Antiwork

I’ve been at my job for 6 years, started during my college years and worked through all of them, even left school multiple times to prioritize work because I thought it was more important to be able to eat and pay rent than to chase a piece of paper and waste $5k-$7k in out-of-pocket tuition every semester for an art degree that I knew was useless but had to complete after my family demanded that I finish college by any means necessary… and I am fucking exhausted. I have been. For almost 3 years now. I worked through the entire pandemic, I worked and did school full time, I’ve worked multiple jobs at once on top of both, and I’m fucking burned out. I started taking mental health breaks this last semester (Fall 2021) where I’d just have a random single day off a week and ask for it to…

TLDR: the person interviewing me made an abrasive comment about how I didn’t have a job lined up when I quit my other. I left my previous job about two weeks ago. It was toxic, and draining to my mental health. I had initially put in a four week notice, but I could not handle longer than a two week. I quit without having another job lined up and I was okay with that. I’ve been interviewing nonstop for the last two weeks and today I had one that just didn’t sit well with me. The interviewer actually said “wow it was pretty brave of you to quit a job without another lined up.” First of all, **** you. Second of all, you don’t even know me. I gracefully responded “well I’m a single mother so I’m really good at managing money.” Looking back it didn’t even warrant a response,…

From a big, “reputable” company. He didn't respond to my follow-up emails either. Cool.

Position requirements that suit me well: ● As CEO, you are the main delegator of everything, and hard-working people want you to tell them what to do. Excellent. ● Small company CEOs must sell, so you are required to drink and have fun with people at lunches, dinners, and outings. Excellent. ● The CEO can be fired, but is almost always paid to go away, and sometimes the severance amount is even discussed when the CEO is being hired. Sounds like guaranteed, pre-paid vacation to me. Excellent. ● As small company CEO, you decide what your pay should be, because you are also the chief financial officer. This helps maximize your income. Excellent. Sounds like the right job for me!

So a bit of backstory, I got this HVAC job 10 years(yes you heard that right) ago. And I feel I'm a pretty good employee. Not always the greatest attitude but one of the best installers the company has seen. Literally only late to work 3 times I've worked here in the whole 10 years, and only ever call out sick when I'm actually sick. Not for some bs reason because I just don't want to come in, like a lot of my coworkers. Getting a lot of praise from the owner, my manager, and contractors on how neat and clean my work looks. Well, I've tried several times to get promoted, moved up, or to set up a duct shop for the company, which I'd actually like working in but to no avail. Basically they're making some pretty big changes, and phasing out the department I'm in. It'll take…

Here’s a question. My work is finally “for real” making people go back in the office mid-April. I have moved away but they don’t know. It’s time for me to start planning my resignation (I’ve been ready to go for a loooong time but have been milking remote work as long as I could without going insane) but then I thought…can I put it on them instead – making them lay me off and then potentially getting severance? Which I wouldn’t get if I quit. So, instead of “I’m not moving back and I quit” making it instead “I’m not able to move back, please let me know how you would like to proceed” – thinking that they will say no sorry, so you gotta go. Also I realize the severance clauses/allotment would depend on contract specifics, but for this exercise, assume getting laid off = some kind of severance.…