Author: Olivia

Apologies if this doesn’t belong on Antiwork. There seems to be a huge hard on in the U.K. for job ‘references’. My girlfriend has been having an issue there because amongst other issues she was self employed for many years and at other points occupied in so far as dealing with responsibilities of being a single mother. What’s been happening is that the job has been offered outright but then the employer has been asking for work references later down the line. What is it with employers offering you a position, only to relage on it afterwards? And what is it with this need for references? You aren’t even allowed to write a bad reference in the U.K. so I’m not sure I really get the point. In my case I had a manager that owed me 2 years of unused holidays and redundancy, because I brought it up the…

Unless you're getting paid a lot of money, work that feels like it has no real meaning is just soul sucking. Some people get through it by telling themselves they have a family to provide for, or they rather have this than be homeless but Jesus christ I know movies are just entertainment but I can't help but wish I was a character whose job involved helping humanity survive instead of getting rich assholes richer

This is more of a vent. Just felt like I needed to get this off my chest. My son and I almost share a birthday. His is the day before mine in May. Every year, I try to take him camping for our birthday with our whole family. This year, I've been looking for a campground but most are already booked. I finally found one that we would all be able to make and I go to put in the time request at work to see 2 people in my department are already off that day. In our department, there's a rule that no more than 2 people can be off at at time. However, one of the ones off is the manager. So I went and explained that I'm trying to take some time to spend with my son for our birthday to my supervisor. I say that since…

I know that the main reason anyone wants to work for me is because I will pay them. Nobody is working for me because the work is so much fun. If they were independently wealthy they would do something with their time, but not work for me. That is the main reason they want to work for me, but it can't be the only reason. There are millions of jobs available why are you interested in mine? Geography is probably a factor. But certainly there are other factors as well. I really care THAT you want to work here. I want you to enjoy your job. I want you to enjoy your jobs for 2 reason. First i'm a human who cares about other humans. Second, happy employees are good employees. I also care about why because if everyone gives the same reason, i know where to invest my energy…

I am genuinely curious as to how unpaid internships do not violate labor laws at the state and federal level. They're exploitative, and they generally exist as a classist method of weeding out people who don't have the means to work for free for an extended period of time. I just can't wrap my head around how they're legal.