Antiwork

I'm burned out. A lot of us are. Last year I worked 1,377 hours of overtime. My coworkers are as well. We're all patriots and our jobs are very important, technically specific and necessary. It would take about 18 months to get a new hire ready to do my job. I have a job offer coming up, doing a walkthrough of a facility and meeting the team after a second interview. Just down to negotiations on salary. I just feel awful about the bind I'm going to put on the few good people I'm leaving, and the strain that's doing to create in their lives. Two of my buddies swore me to secrecy as we've been looking for a way out. One is waiting for his house to sell and he's out. I bought his car, and he's burning his PTO before he bounces. The other is banking cash and…

I am over 40 years old, been doing wage work since I was legally old enough to work and I’m over it. I’m over being a profitable commodity for business owners to exploit. I’m opening a tiny bicycle repair shop that provides an objectively positive service to my area and frees me from being a number on a spreadsheet for an entity that cares next to nothing about anything beyond the profit they can make off of the minutes of my life. Wish me luck. I don’t give a fuck about being rich, but I do care a whole lot about making people happy and healthy while making my own mental health and sense of self worth a priority. I’m done letting people profit off of my skill to the detriment of my own freedom in however many years left I’ve got in this existence.

And it feels great. This morning I packed up my work from home equipment, dropped it at the office before anyone arrived, and texted my manager that I was resigning. No reason given. I then blocked their number, because whatever their response was really doesn’t matter. I don’t owe you anything- not even a notice. I previously left a tech startup because i felt that it wasn’t ‘established’ or ‘professional’ enough. Turns out that established and professional companies are the ones that treat you the worst! My job was completely fucking stupid – I worked with accountants and just did a bunch of little shit that they didn’t want to do. For example: when paying out an invoice,accountants would reach out to ME if the invoice needed an address change. What that means is 20 different people would bombard me with menial data entry requests they could have done on…

I was a processing manager at a cannabis farm. I was violently throwing up today, and called my boss to let him know. This was the first time in 4 years that I've called out for being sick. His response was, “Well you can work so come on in.” I tried negotiating with him, saying things like, “I don't think it would be wise with me coming in feeling this ill in such close proximity to others and our product.” He wouldn't budge and kept insisting I come in because we were gonna be short staffed. So I buckled and got ready for work. I get in there and my first 2 hours I spent running back and forth to the bathroom still vomiting. He comes up to me and tells me that if I take another bathroom break that the time will come out of my lunch. I laughed…

TL:DR at the bottom I work in order fulfillment at multimillion dollar company. Despite the obscene profit margins on our products, the owner is insistent on paying as little as possible, and not just for payroll, but also things like software licenses, computers, and even basic equipment needed for the facility to opperate. During our monthly staff meetings, employees keep bringing up the fact that despite being one of the largest companies in the state for our industry, we pay approximately 20% less than the industry average (depending on position). Management keeps saying things like “we're looking into it” or “the new industry standard data just came out and we need time to review it” (spoiler alert: the data shows their fucking us on pay). Having worked for other companies before that have the same attitude, I know what's coming next. Their going to threaten to replace people with machines…

Yearly raises came today. My coworkers and I had been yelled at over the last two months for discussing pay, several times being told it was a “fireable offense” lol. Yearly reviews & wage increases finally happen today, and we each received a 3% raise from our $15 – $16-ish per hour rates. This is after a record sales year, and a hell of a busy season due to not having staff because “no one wants to work” and all that fun stuff. I feel so defeated. I was making less than the new hires and I’m just now matching their starting rate after being here for three years. I don’t know what to do. I feel so undervalued, unappreciated, and downright defeated. I want out. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

Long time lurker, first time…writer? Had my first interview today, went well, and had time for questions. However, I didn't have time to ask about the salary for the position as we ran out of time. The interviewer said there would be a second round of interviews if I'm accepted to it, and that the 2nd interview would be in person. I'm currently working from home FT, and would hate to call out just to travel to the new job's office for the interview and find out there that the salary is garbage. I was thinking if this is acceptable/professional: Should I be accepted into the 2nd round of interviews, could I ask about the salary then before confirming my attendance? (meaning ask about the salary when I get approved for 2nd round)? ​ Thanks in advance