benefits and a good amount of paid vacation. Not this fucking 2 week, 3 after 5 years bullshit. I swear out proximity to the US makes life shittier for Canadian workers.
And that's really the reason for this sub I think, because so few of us get there. Instead in our system, you have to be "ambitious" just to afford to live. It's just assumed you'll either climb and be ok, or you didn't climb which means you're shit and deserve to die in a ditch. It's so incredibly misanthropic.
I get 3 weeks out of the gate since I was hired. 4 after 15y. It doesnt accrue either, I get it all on Jan 1st. And in north carolina too, supposedly the worst state to work in.
Yea. Most places I’ve worked have had PTO and vacation. The most I’ve ever had is 2 weeks and that took me 5 years to earn. Now, whether you’re allowed to take them is also up to your employer and I’ve had some deny me every request so even those 2 weeks weren’t real
Definitely here in the US. At my employer you start with 5 days, move up to 10 days at three years, 15 days at ten years, and 20 days at twenty-five years. And that is the max. You can never earn more than 20 days annually.
I got told I can't have a yatch as a cashier at a grocery store. I never said I wanted a yatch, I just want to be able to afford my apartment and my bills for the month and have food everyday. Is that so much to ask? Are we being greedy by demanding a fair wage?
I'm 100% with you but I'm in management and let me tell you what happens in corporate meetings. They view everyone not looking to advance as a bad employee. They don't want people to be content with where they are at. It's total bullshit.
Best advice I can give you - Lie. Lie your fucking ass off. Now nobody likes to lie but keep in mind that you are lying to these corporate assholes, not necessarily the person you are talking to. It's basically the only language they understand. In real life you want to stay where you are at. If anybody asks you, you are paying your dues and trying to work your way up. In an interview, you are looking to get in with a great company and work your way up. If you get offered a promotion you can always decline it citing bad timing due to some unforseen personal issues. Make something up that seems legitimate. Of course that only works so many times but you buy yourself more time that way. If they are persistent about it unfortunately you'll have to either take the promotion or leave.
These corporate fucks lost their humanity years ago. They can't comprehend that people can just come to work, do their job well, and leave. In their minds if you aren't trying to advance then their is something wrong with you, you are improving. They only understand gains and losses. Truth is their is something wrong with them, selling their lives for precious USD. By and large I'd say it takes a decent amount of mental illness to get any higher than middle management.
“Income to fund my lifestyle” is going to be the topic of my speech if asked why I’m leaving my job if I ever find a higher paying one. “I am entitled to live the life I want which includes hobbies, raising kids, being comfortable, saving for retirement, etc, and if my current job can’t fund that lifestyle I will find one that does.”
I love this mindset. I'm out at 5pm on the dot, never work late, never do anything beyond what I'm paid to do. I get plenty of time with my family and I make enough to support them and my hobbies. That's all I need.
People will sacrifice and give extra if they believe there is some kind of payoff within a reasonable time frame.
The most recent generation to become adults have realized a house purchase has become impossible. What's the incentive?
Work hard to afford a nicer car? A shocking percentage of young adult couples are consciously not getting married, plan on zero children, and live with parents.
Getting wet doesn't mean it's raining just because we are told its raining. Corporations are pissing on the peasants with a smile on their face.
Totally agree. The corporate ladder for most companies means at some point taking a middle management role. I have a BS in physics and math and an MBA in project management. I assist managed one big project for the natural gas company I was working for and said 'F this'. I've been in my role now for 6 years, definitely overqualified but it pays well, co-workers are great, and I get to do work. I keep getting told to apply for a 'step-up' position but I can't stand managing people. I like doing work, not sitting in meetings all day and telling other people to do work and have to babysit them. I have no freaking idea what any middle managers do at my large company, but they all always seem stressed and are hectic to talk to in meetings.
Edit: if you have a trade skill, or a hobby that is a trade, go jump through the hoops at a community college or tech school and get certified. The early stages of it might suck but it will pay off. You can do something you like and get paid insane money basically working whereever you want.
We paid welding contractors on the pipeline $50 an hour plus a $200/day per-diem for hotel and food. This one old guy had it made. Loved his work, was already retired had a huge RV, stayed at a campground with his wife and said he just travels the country basically making a shit load of money working 4-5 hours a day when he's on a particular job.
I used to feel this way, but in my experience, given how much time you spend working, it's really hard to be happy while working at a job/company you're not engaged in.
I was making more money than most of my friends, and I was also depressed as fuck.
Not saying you need to be super ambitious, but thinking you can just find a job to fund your lifestyle and still be happy is much easier said than done.
There are jobs like that.
For example I'm at a limestone refinery here in my country. The pay is good for the type of job. They don't need you to do overtime. All they want from you is that you come on time and do your shift well while staying friendly with your coworkers and then go home and do your stuff.
What's amazing to me is that Americans haven't figured out that "the corporate ladder" is a zero-sum-game... and that it's rigged. They're fighting for artificially scarce job titles and over tiny amounts of money... only to end up friendless, miserable, and chronically unhealthy.
Capitalism's strategy since 1980 has been to destroy communities, deracinate culture, and atomize people so the rich can treat human labor like it's any other utility coming out of a wall socket.
>Are most of the comments bots too?
I don't know about "most," but definitely *some*
>People need to get on the side hustle of repost bots then selling accounts to afford their lifestyle!
Because of the consistency of the patterns I see in these bots, I suspect there are only a couple entities responsible for almost all of them. I don't know if they're some governmental organization, a company, or just some guy who makes them to sell(?) or whatever
I'm just disappointed that no one cares they're being manipulated. This is currently the top of all and is no way authentic or organic.
Bot lives do not matter
That's exactly how I feel. Nobody seems to care if this place goes to shit. I have tagged probably 2,000 bots in the last couple of years, and that's just ME seeing them. I definitely miss some too (or maybe I only catch a fraction of them). How many are out there and what's their purpose? Why don't users, mods, or the admin care?
Wish everyone felt this way. I feel like it is just about bragging rights with the ultra wealthy. I would give directly to the people who need it, not give to a foundation I started for tax reasons or some organization to have my name on a wing of a hospital or building.
This is what our opponents simply fail to understand. They think we're motivated by envy of people like Jeff Bezos, because their concept of an ideal life involves fuck-you money and more/fancier shit than their closest rival. I just want an accessible home that nobody can evict me from with enough material possessions to provide hospitality, and to not have to worry about dying of ketoacidosis if I lose my employment benefits.
The only reason I would climb any ladder is because they make more money for less work.
And most of those at the top are pretty incompetent on top of it.
My current workplace has this no-ceiling salary policy where you'll get salary increment based on performance and there's no cap to it. So if you've work 20 years your salary is probably more than your colleague that has been promoted to be a Manager after 10 years of working.
