Author: Olivia

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!

I have an English degree, despite everyone warning me against it. I was a library assistant, but I recently moved and need a new job. I want to work at the library, and I've applied over ten times, but I don't even get a reply. I have applied to every book store in town, every university, every elementary school that has a listing. I am so exhausted of re-entering the same information over and over. I am broken, and I'm mad, because not even a retailer like Barnes & Noble will email me a rejection. The only place that's replied is this laser tag job I applied to out of desperation. I have an interview tomorrow. So I'm already bummed this is what a degree gets you, and my mom calls and says I really shouldn't be doing that at my age (30). My sister messages me like, “Have you…

I don’t even mind my job. It’s part-time at a pub, which yeah sucks, but as far as part-time jobs go, it’s not the worst. The people aren’t horrible, and it’s easy enough. Even still, I find that every day before my shift, I get so intensely depressed. I already have mental health issues, so it just makes me worse and basically unable to do anything else except dread going in, or just wanting to die because I have to go in. I’m in school at the same time and the burnout is real because I use up all my energy just trying to hype myself into going to work or getting through my shift. Sometimes I have to go in drunk just so I’m not miserable the entire time. Idk how I’m ever going to function in ‘real life’, after uni. The thought of working anywhere for more than…