(CW: Depression, mental health struggles, queerphobia, suicidal ideation)
Alright so I've got a story for y'all.
I've been working in data entry since I was about 17 when I got on Fiverr and started doing it freelance. I made a killing and it was even paying for an apartment nicely for myself and my boyfriend after we had to leave to escape our toxic and homophobic households. About last year, it started to dry up and I got a job as a data entry clerk for a data collection agency and would work your average 9-5. But soon as more people were quitting I was being toppled with more work which at the beginning was fine and I thought “this is my job, I got this!” But when it was that I was working 12 hours on my anniversary with time off denied I felt like I was crumbling. My workload was increasing but I was still paid $16/hr. It got to the point where I was being asked to clean when I wasn't busy.
Now I wouldn't call myself mentally stable. In my previous retail job while I was in school I was fired after “missing too many days” because I went to the hospital without notice or asking to have my schedule moved around after I slit my wrists in an attempt to kill myself. All of the stuff from my locker (some blue light glasses, probably some candy, and my backup earbuds in case I forgot my other earbuds) was thrown in the trash and I couldn't get my job back as I was replaced fairly quickly.
So I was feeling very suicidal once more in this job but I suffered through it for about a week more until the agency folded and I was out of work. I didn't have much to do anymore and all of the other entry level data entry jobs were just rejecting me so I applied to other jobs like retail and ended up getting a job as a promoter (someone who hands out fliers to people in tourist areas) which I started a week ago. The job was fine albeit a little boring except for the fact my boss was very transphobic from the get-go. I was talking with a coworker and he called me “Mr. Negative” jokingly and I said “I prefer Mx. Negative” (because I'm trans but prefer gender neutral pronouns) and we talked for a bit about gender neutral pronouns and how to say Mx. and my boss commented towards my comment of “You're a guy, I'm a **queen**” (towards coworker, jokingly) with my boss muttering “If you were a real girl, which you're not” which I overheard and have been upset with since the beginning. But I can't really fight back as this $12.50/hr is all I have while my now fiance is in school.
So, dead ends in America is where I am at. But, with this job I have no oversight. Since I'm far away from the store while promoting, I take extra long breaks, and just kinda sit around lazily handing out fliers. 6 hours a day and 3 of them I am either sitting around or in a public restroom. Truly, the antiwork experience.