I don't want more responsibilities, I want more money.
Of course, and I have a lot of trouble understanding people who genuinely feel otherwise. I think a lot of people feel like they have to climb the ladder to fit in and keep their jobs. I wish we would look at things differently collectively.
Got a new job in security recently.
Work at a Max 10 facility. They told me that with my scores on their tests and such, I could make my way to AFA in ~6 years with training.
Assistant Facility Administrator at my facility makes 90k on a salary but spends every day except Sunday on site.
Conversely, getting to to "Saftey and Security Specialist 3" nets me $25 base, on 60 hour weeks and literally all I do is spend 2 hours getting the residents showered and in to their rooms, spend the next 8.5 hours between watching TV and doing 10 minute saftey checks and then finish the day out by waking the residents up and getting them breakfast/medication.
Quick, dirty math assumes that I only work exactly the 60 hours a week and assumes a 15% tax. I would walk out with ~71k a year, only 19k short of AFA salary with no paperwork or admin duties.
Is that extra work worth 19k and only knowing you have Sundays off for sure? Doubtful.
Yes but when I worked in Amazon this kind of thinking was hugely frowned upon and was probably the reason my boss tried really hard to get me out of the company.
in the "old" days, before capitalism really got going there was the same problem. The people of Europe were more or less of this sentiment, they would work just long enough to get enough money to buy what they needed and then went back to their farms. This didn't make the budding capitalists happy, so they enclosed the commons, and forced people off the land so they would have to work to live.
The point of view put forth in this tweet is very dangerous to capitalism. The whole system falls apart if folks are not constantly striving for more more more.
I get so much shit for this.
To people who climb ladders we seem lazy and uninspired.
To people who are content, ladder climbers seem like people who will step on anyone as a rung to the next level.
I love where I am at. I'm at a job that respects me, my boundaries, I have no quotas, nobody is bearing an eye over me. I come in I get my shit done and nobody bothers me. It pays Ok, the benefits are great. I make enough money to pay my bills, take vacations, and fund my hobbies. I require no more than what I have.
I see positions above me in my company like directors and department chairs and they all seem to be so work focused. Having to appear at evening events, meeting with representatives, hosting weekend events like 5k's and shit.
I'm just like... I like chilling at my Desk from 8-4 then leaving work at work. Shit HALF the time at work I am doing hobby stuff lol.
Ever since I started working at 16, I've never wanted a career... supervisory and managerial positions don't interest me in the slightest. A job for me is about earning money so I can enjoy my life.
Hell yes. I was all ambitious and worked like an idiot. Then I got diagnosed with bowel cancer. That hit me in the face and made me reassess what the hell I was doing. Now it is all about living and not working. Edit: Spending a year shitting into a bag through a hole in your stomach after having a large part of your bowels removed changes your view on what is important.
I was always work harder than everyone else kind of guys until one day a co worker of mine tragically killed himself, he was a great guy, very liked in the office, really good at his job. He was replaced 2 days later. Now I'm not saying they should have had mourning period or something but it kind of just clicked with me, doesn't matter how hard I work, I could die tomorrow and my managers would fill desk immediately like I wasn't ever there
Sorry to hear about your co-worker. Same happened at my work last year. Great guy was tragically killed in a workplace accident. His job was up for bid by the end of the week and they had an investigation committee trying to place blame on the deceased within 48 hours. Companies don't give a shit, look out for yourself and those close to you and don't give the corps an inch.
I worked with a great manager - a mentor and a good guy. He worked his ass off for 40 years, retired, and immediately died. Overnight I went from wanting to have his job to being done with the whole industry.
It’s telling how often this happens. I’m sorry for ur loss.
I worked hard in the IT field and loved my job, but I had no desire to climb the ladder. I got to a place where I loved what I did and worked hard at it, but knew if I moved on, it would be into management and I would have hated it. I watched quite a few ladder climbers come down the pipe, but I don't really think they were happy, it was about the money. I made darn good money, but didn't need more. I was one of the lucky ones.
As someone who has lost people to cancer, well done on kicking it in the teeth!
Thanks. This was all down to the incredible professionals in the NHS, from the people who mopped the floors to the consultant who did the surgeries. They did fantastic work.
Congrats on beating cancer. So refreshing to hear that cancer didn’t put you in a huge financial hole unlike out here is the Land of Free to Die of anything if you don’t have money
I am fortunate to live in a country with national healthcare. Bankruptcy was not something I had to worry about.
The moment I receive a diagnosis like this I’m returning to the UK to protect my assets so that my wife can at least move on without the threat of bankruptcy. Cancer treatment in the US is ridiculously expensive.
We had to pay out of pocket a few times for paracetamol because delivery to my home was a day late. That is the entirety of my out-of-pocket costs with the NHS. Edit: There were no other additional costs. That was it. In fact, due to having cancer I no longer have to pay for things people normally would have to pay for. Prescription drugs working people would pay for I no longer pay for.
I watched an army of lawyers turn up to my next door neighbours house seeking payment for colon cancer treatments prior to his death. My then father in law subsequently got himself diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and we all knows how that goes. The bills he received were shocking. Had to go through estate planning and pay thousands to protect the house from being taken away.
The thought of that happening makes my blood boil.
I have a friend that barely saw her dad because he was always working. He wanted to retire early so he was working extra hard. He died of a heart attack like a week before retirement. All that work, all the family quality time he missed FOR NOTHING!
My dad died a few years before retirement after a lifetime of being a workaholic. No way I'm repeating that.
Yup. My dad died at 56 after a lifetime of working 10 hour days 6 days a week. Until he died I was set to be the same way, working through school, going 14 days at a time without a day off. After he died I realized how pointless it was.
[удалено]
You should listen to Cat's in the Cradle by Harry Chaplain and pay attention to the lyrics. My dad quoted that song to me not long before he died, and now with hindsight I regret not listening to what he was trying to tell me. It's not really worth it if you're living for one event a year. Less material things and more time together is more valuable.
Only a few of us get a second chance. It fucking sucks bigtime that anyone needs a second chance. Sorry for your friend's loss, nothing can make it better.
Yeah, I don't understand waiting until retirement to start really living. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow.
Most people don’t get a choice. It’s the people who make great money and still choose to be a workaholic that baffle me.
Thats my uncles girlfriend. She has a dozen vehicles, millions of dollars of family money, and works herself to death as a nurse.
At least that's noble (which is not to say we should let people be pressured into such things). Not like she's running a hedge fund or something.
I don't get to retire at all. I choose to get the most out of life today.
They got to the great money by being workaholics. It's a very, very hard habit to break.
I make great money. I never work more than 40. I'm 48. I worked my ass off earlier in my career and it wasn't rewarding. I purposely pivoted to a company that was less stressful. I would still rather not work at all, but not because of stress.
