Antiwork

With all the horror stories (aka, the standard way in which employers treat folks) I thought it might be nice to share some examples of our employers being bros, understanding full well that it is not the norm. In order to ensure that we don't have employers sneaking in to talk themselves up, I suggest not naming the employer. I work way too much as a salaried employee for way too little, generally, but my employer was as complete bro last year when I had appendicitis. My appendix burst and caused all sorts of infections and complications that kept me so ill I could barely work for the majority of the year. I'm talking like, billing 0-40 hours per month for most of the year. As my condition dragged on a lot of my superiors and coworkers called and emailed to check in on me and encourage me not to…

I’ve been at my job for a long time. I make about 63k. Benefits are 29 days PTO, one sick day a month, 15 paid holidays where the business is closed. 401k with a 10% match (I put in 4%). Employer automatically puts in 10%. HSA with a 2% match. I’m job searching, but I really have now idea how my current benefits are worth monetarily. I expect that any new job the benefits will be way worse. I’m trying to figure out a ballpark salary to be asking for.

My friend's recent college grad kid got a job offer for a customer rep job at a small healthcare company. So an entry level position, but the job agreement specifically says that the employee cannot work at any of the listed competing companies for 1 year NO MATTER the terms of ending employment. Even if the company fires or lays off the employee. The companies were included all the big medical insurance companies like Aetna, Blue Cross and many smaller ones. This is in an At-Will state too. Is this legit or just an attempt to intimidate employees?

And I recently watched Spider-Man no way home. Heroes get turned to villains pretty quickly. Then have their family die. Then have Their friends forget about them. And live a lonely life. Fuck if they are heroes, pay them more than the fucking ceos that remained held up in their million dollar compounds.

So, I am in a management position at a medium sized company. It's locally owned and generally the owners are pretty decent folks and don't seem out of touch with reality. I work in construction and it's a pretty competitive field for pay and a lot of people just go to where pays the best. I've stuck around here for several years now even though I could get a buck or two more at other companies. I like this one, I like a lot of the people, and it has a much less toxic culture than most competitors. But today, I saw an email to my direct boss in which one of the 3 main owners said in reference to the general wages going up an being harder to hire people since construction is booming “we need another recession to clear everyone's head. ” Now unsure if I'll continue working…

I graduated college in 2020 and was supposed to attend graduate school abroad. That fell through because of COVID, and so did an internship. I started job searching in 2021 and after a grueling and depressing 7 months, I landed a minimum wage co-op that I started this year in-person. I've been applying to actual (hybrid/remote) positions within the same company for the time being and was just told that I will get an offer. The “manager” for the team is nice, and the team is okay – they don't seem horrible to work with. But the thing is, I've never felt more depressed and unlike myself. I'm really not a lazy person at all, but working full-time for even this short amount of time has literally sucked the life out of me (physically, mentally, and emotionally) I don't feel like getting up in the morning anymore. I don't feel…