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Antiwork

money versus time, as a young worker I hated labor laws.

My very first job I got a lot of overtime at, was never full-time and because of that when the full-timers wanted to take vacations I was always ready to jump in. So I learned from a very early age, 15, to always pick up every possible shift. In my early twenties I worked at circuit City. It was the third job I had had and yet another job where I was not full-time. I began to loathe the idea of health care tied to the job. Benefits was always the excuse to where I could never get full-time. Company couldn't afford it, as soon as I hit those 35 hours I had to stop coming into work. I was so pissed at everyone trying to litigate and regulate these burdens on the companies. I wanted and needed more money and I didn't want to juggle multiple jobs. I just…


My very first job I got a lot of overtime at, was never full-time and because of that when the full-timers wanted to take vacations I was always ready to jump in. So I learned from a very early age, 15, to always pick up every possible shift.

In my early twenties I worked at circuit City. It was the third job I had had and yet another job where I was not full-time. I began to loathe the idea of health care tied to the job. Benefits was always the excuse to where I could never get full-time. Company couldn't afford it, as soon as I hit those 35 hours I had to stop coming into work. I was so pissed at everyone trying to litigate and regulate these burdens on the companies. I wanted and needed more money and I didn't want to juggle multiple jobs. I just wanted to work at one place and make enough to live.

I was the best repair tech there, hands down. When I said I was going to leave they pushed through a $4 an hour raise for me. Made me the highest paid in the department. But still no full-time, still no benefits, still stuck at 35 hours.

I used to go in every single day, even my days off to do work because I wanted to show that I was committed and I wanted to convince them to give me full-time. My mom instilled in me that all these worthless people that called into work, took personal days, they made it hard for people like her who never took a break. In like 35 years she only ever used a handful of sick days. In the end she got screwed out of them because you used to be able to cash them out when you retire, a few years before she retired the union renegotiated and you couldn't do that anymore.

What I ended up having happen at circuit City was I would punch in and work well into overtime, then they would take those hours and move them to the next week. I despised overtime because I saw it as a barrier to where I couldn't get more hours. If they had allowed me to work 55 hours instead of 40, without needing to go into overtime I would have. And as it turns out I did. So eventually I would get to a place where the next week would already be at 40 hour payout, and I would get effectively that week off. I would still come in because I had nothing else in my life and work was the only thing I cared about.

It's interesting and not only a little bit disheartening that now that I'm older, I see the disconnect between how much a company pays in labor versus its profits. How much money I could have made had those hours been on overtime. But also it angers me that especially as a young person, if I want a stockpile more money I should be able to work at a single job for as much as I want to pull that in. That's my choice. I hate that companies aren't willing to pay overtime and that you can't just work more to get more money.

It's something I feel torn on. Especially if you're in a technical field or something that you're not just making bare minimum, it's like you're stuck in an arbitrary ceiling.

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