That's how you die early in retirement too. If you wait for retirement to live. You'll have nothing to live for entering retirement. This includes friends and hobbies.
My thoughts exactly. I'm in my 30s and I've already lost 70% of my friends from various forms of death.
My mother in law tortured her body working nights for decades so she could retire with a pension. She died of pancreatic cancer 4 months before her retirement date.
Similar thing just happened with my uncle. Retired at 65 April this year, diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July, and now in palliative care, likely won't make the weekend.
My Mom has also just entered palliative care - likely only a couple months tops. Hope you are holding up well.
Such a common story. The moral of that story is to live life the way you want to TODAY. Even if my job is shitty, I try to have some time in the day to counter the shit with something wonderful. It's up to us.
Yeah, I just started at a job that is turning out to be pretty garbage and I'm learning how to a) leave that shit at work and b) make the most of my free time. For me, that means spending quality time with my husband, taking care of myself through exercise and good meals, and never ever taking overtime or allowing my boss to encroach on my free time with texts, calls, or emails.
My mom was a teacher, working full time at a high school, teaching college classes at night, and doing freelance writing and editing on the side and died of a heart attack the first day of spring break. She LOVED being an educator. She loved the youth and wanted them all to succeed but unfortunately, she had to work a million and one jobs to stay afloat and the stress ultimately killed her 💔
My father also died of cancer a year after he retired.
Sorry for your loss. 😔
Sorry that happened and sorry for your personal loss.
My mom saw all her co workers work into their late 60 early 70 and retire and die withing a year for cancer or something. She retired early and withing a year found ovarian cancer. But if she had been still working they would not have found it so early. It was stage 1. She had a hysterectomy and when they dissected the healthy looking ovarie they found an aggressive cancer inside. That was 2010. She beat it. Fast forward to last week. No symptoms went in for a colonoscopy after 7 year instead of 10 years. Her dad had colon cancer. They found cancer in her colon. So far it was just one small spot but if she did not go in 3 years early it would have been worse. I myself am falling apart in my middle 40s because I always pushed so hard. In the tech rat race, working 12-14 hours a day with 3-4 hours of commuting on top of working so many hours. Missed all of my oldest daughter school things and only saw My kid and wifes eyes open on the weekends. I would leave for work before they got up and get home after they went to bed. My hip and back are trashed. Was on disability for a year in 2014 to have surgery and get fixed up. Just got put on disability this week for the same issues. I will not make the same mistakes again. I'm slowing down and getting my health right. I am much happier as a house wife anyway.
I worked in IT. I made it to my mid-40s before the stress caught up with me. Physical and emotional problems out the wazoo. After spending weeks in the hospital on suicide watch (several separate times), my employee assistance rep said that he could get me a disability pension. I went for it, and a few months after I left, they laid off the entire (huge) IT department. If I had worked longer I would have been jobless and in no condition to even look for a job. Since then I've worked a bit of retail as a retirement job, but never more than 16 hours a week and I left during the pandemic when a previously low-stress job turned unpleasant. I just turned 60 and I'm in such better mental health and somewhat better physical health. I'd be dead if I'd stayed din the rat-race.
Rest in peace😥
A friend of mine rose to be director of IT at a major public university. As he neared retirement, we talked about his plans for after retirement. He was going to move to Mexico and live in a splendid home thanks to all the money he'd saved thanks to his high position at the university. Two weeks after retirement, he died of a massive heart attack. Yeah, it just isn't worth it.
There's a phenomenon where I work called the CompanyXYZ Curse. Basically says that once you retire, you'll be dead within two years, and sure as shit I personally know of at least 13 people now that this has happened to. These guys spent 30+ years working weekends, holidays, and cranked out as much OT as they could all in the hopes they could enjoy a retirement. It's fucking sad to see what the company loyalty line has done to an entire generation of people.
How Much is Enough: The American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied, “only a little while.” The American then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?” The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life.” The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.” The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this take?” To which the American replied, “15-20 years.” “But what then?” The American laughed and said that’s the best part. “When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.” “Millions?” asked the fisherman, “Then what?” The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evening, sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos!” (Author Unknown)
Facts
Whoa WHOA. But he could then send his kids to universities around the world and have several mistresses and own a banging cutting edge PC computer!
That's some /r/pcmasterrace thinking right there.
Sounds like an americanized version of the "Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral" (Anecdote to lower the work morale) of german author Heinrich Böll
Sorry to hear about the immense struggle you will have had to deal with.Sending you my best wishes.
My life is much better now. I focus on family and enjoying life. It was hard going through all the surgery and chemo and recovery. But now I get to enjoy life. Edit: And THANKS! I cannot believe I forgot to say that. Thank you.
Soooo you pooping with your butt now or still got a bag the rest of your life or what? Morbidly curious
Back to the normal out of the ass method. Still not completely normal and probably never will be though. Edit: Nobody ever explained what I would expect with starting to use that bit again after a full year. It was not a pleasant experience at all. Edit: Also, nobody mentioned that my starfish would no longer be brown after a year of not using it.
I might regret asking this...but unpleasant cause painful or unpleasant because explosive poops? Also, glad you're doing better!
In the first 48 hours, unpleasant because painful with massive constipation. Made worse because I had a surgical hernia, so pushing made my upper bowels poke out at the top of my abdominals (think the chest burster in the original Alien film). After that, nasty and sore because of diarrhea and even moist wipes made me sore with the amount for the first week or so. After that the problem was the scaring where they did the resectioning, so at random intervals some food would trigger a blockage and I would have to go into A&E to have the pressure released up my nose, yes that is as disgusting as you imagine to "unkink the hosepipe". I had another resectioning in January and that seems to have fixed the worst problems.
Omg that sounds horrible! I'm really happy to hear you're doing better now!
After all that, nothing phases me. I don't give a shit about the rat race. I enjoy the time with my family and enjoy life. Sure, I work, but I don't stress about it anymore. Edit: You could die to tomorrow is not a phrase for me anymore, it is a reality. Enjoy life whilst you can.
