Author: Olivia

I use to work at an historic resort hotel in New Hampshire and one day an older hotel guest was complaining about the American flag being torn down the middle and it should be taken down and repaired. There was a problem with doing this because the flag was on top the hotel that had six floors and was about 70 feet high and it was also winter time. To get to the flag I would have to go to the roof carrying the ladder, walk across the roof covered in snow, set the ladder up so I could reach where the flag was tied in (not sure why it was designed that way but it was dumb). Now that I have the flag which was fairly large I am going to have to come back down the ladder across the snowy roof. My supervisor (who loved to kiss the…

Sometimes I really think life isn't a tragedy, but instead a comedy.

I’m 30, too old for this In So Cal I make $20.50/hour. About 37 hours per week. Have benefits luckily, pretty good ones, but the pay is just horrible. $758.50 per week is $20.50 x 37 (average). Per week. 52 weeks per year so $758.50 x 52 is $39,442. Then roughly 25 percent is gone thanks to deductions. 25% would be $9,860.5. Then it subtracted comes out to roughly $29,581.5. State taxes, federal taxes, Medicare, disability, health insurance, measly 401k are just a few of the deductions off the top of my head. LESS THAN $30,000 FOR WORKING 37 HOURS PER WEEK EVERY WEEK OF THE YEAR It’s a physical job too, and so cal is not cheap. Inflation has obviously been crazy lately. I just feel so sick when I see people say things like “I’m only making $60k” etc I wish people would look more at the take…

The title is what i’m struggling with. I work 20-25hrs/wk depending on the week, but I can’t seem to handle that AND taking care of myself, my plants, and my life. I can only seem to do one or another. I feel really embarrassed about this because i know that’s so easy for others/most people work WAY more hours/wk, but I feel a little better about it since my job isn’t easy. I make food in heavy rushes, understaffed, and also deal with horrible customers at register. It’s draining already plus the guilt that i can’t clean as much, AND anxiety about the fact that I can’t handle that much, so how do I provide for the rest of my life? I’m sorry for the wall of text but I was just wondering if anyone can commiserate/has any tips.

I graduated university about 2 years ago and have been spending my time since then studying for the MCAT, finding out I didn’t want to go to medical school, working an AWESOME personal assistant/dog nanny type job (the couple moved to California so that’s over), traveling with my boyfriend, and have finally decided that I now want to pursue a career as a midwife. Basically I can’t apply to midwifery programs until next fall cause I have to take some extra prerequisites (I had all the classes for medical school but not nursing school, go figure). That’s all going fine and I’m feeling pretty good about it but I had issues with work since I came back from a trip in November. I was working part time at a retail store and I was pretty okay with it. I am a big people person and it was mostly not busy…

I told my bosses a few months ago that I won't be renewing my contract, but I'd like to stay on to see out my current one (call it self pride). There was only 1 more big event i had to oversee, but I've never been less motivated to make myself work. Essentially, I'm at a point that I cannot motivate myself to sit at my computer and look at emails because it is so mentally straining. Within this role, I'm trying to satisfy 300 people, even though its literally (not figuratively) impossible to do so. Sure, I've had roles in the past that I wasn't a huge fan of, but I never failed to make myself perform the role. But this job, I quite literally cannot make myself do anything because of the physical and mental strain that comes with it. The only reason I did not go back…

I have a very niche job as a neuroscientist. Y he whole field attracts the most toxic personalities. There is a colleague who is verbally abusive and aggressive towards women scientists in particular. He gets away with a lot because he is family to the supervisors. His laundry list of toxicity so far: frequent outbursts of anger, shouting, name-calling, and sudden hysterics like crying when overwhelmed. He has even gone so far as to stand in a doorway to prevent me from leaving a room until I submitted and agreed with him over the placement of surgical equipment in the room. I was so shocked I ran for my life out of the room. Twice this employee verbally abused me but today he raised his hand to me as if he would strike me. All I did was I insist that we follow a protocol that was developed with our…

I'm doing my best to avoid building capital for others and I plan to document my journey. I'm moving into my car at the end of the month. I'm going to save money to buy a camper and live in that. I'll boondock and do my best to avoid giving capital to landlords or other parasites. I hope to document my adventures and trials in the hope that I can inspire and help others. I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas and I'll add them to the document that I'm putting together. What are your thoughts? OPT OUT WHERE YOU CAN There are myriad ways to strike at the economy. Not everyone can opt out completely, but everyone can opt out somewhere. Stop paying rent: landlords offer nothing of value and drive the cost of homeownership up. They are free riders in our system who don’t deserve to live…