I hate people. I'm having a rough weekend, and I was googling for how I could manage menstrual pain while at work (housekeeping, a lot of walking/standing/crouching/bending) but every single article I find assumes you work in an office! I'm always running into this issue. Like, when I wanted a solution a while back to how I could maybe manage work a little better without taking a mental health day, but still all office job related articles. So, so, so many of us work physical jobs. And so, so many of us can't afford to miss a day.
It's just so disheartening to be this invisible. I know a lot of office jobs suck, I see a lot of people on this sub complaining about them and looking for new ones with better company culture, work-life balance, pay, and especially WFH and hybrid options. It's great for you all that you get to do that! It's wonderful for you that you have options, and get to shop around for a job that works best for your life. This is in no way an attack on desk job workers. I'm just exhausted and hurting and jealous, in a way.
I wish I had other employment options, but with a degree that I can't use for an industry that I wouldn't be safe working in due to my own mental issues, I have to take no-experience jobs like the housekeeping one I have now. It's thankless, underpaid, undervalued work that I have to come in and do whether I feel up to it or not so that all my bills get paid. In the area I live in, my only other options are construction work or casino work. Both of those sound worse than what I have now, even if they would pay better, because I'd be working much longer hours. The only “good” thing about my job right now is that most of the time I'm not allowed to work into overtime. Which really actually sucks, because I'd love to work an extra hour every day to make my paycheck a little nicer.
I guess this was really just a vent, but I wish there were more options. I'm tired of physical labor. My roommate, who also works with me as a housekeeper, doesn't have any other options either, because he has arthritis and this is the only job he's ever had that actually lets him take the breaks he needs when he needs them, and lets him use his cane as needed. Any of the other “options” available would require he bring a doctor's note to ask for accomodations, and I'm sure they'd still be shitheads about it. On top of all of that, he was homeschooled for all of his schooling years, not to say he isn't smart, because he is, but to say that a fake diploma typed up by his dad doesn't count for anything in the real world. I was also homeschooled through middle-high school, which doesn't help either.
Idk. I'm tired. I'm thinking about applying with a local casino to be a card dealer, if they'd train me for it. It's a lot of hours on my feet, sure, but it's good money.
Good luck out there to the rest of y'all. I know it's rough. I hope one day the rest of us working Americans wake the hell up and act together to better our collective situation. We all deserve so, so much better than this. Working myself to the bone for 10/hr in nursing home housekeeping is never going to make me or anyone else at my level a millionaire, let alone able to buy a house. Only the company truly makes any money.