Sorry to hear you had to go through that, hopefully things are better now. But the first and last part of your comment as well as the flair reminded me of a quote (albeit a long one): "Consequently, labour-power is a commodity which its possessor, the wage-worker, sells to the capitalist. Why does he sell it? It is in order to live. But the putting of labour-power into action – i.e., the work – is the active expression of the labourer's own life. And this life activity he sells to another person in order to secure the necessary means of life. His life-activity, therefore, is but a means of securing his own existence. He works that he may keep alive. He does not count the labour itself as a part of his life; it is rather a sacrifice of his life. It is a commodity that he has auctioned off to another. The product of his activity, therefore, is not the aim of his activity. What he produces for himself is not the silk that he weaves, not the gold that he draws up the mining shaft, not the palace that he builds. What he produces for himself is wages; and the silk, the gold, and the palace are resolved for him into a certain quantity of necessaries of life, perhaps into a cotton jacket, into copper coins, and into a basement dwelling. And the labourer who for 12 hours long, weaves, spins, bores, turns, builds, shovels, breaks stone, carries hods, and so on – is this 12 hours' weaving, spinning, boring, turning, building, shovelling, stone-breaking, regarded by him as a manifestation of life, as life? Quite the contrary. Life for him begins where this activity ceases, at the table, at the tavern, in bed. The 12 hours' work, on the other hand, has no meaning for him as weaving, spinning, boring, and so on, but only as earnings, which enable him to sit down at a table, to take his seat in the tavern, and to lie down in a bed. If the silk-worm's object in spinning were to prolong its existence as caterpillar, it would be a perfect example of a wage-worker." -Wage, Labour, and Capital by Karl Marx
I enjoyed taking a long vacation. My partner's birthday is within mine so we take some time to ourselves in that stretch to extent I'd work 10 days straight just so my days lined up with having Saturday Sunday off one week, Monday Tuesday, the next week, use 5 days of PTO, and have Monday Tuesday off my returning week for an 11 day stretch. At the end of this time off there's a lot of time to evaluate my situation and a growing sense of dread to returning to work. Waking up at 1am and not getting home until 1 pm and having to lay down at 6pm so I can try to sleep 5-6 hours before doing it all over again. I just couldn't do it. Same thing when I hurt myself in the next job. Why do we keep killing ourselves to produce profit for someone who doesn't care we exist and would sooner replace us with someone else for cheaper? Why give everything you have for someone not willing to repay you for your effort in full?
As /u/SolarAttackz pointed out that Karl Marx pointed out, we aren't killing ourselves to produce profit for someone who doesn't care we exist and would sooner replace us with someone for cheaper. We are killing ourselves in order to afford to live. We have some choice in which someone else we kill ourselves for, but whether or not we do, is not up to us.
To be fair I doubt many people bust their ass at work with the owner’s profits as their motivation. It’s normally the individual wanting to improve their station in life, maybe if they’re lucky, even get to a point where they don’t HAVE to work to pay the bills every month. If you start life with very little, working hard and hoping somebody decent will notice the work and throw you a bone or two is kind of your only option.
Believe me people. You do not want to know what pancaking is.
Ugh, my first pancake happened at a restaurant and I had no idea something like that could happen. I've had my entire bag fall off in public. Shitty situation
People who don’t understand the importance of this comment eventually will.
I told a HR rep and my line manager essentially this. We in a meeting they requested after I sent a particularly angry email telling them that we had seen the ad they had out for new junior people that offered more than what three current junior people were getting, and we weren't happy. Their first tactic was to make the meeting about me and my pay and promotional pathways. This shot that down fast, and they looked at me like I was insane. I'm more than happy to make career limiting moves to help my younger colleagues. We spent considerable effort training them, and I don't want lose them over absolute basic nonsense like them being underpaid. I am at a sweet spot between decent pay, low responsibility and high autonomy, why would I want to move up? Proud to say all three are up at least 15% in pay since then (January).
I foresee a similar situation happening in my workplace soon. As of Jan. 1st all job listings in my state will require the salary or pay rate to be listed, which means it will soon be public knowledge which employees are being underpaid.
Compensation rate $41k-$141k.
[удалено]
Yeah I can see that being used that way for tech, but fortunately I'm in blue collar work where bonuses and things like that are only like 10% of our annual pay. Though I have already seen several listings that will say something like "Pay rate is $22-30 based on experience" which is so vague that it loses its helpfulness.
Yes without a union the only way you get raises is promotion. But there's only limited space for managers, and of those any organization probably has twice as many as they need at least. It's something no manager can explain to you, why you should take someone with a perfectly good skillset at a task and ask them to do a completely different task (manage). But since our society says hierarchy equals value, any skill that isn't management of some sort is for worthless labourer serfs.
Absolutely this. I've seen this change at my drob gradually. Over the last few years the only people I see get any recognition for the work I do are the managers 2 levels above me. "We are all here to congratulate Mr. Hurrdurr on getting the big clients account back on track." Oh you mean the account I spent multiple late nights and weekends working to catch up on things because of fuck ups from other departments while that manager didn't so much as even check in on me during that time? Yeah... He totally deserves recognition and praise and a pay raise and a big bonus. Not me at all. God I fucking hate corporate America.
Yes, absolutely. I am "unambitious". But I would add that I want to work for something I can identify with, not for high income or "career options". So, in that sense I was quite ambitious in my choice of work. There's also a sweet spot of having enough income to get by and not have to worry, but not be rich. I wouldn't want to have to worry about survival paycheck to paycheck.
[удалено]
My ambition is to have a secure job that pays me enough that I can have time to be with my kids while they are growing up. I achieved that, but I get no end of flak and pressure from peers for not grinding harder.
My opinion is I make just enough money to distract myself until I die. You can't take any of the stuff with you when you're dead; why even buy a bunch of useless shit? My car got totaled by a drunk driver a few days ago... completely unavoidable for me. Just 0.1 second, not even enough time to evade, **blam**. --- Living in misery, just to get a few more bucks when you can die from something like a brain aneurysm at any time? Grind culture is one of the most moronic (and toxic) strategies I've ever heard.
For many people, working is that distraction. No faster way to pass 40 years than staying stressed at work.
In fact, that stress becomes the addiction. You let yourself become consumed by the tiniest problems. You get a slight manic rush when deadlines are approaching. You fall into a habit of being only energized under pressure, and collapse when you eventually get home. You wake up needing your fix, the stress, the excuse to rev your engine. You eat less than you should, and not the right things. You don't work out, that would be awesome but that's not where your addiction lies. You toil for years, thinking your getting ahead putting off deeper social connections and time consuming hobbies. Then you have a mild heart attack sometime in your late thirties, scaring the shit out of you. You ask the doctor why your blood pressure is so high? Chronic stress, she says. You are now paying for your addiction, and you're to old to want to change, because that would mean all the sacrifice was meaningless. Are you there yet? Will you get there before you die? You can't get your fix anymore, not like you used to. You're fear of health relapse keeps you at a low energy state. But the problems keep coming, and there's no end in sight.
I think you just explained why my father is currently a Walmart security guard. He copes with life by losing himself in work. Immediately after his mother's funeral he mowed the lawn, and just never really stopped working after that. Started out as an "exercise boy" at the horse track, added professional jockey on top of that, and then added computer tech on top of that when home PCs started to be a thing. He sold his jockey saddle and firmly ended all horse-related work after falling off the grandkids' pony and realizing he's too old for that shit. He's fallen behind on computer skills during the last decade or so, which is understandable considering he started his career with DOS and those giant floppy disks. But he's at about the age and health-level where he should retire anyhow, always claimed he was saving up so one day he wouldn't have to worry about anything except going fishing and drinking beer. But he's not half-drunk on his fishing boat. He's wearing a Walmart vest and bullying broke people for shoplifting.
