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Antiwork

Dear Employers, I don’t owe you my time [Rant]

I am not paid extra to be on time. Or for finishing my work in a certain time frame. I am paid or fired. Hit the quota or bust.  Why do I owe anyone else my time?  If they want something done within a certain time frame, why should I care when I do not benefit from the end result?  If I am merely paid for moving the project towards completion, then how quickly it reaches the destination does not matter to me.  Hours? Working hours?  Why does the employer get to dictate that?  Why is it ethical for them to use the threat of destitution to dictate the hours of my life?  Why do I owe anybody else my time? Seriously.  Why is the speed at which a task is done not factored into the pay?  Why is the inevitable dimension of Time ignored as if I'm working within…


I am not paid extra to be on time. Or for finishing my work in a certain time frame. I am paid or fired. Hit the quota or bust. 

Why do I owe anyone else my time? 

If they want something done within a certain time frame, why should I care when I do not benefit from the end result? 

If I am merely paid for moving the project towards completion, then how quickly it reaches the destination does not matter to me. 

Hours? Working hours? 

Why does the employer get to dictate that? 

Why is it ethical for them to use the threat of destitution to dictate the hours of my life? 

Why do I owe anybody else my time? Seriously. 

Why is the speed at which a task is done not factored into the pay? 

Why is the inevitable dimension of Time ignored as if I'm working within a three-dimensional space? As if I'm working outside of time? Spacetime is where my location is. I am spending not just my energy but my Time. And yet, I have no ability to dictate that? It's 40 hours or nothing? Or more than that even? 

Time and a half? Paid more to work longer? Every second of my time is equally valuable to me. 

My time is my own. The absolute blinding arrogance and gall that people have when they feel they are entitled to dictate how I am supposed to spend my own time. Because of what THEY want to achieve. Excuse me, but unless we have the same goals, your goals don't get to dictate how I spend my time. 

Sorry, you need to sell how many units to pay your mortgage? Well, will you share the profit of those sales with me? No. 

So why does it matter to me how quickly they get sold? 

Oh, because you're paying me by the hour? 

What gives you the right to center your goals within my time? 

What gives you the right to separate the value of my labor from my time? 

Are you saying I could work twice as hard in that shift and not get paid ANY more

You want to separate productivity from time. But it is basic knowledge that productivity is inseparable from time. Indescribable without time. 

The perpetuator of the 9-5 wants me to ignore that basic inescapable law of nature, and to sign the precious hours of my life away in pursuit of their goals over mine. 

And what is the implicit threat here? What is the violence that will come? Destitution. Hunger. Desperation. Loss of shelter. Ridicule. Humiliation. Gaslighting to the highest degree. You will be told that you are crazy to ask for this most basic right. 

A quota? 

If I sell 10 items, you will only pay me the value of three, unless I sell 15. Then I get the value of 5. But only if I sell those within 14 days, if I do it in 15 days it doesn't count.

If I choose to only sell 4. You will fire me. And even when I hit this egregious quota that benefits the employer most of all, I still will not be paid differently if I hit the quota in one day or two weeks. In fact, if I hit the quota on the first day, I will be belittled if I relax for the next two weeks. If I do work hard, and well, I will then get a new, higher quota! Sell more and you will be given a higher percentage. They will waft the true value of your labor in front of you. And they hope that you will realize how starving you truly are, and that will galvanize you into throwing away the value of your time. 

I put forth that there is no one who is more arrogant and disgracefully entitled than one who pays someone for the hours they worked rather than the value they produce, and claims it is mutually beneficial, and who uses the threat of destitution to corral their victims into accepting this most heinous of agreements. 

I will be compensated for the energy I exert and the time I use because those are inseparable. I will permit no unnatural separation between the two. 

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