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Antiwork

When I Woke Up

I was doing the daily grind, working under unreasonable artificial deadlines, given projects with no clear objectives, berated for things I didn't do. But I was used to that. Then I had a health emergency that resulted in 2 hospital stays and a month on short term disability when work legally was not allowed to contact me. The hospital time (and the really good drugs I was on) and the enforced time away from work woke me up to just how bad things were. I was still part of the group text chats on our personal phones and was seeing the situations in a new way. That's when I realized just how much employers take advantage of slow changes to make them the new normal. That's also when I realized I was done playing that stupid game. I have no doubt my attitude put me on the list to be…


I was doing the daily grind, working under unreasonable artificial deadlines, given projects with no clear objectives, berated for things I didn't do. But I was used to that.

Then I had a health emergency that resulted in 2 hospital stays and a month on short term disability when work legally was not allowed to contact me.

The hospital time (and the really good drugs I was on) and the enforced time away from work woke me up to just how bad things were. I was still part of the group text chats on our personal phones and was seeing the situations in a new way.

That's when I realized just how much employers take advantage of slow changes to make them the new normal. That's also when I realized I was done playing that stupid game. I have no doubt my attitude put me on the list to be laid off later that year. I was quite happy to be on that list.

The moral of this story is that when you can truly escape your job for even a few weeks your whole attitude can change.

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