So I work a shitty retail job as a supervisor, I'm very class conscious and my girlfriend (soon to be fiance) is being exploited at her job. She works at a firm and is working on several projects at once almost all the time.
As I'm typing this i have been home for an hour and a half after my closing shift, and she still isnt home. Ive been on the phone with her for the entire time to keep her company, but all that happens is I run out of things to say while i listen to her tapping away on the keyboard. It is currently 11 pm and she has been working since 8 am. This happens extremely often due to a shitty senior coworker at her office who dislikes her and delegates her more work than she can handle. Ive tried telling her on several occasions a 15 hour day is absolutely unacceptable and that she needs to tell her bosses “no” and to set boundaries, as this has been happening several times a month for years now. She always says “yeah its shitty but its the industry standard.” She seems to have it in her head that if she so much as annoys her boss they will blacklist her from her industry and ruin her reputation.
She is the only one in her office who works like this. Any overtime she does gets auto turned into vacation hours so we never see the money up front.
I don't know what to do, she already struggles with mental health and burnout and she just feels the need to please literally everyone at all times, to the point where she gets extreme anxiety if I talk too loud in public, or wear clothes that are too out there (i enjoy sticking out in a crowd).
I dont know where else to post this and I figured here would work. Im just so worried for her and I dont know who to talk to about this. Shes so talented but constantly thinks shes shit at her job. I gas her up as much as i possibly can because I love her and want her to see in herself what I see, but it always feels like an uphill battle.
Anyone have similar experiences and have advice, or at the very least stories so I dont feel so alone in this?