Antiwork

I earn minimum wage at a restaurant and have been trying to find better work for a while, but everything just feels too difficult right now. I spent today browsing through job ads, but I can’t bring myself to pretend to care about another company in my spare time when I already have to do that at the restaurant most days.

In December of 2020 my previous employer sent out a flyer with our pay stubs informing us that they would know longer be covering lost wages due to Covid. In October of 2021 I got Covid and was out for 10 days without pay per my employer’s instruction claiming they were following CDC guidelines. I just looked it up and they took over 1 MILLION dollars in PPP loans that they applied for AFTER they told us that they wouldn’t be reimbursing lost time. This it illegal right? It seems to me that they literally stole money from their employees.

So I was medically discharged from the British army a few years ago due to injuries sustained and because of that have been doing monotonous office work for various companies but as I have a good work ethic instilled from the forces I have done well and been promoted or went to better jobs quite quickly and started earning great money (compared to the pay of an infantryman) but the work was boring and not for me so while looking for another dead end job I saw an ad that caught my eye it was just a PA job for a small outdoor activities centre the pay was about 1/3 of what I was on but I googled the company out of curiosity and it looked like a fun place to visit with all kinds to do like a high rope obstacle course, axe and knife throwing and loads more…

We all know the current is unfair, unsustainable and unjust. The wealth gap has grown to an absurd proportion where we are transitioning into some sort of fiefdom system where the very few elite get to do as they please while the majority have to figure out how to even pay for gas to get to the job that hopefully bestows upon us enough to pay for housing. How many more posts do you need to see here? How much more do you need to see in your own life? There is opportunity here with gas prices rising above absurdity, real estate getting to unreachable levels, education with a lifetime chain of debt and folks still having the recollection of how society valued them during a global pandemic. During that time, the rich got richer… the so-called “essential” workers were abused… and the world kept on promoting this broken system.…

I called off 5 hours in advance on Friday because I’m going through a move, I literally have text messages from my department head saying that’s okay I hope everything goes well with the move. I worked Monday night into Tuesday morning as well as, yesterday night into this morning. They called me five minutes ago and said we are going to terminate you because of it that and because I had called off three weeks ago when I was sick which we had a meeting that they gave me a warning for that I refused to sign but still went in my file. She says turn in your shirts and your badge which I only received one uniform shirt from them and no badge even though I’ve been there going on three months. It took them 5 weeks for me to receive my first paycheck, which I had to…

While most people who give this advice may be well meaning, it is meaningless for many people and can even be bad advice at times. Note: this is USA specific. In the US, the only “labor boards” that exist are the National Labor Relations Board and much more rarely, a state Labor Board that handles non-NLRB jurisdictions (like farm labor or public sector work). These boards protect an employees right to engage in concerted activity to better working conditions. For example, the board will act if at least 2 employees complained about working conditions, went on strike, tried to join a union, and the employer retaliated. If you were paid late, less than overtime, or less than minimum wage, contact either the Department of Labor or a state/local wage and hour agency. You should also consult an attorney, who will likely take a case on contingency if it's any good.…

Can't you just feel the excitement? Wow!

I want to know when we finally snap and tell big business “no more”. When do we look at gas prices and food prices and medical prices and then look at how little we make and say it’s too much? I am all for venting and a lot of the memes here are funny but I just don’t see where we go? When we go? How we go? Because I don’t want you to stay this way forever, and I doubt many of you do either.