Category: Antiwork

I'm a camera operator/filmmaker. Work hasn't been great since graduating into covid so I'm taking any work I can in my field. That's led me to my current situation; contracted with a small company i cant stand being a part of. My boss is a grandstanding prick who, since day one, has had no consideration for my time, especially when I'm not on the clock. He want me to drive hours away for work but not pay for travel, tell me he pays by hour for editing but that only counts when my ass is in the seat and he says what I'm doing “counts” (ex. I arrived at 6pm for editing, he only “allowed” me to edit at 8pm. I left at 2am and was only paid $50 because his internet crapped out for 2 hours). But its fine because he feeds us cheap pizza he keeps in the…

I used to care a lot. Came in early, stayed late, learned new software as it came out, sold my vacation days, etc. If there was a family problem, my wife had to handle it. 10 years ago my wife and I were on the phone during my workday and she said, “you gotta just quit. This job is killing you.” But I was trying to make our way in the world – we got kids, you know? So I moved to the next company, gave it my all, and it was the same dead end. I re-grouped and figured out how to do as little as possible while getting as much credit as possible – cherry picking all the easy work. One day at a team meeting my boss said, “We got 4 perfect reviews from the National Office.” There was an applause. “And they were all for Fomention.”…

I did a lot of cringy shit as a teen (who hasn’t?) and I did a lot of shit wrong. But one thing I think back fondly to is looking them in the eye and telling my Managers at Wendy’s “proper brain function costs $10 an hr.” I got paid $7.45 Whenever a customer wanted to berate me for something, or wanted free food I would yell for a manager. I’d never handle that shit on my own. “Use your head Tom!” “I will for $10 an hr.”

I am looking for advice or maybe just encouragement if it can be spared. Sometimes when I’m with friends or family and a political issue or something work-culture related, I cannot help but try and persuade people to think about how to improve our working conditions. I live in a medium city in the Midwest US surrounded by a very rural area. Friends and people my age are generally open to some forms of progress on societal issues I guess, and yet when I try to talk about more freedom in the work place it’s just met with incredulity. I am simply asking friends if they could imagine a situation where employees would get some say or power in their company in the decisions that affect the employees most like benefits, wages, work schedules. They think the idea is somewhat admirable but completely unattainable. I kindly reminded them of the…

I started working as a server in a semi fine dining place. The pay is good but the have me working 4 positions at random and each one they gave me a day of training and expect me to know what I’m doing. For the AM server role they gave me 1 day of training and then made me train someone else on my second day. For busser they gave me 6 hours total of training which would be fine if they didn’t have stupidly high expectations. We have to carry everything ourself, can’t stack plates on the table and have to try and make a single trip. I can’t clear a 4 top by myself like that and it stresses me out so much. They all just stare at me as I struggle. They also have me working as a food runner soon and I’m going into that with…