Antiwork

The building I work is located inside an old mall building, no sunlight or air circulation. They began having sewage issues shortly after I started as well as decomposing rodents. This smell triggered my PTSD. Having lived in an African nation that got ravaged by civil war as a 16 year old I struggled a lot. I still do. They approved an unpaid medical leave and I don’t qualify for FMLA. I don’t have any other source of income. I was in remission from my PTSD for years until the sewage issue kept chipping at me day by day. Now when I go in I start profusely sweating and my BP goes up. I can’t eat, I can’t function normally because ever since my trigger my CNS has been severely out of balance- I am stuck in flight. Doctor agrees that I need to work from home. It’s the only…

Why is unpaid experience less worthy than paid? I’ve put in more effort, hours and learned more, in a volunteer role than I have at most of my paid jobs. The volunteer role is the bulk of my experience on my resume for the role im trying to transition into. But if I’m honest that it’s unpaid in interviews they lose interest or ask if I’ve done similar that was paid. If I lie and say it’s paid, logistically the dates and time commitment would raise questions since it overlaps with multiple other full time jobs over the years. What do I say? Would calling it freelance come across better?

You essentially do odd jobs around a store. So in this case, primarily Meijers in my area. I actually wonder if anyone works there or if it’s all just gig work.

If you have any sort of mental illness, neurodivergence, or trouble learning/thinking/finishing tasks, ESPECIALLY if undiagnosed,, you basically must lie on job resumes and during interviews and say “yes I am capable of doing this job.” Then if you make a few mistakes on the job you get railed into and they say “if you can't do xyz, you shouldn't work here.” It doesn't even matter how hard i try, sometimes a couple mistakes are inevitable. Sitting there trying to prevent it just fogs my thinking from all the anxiety. These very same people who ridicule people that can't get everything right and fast say, “people these days are too fragile. You can't just sit at home because you are depressed.” Or “back in my day we couldn't use mental illness as an excuse. It was called laziness.” What are we supposed to do then? Nothing is right. Ableism is…

Honestly it's amazing. I had already written about me, a 21-year-old who struggles to find work. I had an interview on Tuesday and the boss explains the project to me, what I have to do, we agree on the salary (which was strangely good) and he tells me “I'll write to you by tomorrow” to sign the contract. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday go by and I don't get answers. I write to him friday night and he doesn't answer. The nice thing is that he always works and I had already spoken to him on Saturday and Sunday and therefore the excuse of “Saturday and Sunday he doesn't answer you”. Absurd this. The interview had gone well, we laughed and he explained the project to me, what his company needed and I had the papers affixed. I understand the fact that companies don't respond to CVs, I understand the fact that…

He’s a nice person and friendly. But I kinda fell into the trap. At first I let it slide, then we talked some time but unbeknownst to me I let my guard down and boom without me realizing, I spilled out my reason. I feel tricked and such a fool!