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Antiwork

Got a new job at ~60% the industry standard, was trained for 2 weeks on how to do busywork, did 2 months of busywork, then got fired for only knowing how to do busywork.

Graduated back in May; had no prior experience in my field of study, largely due to Covid. After six months of job hunting, was finally given an offer, which I accepted despite the salary being more than 25% lower than the already-insultingly-low salary mentioned in the interview. First three months were meant to be training, so I was grouped with two industry veterans who were meant to show me the ropes. For the first two weeks, they showed me how to do the grunt-level busywork that the job required. Then, instead of continuing to train me past that point, they just kept assigning me more busywork. Not wanting to make a fuss, I kept my head down and did the work, always asking if they had anything new they wanted to teach me to no avail. My two supervisors, as it turns out, were spread too thin to actually train…


Graduated back in May; had no prior experience in my field of study, largely due to Covid. After six months of job hunting, was finally given an offer, which I accepted despite the salary being more than 25% lower than the already-insultingly-low salary mentioned in the interview.

First three months were meant to be training, so I was grouped with two industry veterans who were meant to show me the ropes. For the first two weeks, they showed me how to do the grunt-level busywork that the job required. Then, instead of continuing to train me past that point, they just kept assigning me more busywork. Not wanting to make a fuss, I kept my head down and did the work, always asking if they had anything new they wanted to teach me to no avail. My two supervisors, as it turns out, were spread too thin to actually train me, and would do little more than skim over my work to make sure I didn't make any glaring mistakes.

Fast forward two months, all I've done is busywork, and the boss pulls me aside and conducts a test to see how much I've learned. As all I'd been taught was busywork that required little-to-no technical skill, he becomes furious. I was told that he'd test me again in two weeks time, and to use that time to learn the trade. I studied hard, memorized equations and systems, doubled down on my work, and was able to convince my supervisors to train me on new material. Of course, I knew this would be a fruitless effort, but I was naively hoping I could prove the boss wrong when he tested me again.

Instead, the boss skipped the test entirely and just fired me outright.

Now I'm job hunting again while enjoying some much needed time off. In the end, all I took away from that place was about $8 worth of office supplies, knowledge on how to use a few pieces of outdated software, and Long Covid because an anti-masker coworker coughed in my face over New Years.

Hopefully whatever new job I end up is better.

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