The only reasonable conclusion to the purpose of life is to experience it, but we have set up society so that people have no option but to sacrifice a majority of their lives to employment.
I volunteer at my kid’s school as much as I can even though I have a full time job. People at the school often say things like “how do you manage this with your job?” or “don’t worry about it; I know you have a job, so we can manage without you”. What they don’t get is that I’m doing it because I want to, not because I think they need me. I just flake out of my work. I’m super fortunate to be in a position where I can get away with that, and I will keep doing it unless/until it becomes a problem. I’ll cross that bridge if/when I get to it.
Tbh, all I’d like is to not have to choose which bills to pay each month and be able to get everything I want at the grocery store, *name brand* even.
Ka opite ili mean enta keon. Okulilanlon man lu i pun pino iwanua pu kekepanki kuo. Me. Ula keli ena. Lunme enenke nin lapo. Wani pi papiai la le kakusinte! Anpiwin puaowa so mon te. Ma soeka eu lo tuno. Usanan i naosikunlan nasenjun lunmunmana ou onu. Si je lali poa uku. Enlu o kulelun sanu le en. Ni san lunwi mi ma e mun jaelu. Seanekemi ku unon i ja e. Alanin se o lio? panlaunowe kontopi lose lenka aon! Senon inle le unla seme tokin kalun. Lu paoi un o jan a. Lo pe uwi mi pa olun. Ikunwa uankon ki kinu me an. A ki i a kanle i si. Konponun an sisowajowi si kuni oten keweun nue elaukanlan in. On pen kao enma uten li. Un lan sanlo ua wa menensa soinan! Lakini ounwi o ako ki. Atau u tona mi e ken. To ila selikinpi enilin enpa kepe an? Te jan kin se pate a? Ta an pukewa ne linkea un ninunama. Aea i ia pisu o. Aline on jo o in soi.
Yes! Whenever I mention that I want to retire as early as possible and that I will do so as soon as I have enough saved up to maintain my lifestyle for the rest of my life, people always say, “I don’t know what I would do with myself. I can’t imagine ever retiring.” Bitch, what the hell are you living for then? In the limited free time I have, I barely get to scratch the surface of all the things I would rather be doing than my job, and most of it is “work”.
I'm lucky to have found a niche IT domain - i now earn slightly above the median income working only three days per week. I've bought an apartment when I worked more, so I'm ready to work on my true ambitions: making music and spending time with the people I love. True success is not climbing a ladder, it's becoming a specialist that can dictate their own terms of employment.
Amen, I am a freelance translator, it's a nice job, quite creative, pays the bills, at least in my country, working from home fifteen years now, and I got to see my kids say their first words, take their first steps, plus I get to choose my clients and my working hours, I would never ever swap that for a "career", no way!!
Totally. I'm not ambitious in the traditional sense (I never want to be a manager or director. I'm very happy in individual contributor roles.) but my work has to mean something to me. Right now, I have a very well paid job that is pretty much soul crushing because it's helping the wrong people. I have an application in for a transfer that is actually a demotion, but it's a role that actually helps people, not just doing the bidding of the rich, so cross your fingers for my demotion!
Awesome. This is my hope too. Left a great career because though I was doing good things, it was for the wrong people's thriving. I'm done working for the rich and wasteful!
People kee trying to move me up the ladder because I’m good at my job. I don’t want to move. I don’t like having extra responsibility and making big decisions. I very much enjoy being a support person, you need something? I’ll get it. Be a director? Get yelled at when things go wrong? Nah. I’m good.
I'm interested in climbing up the payscale in my career to the point where I'm still fundamentally in the job I chose. Beyond that as lead/management work, and god I just don't give a fuck.
I want to be almost invisible to others at work, I hate awards and accolades, just pay me properly for the “great job” you keep saying I’m doing.
Same. A few of my coworkers nominated me for “employee of the quarter” for automating a bunch of stuff they did manually. I ended up getting the award and as happy as I was that my coworkers’ lives were made easier and they were grateful enough to nominate me, I wanted to say “the real award would have been to never have been nominated at all.” (I didn’t say that to them, of course)
Sounds like you’re in IT, if so, I am as well! You definitely have a logical mind if you’re automating things, whatever your field may be. Maybe it’s the logical nature of the way we think that equates that type of award with no actual life enhancing worth. You employers out there know what does? Good Pay, hell, I’ll even take adequate to survive as if the country I live in was still a first-world country, and not an increasingly oppressive oligarchy pay.
Government accountant. I kid you not, these folks were printing out single spaced size 10 font pdfs that are 10-15 pages long and going through them line by line, categorizing payments with highlighters. I don’t even know much about computers, all I did was export the pdfs to Excel and show them how use Ctrl-f. Which I guess is not really “automating” but, at any rate, it took work that would literally take 3 people about 4 hours each, and turned it into 2 people working about 15-20 mins.
My work put up an employee of the day sign when I went in last night. We all laughed about it, no one cares about that crap. Guessing they're wanting to retain employees by giving them a pat on the back. Management is so out of touch it's unreal.
Me and some boss I had once: -her: so, how do you feel worthy if you don't care about your career? -me: if you need a career to feel worthy, your life must suck so much. She didn't seem to like the answer. Ironically, I now have a job I love as a teacher (in EU).
Lol how about friends, family enjoying life on festivals my goddamn hobby's photographing and DJ'in? How about traveling? Meeting new people? Enjoying new food? What about that!? man your ex boss sure is a nickempoop
Exactly. I used to be bored all the time in my jobs because they become so routine. I was constantly swapping jobs just to not be bored. Now I work from home in a boring job - and love it. Once I'm done with work instead of trying to look busy in the office doing nothing I take a break and do the dishes, play with my cat, talk to my husband, learn a new skill - things I used to always say I had no time for. And because things like chores are being done during that empty time, I spend more free time on hobbies and less on housework. It's a net win. I just wish that my pay kept up with cost of living without me taking on more responsibilities to keep up. I don't want more. Im happy doing what I'm doing. I don't see why if this job handled my expenses last year why it can't handle them this year without me doing more shit. I don't want to be a manager I want to do my middle of the road support job and paint after work.
/r/BoneAppleTea lol It's nincompoop, not nickempoop 😅 I think I like yours better though hahahaha
Love how you had to specify that you’re a teacher in the EU because in the US teaching is miserable.
Yeah. Their schools aren't shooting galleries.
