Antiwork

This happened a few years ago. I was working as a Middle School Social Studies teacher. I enjoyed my job and the kids, I had great relationships with colleges, but the worst administrator even!!! It was my 5th year teaching at this school in an impoverished area. I was pregnant with my first child, who was due at the beginning of the next school year. I approached my principle in March (a woman in her 40s with children of her own) and requested a 3rd or 4th period prep for the following year so that I could pump breast milk after I returned from maternity leave. That would be mid morning and I could pump again at the end of the school day so I'd have enough to give my daycare provider (an old college who quit after undergoing horrible treatment by the same administrator). This was a perfectly reasonable…

I guess there's this attitude around that antiwork people are lazy, want to put in the least amount of effort, gripe about their jobs and their managers. And sure, some are like that and I'm not gonna judge because fuck this dystopia, deal with it how you see fit. But I've been faithfully playing the system since I turned eighteen, working my way through the cheapest, closest to home school I could find, having almost no student loans, no car loan, no credit card debt, living with parents. I even lucked out and made a ton of money during COVID due to a very unique situation, ended up saving half my income in 2021. I'm a hard worker who has always had stellar performance reviews, great relationships with every supervisor. I worked retail and service for seven years and I went through the trenches. And I still can't get ahead.…

is this allowed?

A higher up was on a call with someone and I overheard the whole thing. I’m wondering if I should start applying for other places now, or wait to get laid off then take unemployment. Also open to any other options. Screw corporate

I’ve held out for as long as I can. Side jobs (I’m very good with my hands), gig work here and there and so forth, but realistically there’s nothing here that will sustain me. I’ve begun selling off my tools to survive and soon they’ll all be gone, and for what? To pay rent. Not even to eat. Just to have a roof over my head. I’m able and more than willing to do work for appropriate pay but nobody here is offering it. I’m downsizing and getting smaller but don’t think I’ll forget this grave injustice, because I will not. And I will inflict it on this shit ass system any way I can.

What do you think?

I'm a teacher, not in US, but the job seeking process has been horrible, i hate dealing with unprofessional recruiters that try to convince me to take jobs I know I wont like, or try to convince me I'm worth less than i know. I've had more interviews than I've ever had before, a couple of which went pretty horribly, another company got to the point of giving me an offer before ghosting me. Finally broke through and had a good interview with a nearby company. The interviews went well but then they sent me a first offer that was just a little more than i earn now, so I counter offered for 20% higher and the recruiter and company seemed shocked at that, acted like it wasn't going to happen and I should be grateful for their previous offer. Stuck to my guns and said I'm sorry but that's…