all my life ive been watching my mom steadily kill herself for a job shes had at the same company for the past twenty years and it breaks my heart because i know i cant reach her and help pull her out of the hole shes digging herself into for a company who would replace her without a second thought if she was suddenly no longer able to work. she's salaried and im not sure about the specifics of her contract but it feels like she's always on call…either that or shes got very flimsy between her personal life and work. maybe both. i get so mad seeing her putting in 60 hour work weeks when shes only going to get paid for 40. she was on a phone call with one of her colleagues at midnight trying to figure out one thing or another and all i could do was wonder why she even picked up the phone instead of getting ready for bed.
she's not a young adult anymore and the physical and mental stress she subjects herself to for the sake of this job is really weighing on her. she got diagnosed with some sort of disorder (something to do with the thyroid??) and i have been begging her to try and go on FMLA because her body is too exhausted to recover from it. she always gets snippy with me whenever i try to communicate how worried i am for her (i try not ti do it in a condescending way, its just–shes my mom, so i get a little intense) and will deflect any suggestions i make for improving her work life balance and i would have given up on trying to reach her but i cant shake the part of me that wants to see her healthy so i keep trying to bring it up
im so mad at the company she works for. im mad at her colleagues, her subordinates, and her managers. we didnt have much time to bond when i was a child because she would stary at the office to work until 8pm and then keep working after she came back home. ill never forgive capitalism for stealing my mother from me. i would burn everything down and dance on the ashes if it meant my mom would get to take some time for herself. its so hard to feel grateful for all shes providing for me when this is the price it comes with.
i really hope things change within my lifetime…its hard not to feel hopeless because i dont have much of a local community to rely on for support regarding this sort of thing, and its kind of of hard to organize things when youre a socially anxious teenager working for $14/hr four days a week but im still holding out!