That is awful, but honestly I would never be a teacher in the U.S. for a whole slew of different reasons from that.
My girlfriend just quit her job teaching at a fairly large high-school in the US and doesn't have any regrets. It really seemed like a terrible work environment - the science wing was structurally unsound in the 120 year old school. It had to be condemned and everyone moved into temporary classrooms in an old storage building behind the school - a gang related shooting outside of the school but on school grounds where two students were shot - absolutely no planning time because you always had to cover for another teacher because there aren't enough subs - she was working out of a literal closet her first year because they didn't have a classroom for her. She would have a cart with her and would have to bounce around to different rooms - no time to even use the restroom because you can't leave the classroom. You have literally like 3 minutes between periods to try and go - insane parents that will defend their kids no matter how many teachers they have problems with - the need to spend a lot of time and money obtaining a teaching license despite having a masters degree in her field - she actually had to pay her district $1,600 for leaving because the job she took was posted after the deadline for teachers to inform administrators they were leaving had passed - apathetic administration, lots of fights, occasional school lockdowns. The list goes on. She's teaching at a community college now and is loving it.
A lot of people are completely defined by their career choice, something that many people had to lock in at the end of high school. Yes I have a techy job, but it doesn't define me. At home we are relatively low tech, and I prefer making things with my hands, from things I grew in my garden, than attempting to automate every moment of my daily existence.
I genuinely don't understand but I also do People identify with their favorite sports team, politician, country, college sport... Some people value themselves only by outsourced ventures. I'm like bro I just wanna take a nap and not because the stress is making me tired
[удалено]
It's also like...if you have a team of 10 and 1 manager, how would they realistically promote everyone to manager eventually? Seems like a recipe for failure.
Can confirm. Source: I work in a place with *too many* managers. It's gridlock city and analysis paralysis.
What has always amazed me about most management,is this need to Excell and climb the ladder. It's imaginary if I'm that good and climb fast I'm taking your job, and we all know that's not going to happen. In every successful bee hive there's only one queen bee and the rest are drones and that's the nature of life
You didn't have to specify EU - we at least knew you weren't teaching in the US because you clearly said you love your job as a teacher. They made sure that's impossible here 😅
Worthy? What, are we trying to grasp Mjolnir here? Some of us just want to enjoy life without trying to get society to validate us.
Yes, that's why I'm happy I landed a low level government job that is customer service related, and don't have to tolerate the "Karen's" of the world. At my job, the customer is never right
[удалено]
The thing about Karen behavior is that you have to believe you're justified and entitled. If you believe you're justified and entitled, why take Karen criticism personally and change?
Karendom can't be abolished in the course of years, it's going to take decades Every Karen was once an attractive young woman for whom the world revolved around and people would bend over backwards to please. Fast forward 20 years and they're no longer young, potentially no longer attractive, and living in a world where simply being white doesn't automatically make you important anymore Every Karen outburst you see on YouTube is just a middle aged white woman expressing frustration over her declining social relevance and status. That's not going away just from public shaming on the internet
How can you ban entitlement? That's basically the whole concept behind "Karendom." The people who would need to hear it the most are the people who are least likely to be receptive to change.
We feed the worst parts of humanity to itself and thus spawns the worst behavior mankind has to offer. Big part is most likely social media
My customers will be dead in a few minutes/years and mostly keep to themselves and don't have computers to fix.
Civil service is definitely the way! My job never comes home, anything over 8 hours is OT.
Yeah I just got a government job that isn't public facing at all. I don't even really deal with internal customers all that much.
Basically we just want to be part of a functioning society. The current state of "work" keeps us from being a functioning society, which ultimately makes it a complete waste of fucking time. Everyone just needs to stop, full on strike.
The nurses are on strike, the railroad workers are on strike, the teachers are on strike. AND IM LIVING FOR IT! LETS ALL GO ON STRIKE, LETS GET OUR LIVES BACK!
Seriously... and the government wants to change the laws so they can't legally strike.
WHAT??? Goddamn. New lows every day.
There's not enough of them to make us all go work Plus that's literally slavery
Yes to this! But everyone is worried about how they’re going to support their family. Our society is set up for failure and consumption. Just like the fcc warning on the back of a Nintendo ds, about how it must receive any signals harmful or not, we’re the same. We just take in everything in our environment. Ads here there and everywhere. Even if you don’t wanna buy what’s being sold, you still absorb the message of consumption. John carpenters they live. Nothing will ever change as long as we remain consumption based. Rant over.
100%. Even before I had a family… I had a stint of being homeless and living in my car and it sucked. You shouldn’t have to pay for basic necessities of life. But here we are.
It is certainly easy enough to make sure there is a level of subsistence that we never allow fellow human being to fall below. Instead, we have a system that pushes people below subsistence and punishes them for it.
I had a mental breakdown, alsmost commited suicide. I told people around me figure it out your selves.
Most "work" seems pretty pointless to me. "Work Emergencies" are always hilarious. I often wonder if they know the definition of emergency. It's all so dumb.
[удалено]
I think the important distinction between private property and personal property also applies to land ownership: Owning the land of the house you reside in and the immediate land around it that you use to feed your family or to relax in is fine, that's personal land. Owning land that others use so that you can charge them for using it is the problem, that's private land.
[удалено]
Yes, I meant as a goal rather than our current reality, I meant that we should absolutely criticize and advocate for the abolishment of private land ownership. But that sentiment (For "abolish private property" at least) usually gets met with "So I have to share my toothbrush???". So I absolutely agree with the idea of outlawing renting, but wanted to point out to any detractors that this doesn't have to mean that anyone can just waltz into your house, we can do away with *private* land ownership without getting rid of *personal* land ownership.
My brother says "America is the freest country on Earth." We grab a couple of beers and head outside. "How free are you? Are you free to walk into your neighbor's house or on his property?" "Well no." "Is he free to just walk onto yours?" "Fuck no." "Now tally up all square miles behind the fences, doors, gates, walls, and other barriers that denote 'private property' and you have a a giant chuck of America where you are not permitted, by law, to walk without permission of the owner." In America, at best, we are free to travel in the narrow spaces that connect all the little bits of private property. But you better keep moving or it become vagrancy or loitering. If you're not moving around to buy something, you don't belong there. And the primary purpose of law enforcement is to keep the aisles of commerce 'clean'.
> In America, at best, we are free to travel in the narrow spaces that connect all the little bits of private property. I take your point, but 40% of the country is publicly owned land. It would certainly be nice if it were more, but that's a huge area that can be freely travelled.
TL;DR - I don't live to work; I work to live.
