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Antiwork

How do you reconcile anti-work ideology with your professional ethics?

Not looking for advice, just curious about how others navigate this issue, particularly people who are required to be licensed and/or certified to hold a title and legally practice their job/profession. Also including those in positions where licensed or not, your role makes you responsible for other people's satisfaction and wellbeing (e.g., employees, customers), which in turn greatly influences your own. Bonus points if you actually like your job, or are at least content for the time being (me). For example, I'm a licensed social worker who practices as a therapist in the nonprofit sector. I'm only recently financially stable and professionally advanced enough that I'm not as underpaid and exploited as most of the clients I serve. Still, if I took some of the popular anti-work sentiments too literally (e.g., “Fuck this job,” “I don't owe anyone anything,” and “act your wage,” etc.), it would not only be harmful…


Not looking for advice, just curious about how others navigate this issue, particularly people who are required to be licensed and/or certified to hold a title and legally practice their job/profession. Also including those in positions where licensed or not, your role makes you responsible for other people's satisfaction and wellbeing (e.g., employees, customers), which in turn greatly influences your own. Bonus points if you actually like your job, or are at least content for the time being (me).

For example, I'm a licensed social worker who practices as a therapist in the nonprofit sector. I'm only recently financially stable and professionally advanced enough that I'm not as underpaid and exploited as most of the clients I serve. Still, if I took some of the popular anti-work sentiments too literally (e.g., “Fuck this job,” “I don't owe anyone anything,” and “act your wage,” etc.), it would not only be harmful to my clients, but it could damage my reputation, cause me to lose my professional network and even lose my license. Then I'd honestly have no one to blame but myself. And while some may disagree with me on this, I think there's certain jobs where purposefully performing poorly is bad class solidarity with both your coworkers and your community.

Side note: I think some people in this sub take for granted that not everyone is safe to leave a job with guns blazing and then smoothly transition into another.

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