Antiwork

I was invited to a Microsoft Teams meeting with my manager at very short notice. Upon joining the meeting, in his usual smug/false tone, my manager says 'Hiya, OP. How are you doing, mate? Is everything alright, my man?' To which I reply 'No.' There is a 5 second silence. I don't think he was expecting an honest answer. He then says 'Aw, no. Well, I'm sorry to hear that, buddy. Are you having a bad day, pal?' To which I reply 'No. No more than usual, anyway. Every day is a bad day. I am really stressed out and I don't know what to do.' There is another 5 second silence. Again, I don't think he was expecting an honest answer. He then says 'Anyway, the reason why I've invited you to this meeting is…' I was just sat there, stunned. He completely ignored what I had said. I…

One thing I have learned after a few years of working is to never wear any makeup from the start when getting into a new job. I used to try to impress new bosses and coworkers by putting on “full” makeup everyday so that I looked nicer and it looked like I cared more about the job. This is a mistake. Eventually, putting on makeup every morning becomes just and extra chore that you also have to spend money on like buying work clothes and commuting. If you meet your new team while wearing makeup, when you’re too tired or fed up with doing it everyday and you end up not doing it for a day people are going to think you look “tired”, “sick”, “not well” and may even assume you “just don’t care anymore” or you’re “not putting in the effort”. Some coworkers and bosses will even look…

This is just a vent. We work 9 hour shifts already why can't I turn off my phone and brain away from work after my shift is done? Just got done with meeting and supervisor was big mad about a few of us not attending a team meeting that was scheduled earlier in the week. Those of us who didn't, had their shifts end hours prior but we just got told that we need to do it anyway. Ugh …. my job isn't that bad most days but this is getting really annoying. It feels like you should be ready to sacrifice your entire life body and mind for a low paying job and be broke forever because you hardly have the mental energy to do anything else. I'm so tired. Oh also we are salaried. There's no extra pay for anything.

Why is it that when the downsides of capitalism happen to poor people like us, we are expected to adapt no matter what? Endless layoffs, endless low wages, innovation that puts us out of business, no matter what it is, we are all expected to adapt immediately because we must uphold these tenants of capitalism. But when innovation and tough times affect people at the top, what do they do? Buy a politician and keep things the way they want. Force people to get back into offices and pretend remote work doesn't exist. Make laws that prevent people from building small houses or anything that doesn't deliver major profits to them. Rig laws so their tax rates are lower. Turn employees into part time contract laborers. Just tell the public “change can be hard on some folks and we have legacy systems to take into account before we up and…