Author: Olivia
I used to work for a small business that had security cameras installed all over the office. Good for security, I suppose, since we had a lot of expensive equipment. Place was toxic as hell, though. The owner would frequently leave the office to run errands or have “on-site meetings” (AKA go home), and when he'd leave us employees would finally be able to loosen up and talk. But as soon as we'd begin to socialize even a bit, the boss would call the office phone. Every single time. I ended up working with some people who used to work at our local competitor – Their ex-boss and my ex-boss were cut from the same cloth. One of these new co-workers told me that their boss would always have an app open where he could monitor the security cameras. If he was out of the office and an employee needed…
I live in NJ and the minimum wage here is 13 an hour. I work at wawa pumping gas for 16 an hour which is 640 before taxes for a 40 hour work week. I also graduated from my local community college with my associates, which gives me the required amount of college credits to qualify as a substitute teacher here in NJ. The average daily pay for substitute teachers here is around 116 according to indeed and 114 according to ESS the main company providing subs. So if I were lucky enough to sub every day of the school week I would only be making 580, which is 60 dollars less than I make pumping gas. I'm definitely not saying that gas attendants are overpaid because it sucks ALOT, the smell of gas all the time, we never get to sit, we're at the mercy of the elements. I…
Back story. I work as a Service Engineer in the semiconductor industry. I'm not paid super well, but it's a bit above average. Business is fuckin' boomin', and we are busting ass 12 hours a day, working extra days, taking half-lunches (30-minute instead of 60-minute), and pumping out work at record pace all year. Anyways, I went into my performance review a couple weeks ago thinking I deserve 10%. I'm on fire. Got through all of the training in half the expected time. I actually get 2x the work done compared to my Senior-level coworker, and I know this because my rate of work goes down constantly when I work with him and have to explain how to do things to him when he doesn't know. I am absolutely killing it, with zero negative feedback. I even asked if there was any feedback for improvement—”Nope! You've been here a little…
To be clear I need to define a narcissist. A narcissist is a person with an excessive interest or admiration of themselves. Personality traits tend to be an over-inflated ego, a victim complex, an obsession with control of others, and desperate need to be flattered. These personality traits are extremely toxic in any environment, but the toxicity is amplified in an environment without privacy. An environment where the narcissist can overhear any conversation and involve themselves in it. An open office not only removes all privacy for everyone, they give a narcissist access to everyone. This alone should be enough reason to abolish open offices, even if you ignore all the other things like microwaved fish and micromanagement.
Got covid, told I need to quarantine and report back in a week. Cool, no problem. Except I also now need to use all of my sick days for the year. When I asked the question of “wtf?” got told, it's a personal sickness, so you need to spend your sick days. So I said, “okay, I'll come in and work then because if it's using my PTO then I will have to literally be dying before I choose to stay out” Now all of a sudden, I can't come in because it's mandated by the CDC and company policy that I need to quarantine. So I asked which is it? Is it my choice to stay home and use my PTO or your choice to keep me here and pay me like normal? The company wants to keep the cake and eat it too. Ended up getting a big…
We deserve the option to protect ourselves!