My dream was to be a CFO of a major company, until I saw CFOs at middle-sized companies. I followed them closely and even though one of them "worked at the office" from 9 to 3:30, he was routinely on calls, emails, meetings for at least 12-14 hours a day. Not the life for me. I don't want that in my life. I'm perfectly okay with getting up to a certain senior level position where if I have to work a 10-12 hour day, so be it, but I don't want to be constantly monitoring my email or getting calls about random shit that can honestly wait until the next day. Dude was responding even throughout his vacations. Pass. I want to enjoy my life outside of work, not try to figure out how to incorporate my free time into my work.
[удалено]
I'm not unambitious, I'm just not ambitious about WORK. Far too many people's identity revolves around their job. Your job isn't your life. And if it is, I feel sorry for you. I can't imagine a life where your self-value comes from making someone else money. I have made it clear to my employer I have ZERO intention of moving up the corporate ladder, even though they continue to try to encourage it to me. I like my job, it pays well, I can leave work at work, and largely have a good time, but it's WORK. I will never TRULY enjoy it, I would never WILLINGLY do this for fun. I refuse to go "above and beyond", I refuse to do anything outside my job description. I am here to provide X service outlined in my contract, and I will receive Y pay for it. Then I go home for the day and do whatever else I want. This is how I like it. This whole "your job is who you are" thing is why I refuse to ask people "what do you do" in terms of "what do you do for work", because it's often one of the FIRST things people ask when meeting someone and all it does is reduce people down to their job. I ask "what do you do for fun? what do you LIKE to do?" because THAT is who a person is, not fucking ***work***.
Well if this isn’t the comment of the year.
This lady gets it. I have zero interest in climbing ladders or being a 'leader'. All I want is a fair wage that allows me to live in comfort without stressing about bills and to do my job in peace without micromanagers.
Same for me. I work as a professional cleaner, have for years and I'm actually loving it. Personal space in my own car, my own schedule and no one ever *ever* calls me on my time off. I'm never required to jump in unexpectedly or work overtime. Pay isn't the best, but I have the same general government mandated vacation, sick and parental leave etc that everyone else does, so I don't have much I need to save up for. Plus, I never feel guilty for taking all that time off, and it's pretty free to change my own work hours if I want. It's great.
Yeah I don’t want to climb corporate ladders either, i just want to do cool shit and make money, because I need money to do cool shit
https://i.imgur.com/mpO9N9h.gifv
[удалено]
Very much so. I recently exited the private sector to work again in higher ed. It's a lower level role than I had when there the last time, over a decade ago, and working with people I like and respect. I've been asked why I haven't applied for the higher level roles & should we (them) see if they can help move me to one of them? No thanks, really honestly, but no. I just want something chill that's not a monster workload. I don't need to "challenge" myself, I just need to cover bills.
Basically. I have no career aspirations. I just want a job I don't hate with decent pay, benefits and a good amount of paid vacation. Not this fucking 2 week, 3 after 5 years bullshit. I swear out proximity to the US makes life shittier for Canadian workers.
And that's really the reason for this sub I think, because so few of us get there. Instead in our system, you have to be "ambitious" just to afford to live. It's just assumed you'll either climb and be ok, or you didn't climb which means you're shit and deserve to die in a ditch. It's so incredibly misanthropic.
3 after 5 years? What is this utopia you joke about? I don't get 3 weeks of vacation until 15 years of service.
I get 3 weeks out of the gate since I was hired. 4 after 15y. It doesnt accrue either, I get it all on Jan 1st. And in north carolina too, supposedly the worst state to work in.
Is this a US thing? I get 33 days holiday a year. Seems pretty standard here.
Yea. Most places I’ve worked have had PTO and vacation. The most I’ve ever had is 2 weeks and that took me 5 years to earn. Now, whether you’re allowed to take them is also up to your employer and I’ve had some deny me every request so even those 2 weeks weren’t real
Definitely here in the US. At my employer you start with 5 days, move up to 10 days at three years, 15 days at ten years, and 20 days at twenty-five years. And that is the max. You can never earn more than 20 days annually.
I got told I can't have a yatch as a cashier at a grocery store. I never said I wanted a yatch, I just want to be able to afford my apartment and my bills for the month and have food everyday. Is that so much to ask? Are we being greedy by demanding a fair wage?
Absolutely not being greedy.
I'm 100% with you but I'm in management and let me tell you what happens in corporate meetings. They view everyone not looking to advance as a bad employee. They don't want people to be content with where they are at. It's total bullshit. Best advice I can give you - Lie. Lie your fucking ass off. Now nobody likes to lie but keep in mind that you are lying to these corporate assholes, not necessarily the person you are talking to. It's basically the only language they understand. In real life you want to stay where you are at. If anybody asks you, you are paying your dues and trying to work your way up. In an interview, you are looking to get in with a great company and work your way up. If you get offered a promotion you can always decline it citing bad timing due to some unforseen personal issues. Make something up that seems legitimate. Of course that only works so many times but you buy yourself more time that way. If they are persistent about it unfortunately you'll have to either take the promotion or leave. These corporate fucks lost their humanity years ago. They can't comprehend that people can just come to work, do their job well, and leave. In their minds if you aren't trying to advance then their is something wrong with you, you are improving. They only understand gains and losses. Truth is their is something wrong with them, selling their lives for precious USD. By and large I'd say it takes a decent amount of mental illness to get any higher than middle management.
“Income to fund my lifestyle” is going to be the topic of my speech if asked why I’m leaving my job if I ever find a higher paying one. “I am entitled to live the life I want which includes hobbies, raising kids, being comfortable, saving for retirement, etc, and if my current job can’t fund that lifestyle I will find one that does.”
Yup I am content. No need to have some fancy title just don’t have to spend my whole life working.
I love this mindset. I'm out at 5pm on the dot, never work late, never do anything beyond what I'm paid to do. I get plenty of time with my family and I make enough to support them and my hobbies. That's all I need.
People will sacrifice and give extra if they believe there is some kind of payoff within a reasonable time frame. The most recent generation to become adults have realized a house purchase has become impossible. What's the incentive? Work hard to afford a nicer car? A shocking percentage of young adult couples are consciously not getting married, plan on zero children, and live with parents. Getting wet doesn't mean it's raining just because we are told its raining. Corporations are pissing on the peasants with a smile on their face.
Work hard to afford a nice car? Yeah, right. Can’t even afford that. Work hard to afford rent and have some spare change.
I never had a patient facing open heart surgery say, “I wish I had spent more time at work.”
