So today is my 28th birthday and I happen to be pretty sick. Started feeling off Wednesday after work and ended up calling off yesterday for a sore throat which has since turned into a bad cough, fever, and general weakness throughout my body. Knowing I had responsibilities to attend to this morning at my job, I mustered the strength to get out of bed and get ready for my 45 min commute.
I've been in my current role as a W2 employee for about 5 years, give or take some months due to Covid getting me laid off but then brought back on. The company I work for has a contract with a large company who we provide IT Support to. I don't receive any benefits save the barebones 1 week of sick time I accrue throughout the year. After 5 years I've been seeking new employment due to my company's lack of willingness to provide benefits or any pay increases (until recently I had only received a single $1/hr increase which came after 3 years) and luckily I found a position with the larger company we contract with. Turns out the team with the open position really likes me and offered me the job which I'm set to start in mid-May.
While I'm excited to start my new role, I do have some stress from the transition due to basically living paycheck to paycheck and there will likely be a few week period after starting the new job where payroll is getting sorted out and I won't get paid. That brings us back to today. With no proper benefits in my current job, I now have to sweat bullets over if I will be able to pay my bills after transitioning into my new job because I'm sick and missing time at work. And it's my fucking birthday. So not only can I not celebrate and have a good time, I'm also stuck worrying over money because I'm forced to skip work (even after going in today, I was sent home within my first hour cause I looked and sounded like a complete wreck). Basically fuck our system of not caring about people and forcing people to stress during what should be an otherwise happy moment in their lives. It's my birthday, I'm starting a new job soon with good pay and benefits, and all I can think about is if my electricity will get cut off or if I'll have to cut back on buying food to get by.