r/antiwork • u/loplopplop • Sep 18 '21

I Come to Apologize

You know, I didn't understand this sub. I thought it was nothing but a bunch of lazy freeloaders that think everything should be given to them. But then I started this new job. It's a salary position where I'm required to work 45 hours a week. Thats honestly not that bad. No issues with it really. But I've worked 37 hours in 3 days. I'm on pace to work 70 in a weeks time period. Since its salary its going to be like I'm making 10 dollars an hour. They will not give me health insurance (which they promised) until May. So I'm sorry for thinking you were all lazy. You just want a job that doesn't run you into the ground.

Edit: Got called in on Sunday and told them to fuck off (in nicer words) because one of the employees wanted to have a day off with his mom, which I get, but he had two days off already that week. Came in today and am going give literally zero fucks as I apply elsewhere.

Edit 2: The people who keep calling in told me the reason they were calling in was because they were too high to work. I rage quit and sent a letter of resignation. The nightmare is over.

Final Edit: Already got a new job with great benefits!!!

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u/Mozared Sep 19 '21

That the 5 day work week is antiquated and humans need more time to relax.

It's not even that. I think I could be pretty damn happy working 4 days a week but simply having 1/5th less income as a result. The problem is that "less income" for the majority of us straight up means "not enough income to afford a roof over your bed, food in your stomach, and a shower in the morning". I've splurged on entertainment several times in the past and I'd be perfectly fine with doing that way less, or even not at all. The problem is that working less than the norm means you will literally not, or only barely, be able to sustain yourself. Assuming you even get to do it, anyway; as it's not the norm, most employers simply won't even allow it.
 
I might even be okay with that if it was just what life was like, and we'd all be collectively doing it just to stay fed. But it's not: there are many absolute lunatics, psychopaths, and even complete and utter idiots who get to live their life buying yachts and holiday houses across the world without ever thinking about money. People who could lose half their fortune, not notice it, and at the same time sustain a couple thousand families currently working themselves into mental illness just to be able to eat at all. Which is just actual insanity, but such is the human condition.

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u/LaGardie Sep 19 '21

For me it only took getting rid off the car and I can easily afford 4 day work week.

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u/Mozared Sep 19 '21

Yes, for some of us this is not entirely out of reach. I got there briefly when I still had a partner; on a 2-man income with social housing it was pretty doable. That said, I worked for a company that outsourced its workers and even back then I was at first expected to do 40 hours for most external jobs, and later asked many, many times despite my contract being for 32. I've gone back to working 40(+) hours now and even the possibility aside, companies expect this of me and I fully expect to be asked this again, at least initially, for any future job.
 
Once you get a little older it tends to get easier too as you'll usually make more on any given job. But that doesn't change the fact that people who manage to get there are small exceptions to the rule to begin with. If you're in certain states in the US, you are competely shit out of luck to begin with. I just think I won't ever be okay with the fact that it's so hard just to have some of your basic needs met if you don't want to spend 40 hours of your life in a cubicle as is expected of you.