I wanna support antiwork. I really do, but I'm a truck driver. One of the major tentpoles of society (or so I'm told). If all my road brothers and sisters called it quits, NYC runs out of food in 36 hours or less.
Furthermore, getting truck drivers to agree these days is like herding cats. You're welcome to try, though. Can I film the attempt? I really need a laugh.
My company is completely unwilling to allow me to go home unless it's for physical medical reasons. The standard DOT physical doesn't really cover mental health, and if it did, we'd all lose our jobs anyway. Just like commercial aviation, the annual health check incentivizes us to hide health problems for as long as is possible, and then ignore them for at least a year after that.
The company supplies a mental health resource, but to be frank, I'm reasonably certain that I'd be fired if I used it. The last time I was home was in April, and I won't be going home again until probably August, as my blood pressure prescription runs out in July, and the company refuses to put out fires with a fire extinguisher if they can wait for it to turn into a five alarm fire and punish me for it.
I live in an Over-The-Road (OTR) tractor. Lookup the interior of a 2022 Freightliner Cascadia, and you'll understand why my office is the size that it is. I literally live right behind my cubicle. If I'm a good boy, I get 2 days off a week. If I wasn't a good boy, I get 1, or less.
I never went to college (student debt is a hell of a trap, so I'm still refusing to go), and I don't have the money, time, emotional bandwidth or intelligent bandwidth required to learn a new skill at this time. Driving eats all of that up, and there's nothing left at the end of the day. I cannot physically bring myself to even try classes by computer after 10 hours every day, and I will cheerfully gut the next person who suggests giving up my non guaranteed time off.
I feel like an animal in a trap, and I can't get out. I'm stuck between believing I'm essential and having enough empathy to not enjoy causing pain and distress to others, and a company that doesn't care about my well being. The only good things I'm getting out of this company is a fridge and off-duty climate control system so I don't broil or freeze because they don't want to idle.
What the hell do I do? I want to LIVE, not just exist for someone else's sake. I don't mind working, but I want to see some value for myself, you know? Or am I supposed to just hope for reincarnation as a billionaire in my next life?