Month: May 2023

Noam Chomsky on the Division of Labor Everybody reads the first paragraph of The Wealth of Nations where he talks about how wonderful the division of labor is. But not many people get to the point hundreds of pages later, where he says that division of labor will destroy human beings and turn people into creatures as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human being to be. And therefore in any civilized society the government is going to have to take some measures to prevent division of labor from proceeding to its limits. Selling out. Consider a craftsman who builds some beautiful thing. Humboldt says if he does it under external coercion, like pay, for wages, we may admire what he does but we despise what he is. On the other hand, if he does it out of his own free, creative expression of himself, under free…

During my hour break I like to close my eyes in the breakroom. Sometimes listen to music or youtube via earbuds othertime just meditate. Admittedly sometimes this does lead to a powernap, but at the same time no one minds. Today a manager came in to get coffee, I assume. Saw me and said that this is work and not your house and that I don't have any business taking a 'nap.'

Half Price Books is a chain secondhand book store from Dallas, TX with roughly 120 stores around the country. 8 of those stores have voted to unionize in the last two years and have faced serious backlash from the corporation ranging from emotional manipulation to being screamed at by the mega-wealthy CEO. Now they are starting to fire bargaining committee members for the most minor/made up offenses. It would mean a lot if you amazing folks would check out HPB Workers United on Facebook and sign the petition there to show your support for their efforts to gain safe working conditions and fair pay. If you live near a Half Price Books, especially a unionized one, it would be even more helpful if you verbally or online left a review showing your support for their unionization. Thank you!

The list went around and each person that was going had to bring a dish and had to bring a $30 gift card for someone to win. Meanwhile at the job (state government job), we haven't had a raise in ten years. Of course management ask us bring dishes and pay for prizes

Tldr at the bottom, sorry I need to vent. My boyfriend and I have been together since highschool, and at one point I told him I could take care of us bc school went well for me so I though my degree would be a guarantee at at least a pretty good job. I looked up some statistics that were unrealistic. Not even close. I had a desk job that I honestly got bc I'm friends with the CEOs daughter and I kept her out of jail when we were kids. I got paid pretty well, had a 4 day work week, and didn't have enough work, so I started writing (a passion of mine). Well I got laid off in October. I couldn't find anything else, and now any type of work feels like the end of the world to me. The exchange of taking care of our house…

What the title says. We have an app for the staff to input their availability, and I’m %99.9 sure I booked Thursday off because I have to work with my other job. But, when I check the schedule, I see that they scheduled me Thursday. When I texted my boss to say I can’t come in for that shift because I’m working at mg other job, she said “Not sure how to fix that. You can ask others if they want to swap”. What kind of lazy bullshit is that? What should I do?

So recently this guy at my job became team lead and let me tell you…he has become so freaking lazy! He tells the rest of our team to do all the work while he sits in the office and does “work”. When I try to leave the time I’m scheduled he also has a problem with it because I didn’t go over things with him, etc. He is so freaking weird. Also he texts me when I’m off the clock about work related things or he checks up on me and probably other employees when he’s off the clock to see if the orders are looking good. But in reality he does it because he doesn’t like to shop orders and expects everything to be done by the time he gets there. It’s so annoying bc he wasn’t even like this, he was a try hard for the position and…

So I’ve been working at a fairly popular coffee chain for just over a month, and as to keep the company anonymous I’ll use a fake name. Let’s call it Starbucks. I’ve been there for just about 5 weeks and the job is already taking a serious toll on my mental health. I’ll start shaking during my shifts and I’ve been loosing sleep due to the stress that this job has placed on me. The past 2 weeks I’ve had a shift cut, just to get called in and work. I feel kinda weak for wanting to leave already but the fact that I feel nauseous on the clock and wake up in a sweat about the job sounds like a sign I need to polish my resume. Starbucks managers like to talk about how they care about the employees but mine wanted me to pull a 12 hour shift…