Antiwork

This was many many moons ago. 1985ish. I was a chem lab tech in a privately owned metallurgical testing lab. I made standardized acid solutions of metal samples submitted. I was the only one that could do a few metals (titanium for example). Boss even volunteered a raise ($1/hr on top of $15). I enjoyed a terrific relationship with even in the building. But the owner was a prick. Now I am young and had some money issues. This job was helping me get caught up. I was still paycheck to paycheck and rent had to be carefully planned. On too of all this there were rumors of ash flow issues in the front office. Friday comes, its the 31st. Remt due tomorrow. I’m handed a nice paycheck. I drive to his bank to cash so I can pay rent on time in cash. They say “sorry, this account has…

Nothing special happened. In fact, it’s the busiest time of year for the company I work for. I just woke up one morning and stopped letting their nonsense affect my mental health anymore. They don’t deserve your stress. Just do your best with what you have, and leave the worries for your bosses and shitty managers. Seriously, it just happened overnight. I guess I had so much stress my body decided to just stop. Corporate hell doesn’t deserve a minute of worrying. None of them.

I hit my 10 year anniversary at work two weeks ago, and it has gone completely unacknowledged. No announcement or thank you, no rewards, no card or gift card. Nada. I like my job but am feeling pretty pissed right now.

I read that employees from Twitter are suing based on the WARN Act, which bars employers with 100+ employees from spontaneous layoffs. I was laid off at a different company (tech marketing) just one month after I started along with 30 other employees. That company had about 130 employees, but everyone was remote-first. They're based in WA, but I was working for them in AZ.

I recently accepted a new job as a cashier for a bar/restaurant working evenings. I told the general manager I was late yesterday because I was used to waking up naturally and without an alarm. We had originally agreed I would come in 4 hours later but he said I needed to work afternoons before I could be ‘choosy’ about schedule. I have a set circadian rhythm and coming in at his requested hours disturbs that. I can’t focus and I am dead tired. I explained to him why I could not sleep earlier but he said my problem isn’t that I need to have an earlier sleep schedule but that I am waking up naturally. He said it was ‘carcinogenic’. When I asked him to clarify his statement, he informed me that his grandpa is a physician and he ‘grew up knowing this stuff’.

They're facing relentless budget cuts. Some people studying in STEM just want to take courses related to their major and ignore the general studies requirements — I've seen comments from them saying taking history is a waste of time for them. If things keep up like this, we're going to create a generation of small-minded, hyper-specialized barbarians even among our educated classes with minimal knowledge of history, philosophy, literature etc. What say you?