This shit is depressing. I moved out of my abusive parents’ house last year with everything I could take with me. I managed to go back to school and graduate. I worked 40 hours a week at $10 an hour while paying $1000 a month in rent. I have watched my bank account bleed money every month.
The restaurant I worked in promised me $13 an hour and I waited for months. I was promised a promotion, and I waited for months. The store got busier. The shifts’ crews got smaller. A 7-man team became six, then five, then four, then three. I waited for months.
Finally, one of the three of us on a shift breaks. His anger over what would normally have been a tiny mistake leads to him threatening to assault me. I no longer can safely work there, he stays. I am now out of a job because he is the only one trained to work his position.
Nothing the lower-level supervisors can do about it. The GM claims he’s done everything he can. The thing is- I actually believe him. The GM doesn’t even have the power to run his store effectively because he needs permission from his boss, who needs permission from her boss, who needs permission from her boss, etc.
I, a lowly ex-cog-in-the-machine, can’t even plead my case to these people. Everyone directly above me is dealing with the same bullshit imposed by the people at the top, who don’t see us as anything but numbers.
I have no college education, because I can’t afford to get it. Even if it was free, I don’t have the time to take classes and also be able to pay my rent. I am nothing but a tool to be used by the system. I will watch, and work, and break, and cry until my time on this earth is gone.
I only get one life, and it has been taken away from me by a system that never gave me a chance. I am powerless to change this. I can’t do it alone.
I am asking you, r/antiwork, what can we do to change this? How can we make it so that this isn’t the case not only for our sake, but for our future generations?
And if we can’t, Is it even worth living anymore?