TL;DR: IM PISSED SO IM GONNA TRY TO UNIONIZE
I've been working for a large technology company for a few years since college. My first year on the job was right before the pandemic began. 6 months in and we're permanently sent to work from home.
I didn't choose that.
I was already dealing with depression and I fell deep into my own head trying to figure out my place in this giant company as a face on a screen. I took some unpaid leave to try and get into therapy and get healthy again.
Two (nearly three now) years after my first mental breakdown and things have been going considerably well. Job is decent, pay keeps my fiance and I comfortable, I've got my nice little home office that I've built my rhythm in. We had a good financial year despite inflation last year, bonuses were nice. Etc.
Two weeks ago, one of our senior executives announces on a town hall that “not enough bodies in the offices, we have a culture problem at this company”. Even though my workplace is my home address, I'll soon be expected to commute to the office 30 minutes away over half of the week.
I've spent three years of grueling self work to be a good remote employee. And all I see now is red. I'm currently in the midst of a manic, rage fueled episode that is consuming all of my free time. I'm trying to work through this with my therapist and I described it as “complete betrayal”.
I'm not the one to complain usually. I deal with my problems leaning on those close to me for support. But my spirit has been broken. I'm still getting over my first case of COVID. My fiance works in the same block as my office and she caught it there from a colleague. My work has no PPE or distancing rules in place. Half of my team is in a different state than my local office. Nothing on my team can be done in person without someone on Zoom. Being in office is only downsides for our team.
So I've decided that I will spend every ounce of my anger and rage on being our first engineering Union advocate. I'm going to gather support, and I'm going to bring my coworkers together so that no one is made fun of by a director, no one gets disciplined for taking the sick time they need, and everyone gets paid at the very least an inflation matching salary increase every year.
Idk this feels manifesto esque I'm just angry and I need to do something with it or it's going to kill me.