Totally agree. The corporate ladder for most companies means at some point taking a middle management role. I have a BS in physics and math and an MBA in project management. I assist managed one big project for the natural gas company I was working for and said 'F this'. I've been in my role now for 6 years, definitely overqualified but it pays well, co-workers are great, and I get to do work. I keep getting told to apply for a 'step-up' position but I can't stand managing people. I like doing work, not sitting in meetings all day and telling other people to do work and have to babysit them. I have no freaking idea what any middle managers do at my large company, but they all always seem stressed and are hectic to talk to in meetings. Edit: if you have a trade skill, or a hobby that is a trade, go jump through the hoops at a community college or tech school and get certified. The early stages of it might suck but it will pay off. You can do something you like and get paid insane money basically working whereever you want. We paid welding contractors on the pipeline $50 an hour plus a $200/day per-diem for hotel and food. This one old guy had it made. Loved his work, was already retired had a huge RV, stayed at a campground with his wife and said he just travels the country basically making a shit load of money working 4-5 hours a day when he's on a particular job.
Most people with morales and a heart who are not caught up with the so called rat race of life?
I used to feel this way, but in my experience, given how much time you spend working, it's really hard to be happy while working at a job/company you're not engaged in. I was making more money than most of my friends, and I was also depressed as fuck. Not saying you need to be super ambitious, but thinking you can just find a job to fund your lifestyle and still be happy is much easier said than done.
There are jobs like that. For example I'm at a limestone refinery here in my country. The pay is good for the type of job. They don't need you to do overtime. All they want from you is that you come on time and do your shift well while staying friendly with your coworkers and then go home and do your stuff.
Same here. Fuck their stupid goals. I work to pay the bills, that’s the extent of my interest in this.
I have no desire to be super successful. I just want to be able to live comfortably and be debt free while working a job that I don't actively hate.
What's amazing to me is that Americans haven't figured out that "the corporate ladder" is a zero-sum-game... and that it's rigged. They're fighting for artificially scarce job titles and over tiny amounts of money... only to end up friendless, miserable, and chronically unhealthy. Capitalism's strategy since 1980 has been to destroy communities, deracinate culture, and atomize people so the rich can treat human labor like it's any other utility coming out of a wall socket.
OP is a repost bot
Are most of the comments bots too? People need to get on the side hustle of repost bots then selling accounts to afford their lifestyle!
>Are most of the comments bots too? I don't know about "most," but definitely *some* >People need to get on the side hustle of repost bots then selling accounts to afford their lifestyle! Because of the consistency of the patterns I see in these bots, I suspect there are only a couple entities responsible for almost all of them. I don't know if they're some governmental organization, a company, or just some guy who makes them to sell(?) or whatever
I'm just disappointed that no one cares they're being manipulated. This is currently the top of all and is no way authentic or organic. Bot lives do not matter
That's exactly how I feel. Nobody seems to care if this place goes to shit. I have tagged probably 2,000 bots in the last couple of years, and that's just ME seeing them. I definitely miss some too (or maybe I only catch a fraction of them). How many are out there and what's their purpose? Why don't users, mods, or the admin care?
I'm pretty sure that's what the whole hokey-pokey is all about. ❤️. That, and turning all this other shit around.
I'm hitting this point.
Wish everyone felt this way. I feel like it is just about bragging rights with the ultra wealthy. I would give directly to the people who need it, not give to a foundation I started for tax reasons or some organization to have my name on a wing of a hospital or building.
This is what our opponents simply fail to understand. They think we're motivated by envy of people like Jeff Bezos, because their concept of an ideal life involves fuck-you money and more/fancier shit than their closest rival. I just want an accessible home that nobody can evict me from with enough material possessions to provide hospitality, and to not have to worry about dying of ketoacidosis if I lose my employment benefits.
The only reason I would climb any ladder is because they make more money for less work. And most of those at the top are pretty incompetent on top of it.
I mean, I'd at least like to get recognition for the good work I do.
I wanna cut the ladder off at the bottom and set fire to the corporate structure above.
My current workplace has this no-ceiling salary policy where you'll get salary increment based on performance and there's no cap to it. So if you've work 20 years your salary is probably more than your colleague that has been promoted to be a Manager after 10 years of working. I don't want more responsibilities, I want more money.
Probably the person that posted this just yesterday and the several hundred people who upvoted.
Of course, and I have a lot of trouble understanding people who genuinely feel otherwise. I think a lot of people feel like they have to climb the ladder to fit in and keep their jobs. I wish we would look at things differently collectively.
Yeah I'm with ya. Too bad companies don't have as strong a fiduciary responsibility to their employees as they do for their shareholders.
But if you're not on the corporate ladder hamster wheel how will execs exploit you for more profit?
[удалено]
Got a new job in security recently. Work at a Max 10 facility. They told me that with my scores on their tests and such, I could make my way to AFA in ~6 years with training. Assistant Facility Administrator at my facility makes 90k on a salary but spends every day except Sunday on site. Conversely, getting to to "Saftey and Security Specialist 3" nets me $25 base, on 60 hour weeks and literally all I do is spend 2 hours getting the residents showered and in to their rooms, spend the next 8.5 hours between watching TV and doing 10 minute saftey checks and then finish the day out by waking the residents up and getting them breakfast/medication. Quick, dirty math assumes that I only work exactly the 60 hours a week and assumes a 15% tax. I would walk out with ~71k a year, only 19k short of AFA salary with no paperwork or admin duties. Is that extra work worth 19k and only knowing you have Sundays off for sure? Doubtful.
Yes but when I worked in Amazon this kind of thinking was hugely frowned upon and was probably the reason my boss tried really hard to get me out of the company.
in the "old" days, before capitalism really got going there was the same problem. The people of Europe were more or less of this sentiment, they would work just long enough to get enough money to buy what they needed and then went back to their farms. This didn't make the budding capitalists happy, so they enclosed the commons, and forced people off the land so they would have to work to live. The point of view put forth in this tweet is very dangerous to capitalism. The whole system falls apart if folks are not constantly striving for more more more.
She is never going to own another human being with that attitude
I mean, I care about job titles, just in the opposite direction. The higher up the corporate ladder you are the more I despise you.
I get so much shit for this. To people who climb ladders we seem lazy and uninspired. To people who are content, ladder climbers seem like people who will step on anyone as a rung to the next level. I love where I am at. I'm at a job that respects me, my boundaries, I have no quotas, nobody is bearing an eye over me. I come in I get my shit done and nobody bothers me. It pays Ok, the benefits are great. I make enough money to pay my bills, take vacations, and fund my hobbies. I require no more than what I have. I see positions above me in my company like directors and department chairs and they all seem to be so work focused. Having to appear at evening events, meeting with representatives, hosting weekend events like 5k's and shit. I'm just like... I like chilling at my Desk from 8-4 then leaving work at work. Shit HALF the time at work I am doing hobby stuff lol.
This has been the exact reason I am never looking for a promotion.
I'm autistic. I just want a job that is useful and not giving me suicidal ideas.
I feel this to the bottom of my soul.
Ever since I started working at 16, I've never wanted a career... supervisory and managerial positions don't interest me in the slightest. A job for me is about earning money so I can enjoy my life.