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Antiwork

My life as a useless warehouse admin

Just over a year ago, I stumbled into the role of “warehouse admin”. I sit on my ass at a desk all day intermittently printing orders for manual laborers in the warehouse to pick. I browse the internet until they come back in, then I print new ones. Occasionally I'll get a phone call from the boss who will give me a random sidequest (ie 'get these items ready for tomorrow', or 'count x'). Then I write it down and give it to the warehouse boys; they come back with the result and I relay it to the boss. They resent me because my job is so easy yet they are all smelly and tired, lifting and packing heavy boxes all day, and they look at me with resentment when I walk out with my clipboard of order notes. Sometimes I feel I should lend a hand during my downtime…


Just over a year ago, I stumbled into the role of “warehouse admin”. I sit on my ass at a desk all day intermittently printing orders for manual laborers in the warehouse to pick.

I browse the internet until they come back in, then I print new ones. Occasionally I'll get a phone call from the boss who will give me a random sidequest (ie 'get these items ready for tomorrow', or 'count x'). Then I write it down and give it to the warehouse boys; they come back with the result and I relay it to the boss.

They resent me because my job is so easy yet they are all smelly and tired, lifting and packing heavy boxes all day, and they look at me with resentment when I walk out with my clipboard of order notes. Sometimes I feel I should lend a hand during my downtime but I've done the dirty, sweaty manual labor life before and it is not for me as my back always ends up really sore. I hate that I have to put up with their resentment and snark.

One week earlier this year my computer stopped working and I didn't know how to fix it. So then the boss, instead of emailing me the orders, would post the orders in a group chat which the warehouse boys saw on their phones. During this time I had nothing to do all day and the cooworkers made fun of me for how useless I was. I came in and stared at a blank screen for 8 hours pretending I was able to do work. I complained to my boss that I had nothing to do all day, but he kept brushing it off and telling me not to worry about it. Eventually he came down to the warehouse and fixed it and things went back to normal.

For a year I have felt useless and like I could be fired at any time. I've been trying to upskill by learning to code; I read some books and made a portfolio, but it's getting me nowhere. It's so depressing to look at Indeed and there are no beginner level programmer or tech support jobs in sight.

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