I joined this sub when I hated my job, I was there for 3 years in healthcare starting as an emergency personell when the world was crashing down and then ended up just getting sucked into staying. I was depressed, angry, and literally hated everything about the US healthcare system.
Recently started a job at a startup. My first “corporate” job and it's leaps and bounds better. I am probably still anti work but I went on a trip last week. My boss didn't make me feel bad about requesting time off. He actually gives of 5 PTO every quarter to make sure we don't burn out. I am not in a position anymore where me being present is mandatory, I can take a vacation if I need to. No one is going to die or there are no issues if I call out due to being short staffed. He even slipped me $200 cash before I left so that I could treat myself to a nice dinner while I was gone. In turn, I got him some cigarettes and chocolates. He was so excited to receive them. I remember bringing back a small gift for my last boss and he told me he would rather have had me in the office than the souvenir while half laughing through it. My new boss didn't call or text to bother me once during the trip and the only work email I got was him congratulating me that a client signed a contract while I was gone. I just got into the office this week and it's all smiles from my coworkers and boss asking how my trip was.
The one vacation I took while working in healthcare was spewing with jealousy or passive aggressive remarks about how my time off affected everyone else. But I just took a trip, without any guilt, and my boss still likes me. I used to think I could never work til I was 60 and just retire I was already burnt out but now that I am here, I could get used to this. I can't wait to try to get a wfh job or other tech based corporate position because compared to healthcare, this is a dream. Tbh I still can't wrap my head around how these kind of office jobs are so comfortable and exist and why I wasn't here earlier.