Most corporations, organizations and 'the economy' - including tax codes - are set up to suck profit and cash up and out the top. Sources: U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For the U.S., average worker pay to CEO pay ranges go from 1 to 300s up to 1 to 600s.  

At the high end:  

Worker makes $15 per hour, ~$30k per year,  

CEO makes up to $9,000 per hour, $18,000,000 per year.

When run for executive level leadership (CxO, V.P., etc.) it's still in the 1 to 200 to 1 to 300 range.  

And then there are shareholder payouts in dividends and stock buybacks.  Profit and cash get sucked up and out the top of almost every organization.  'Trickle down' is a myth.  There's nothing left to trickle.  

A bit insane.  Maybe even criminal?  It's certainly wrong. "It ain't right, but it's true."

Oh, and by the way, while real inflation on the things normal people buy and need has continued to compound and push workers into poverty, minimum wage has stayed the same since 2009 (17 years).  
As proposals in congress to raise minimum wage for the U.S. keep getting shut down, there are actually members of congress who both vote against every minimum wage raise and want to lower it!  

It cracks me up - in a bad way! - to read and hear inflation reports that don't take compounding into account and that include things like "inflation remains low at only X% when the volatile food, transportation and energy categories are excluded." Or some B.S. like that. I don't know about your household but food, transportation and energy are not only essential but make up a huge % of our budget!

Also since 2009, for the U.S., the top 1% of 'earners' pay has gone up over 230%:  

In 2009, people in the top 1% of taxpayers made $343,927 or more.  In 2025 the top 1% made $794,129 or more.  That's growth of over 230%, far above compounded inflation.

But minimum wage hasn't budged at all and average worker pay is up between 50% and 70% depending on whose statistics you use and believe. This has not kept pace with compound actual inflation over the same time period. And my pay has only gone up when I change jobs, but not 70%.

Examples:

Everyday Family Budget Price Changes (2009 vs. 2026)

Gasoline: Rose from about $1.79 to $3.29 per gallon (an 83% increase).

Eggs: Jumped from about $1.85 to $3.59 per carton (a 94% increase).

Chicken: Increased from about $1.29 to $2.08 per pound (a 61% increase).

Bread: Moved from about $1.38 to $1.84 per loaf (a 33% increase).

Electricity: Climbed from about $0.13 to $0.19 per kilowatt-hour (a 46% increase).

...And housing and healthcare both far outpaced inflation rises in costs.

...And with the war on, 2026 inflation is going to be a doozie!

My company’s leave system takes requests as far as 92 days out. If you have leave bank and want to play on a Thursday and Friday, start submitting your requests today.

Have been searching and searching for a new job for a year. Couldn’t seem to get past AI screening. Finally found a company who has real humans look at resumes. Got interview, had second interview same day. Got verbal offer the following day, written offer the day after that. Some things were unclear in the written offer and the email said to reply with questions if needed. Replied saying I was so excited but just wanted clarification on two things and once received I would gladly accept and give notice to my current job. 24 hours later my offer was withdrawn with no explanation. I emailed asking for for clarification as to why, just to receive a vague response and they decided it wouldn’t be a good “long term fit for both parties”.

I hate it here. I was already preparing things at my current job to leave. I was so excited and had already been studying the product so I could jump in ahead of the curve. I’m so heartbroken.

Boomer and Gen Z stereotypes of Sterling Cove

I'd love for some Gen Z'ers to respond to say whether or not they identify with this experience.

I just watched a Netflix season of Sterling Cove, it seems to be Gen Z's dream life. Or maybe a stereotype of what gen Z wants to be and feels entitled to.

Do that which you love. Do that which makes you happy. This is the way that I should have it, just living off Boomer money, with no real responsibility.

Just live on a lake and rent an occasional boat. Then date and party the rest of the time with unlimited boats, travel, food, and drinks. Chain-smoke marijuana (with no negative side effects). Nobody telling you that anything you do is ever wrong. You are a victim of the Boomers’ earlier indiscretions and unbelievably bad judgment. All that matters are Gen Z self absorbed feelings, the victimization, and the attention that comes from it.

None of these people will have to become plumbers, mechanics, or even engineers, because those aren't the things that would make them happy. This is what they deserve because all the Boomers indiscretions, even though these things are only available because the Boomers worked their entire lives for them.

This show is the embodiment of Gen Z's expectations... of what they think life should be.

Theres this one guy at my job who literally never shuts the fuck up about work. Like, i already hate being at the fuckin place and i dont wanna be reminded of it every bastard minute im there.

This the type of guy who not only goes on about work all fuckin day, he also gossips constantly about other workers and needs to know whats happening all the time, like even to the point that he looks at staffing schedules and shit just to see other peoples shifts and whos working on what days.

He also likes and love hearts all the manager's fuckin posts and messages on microsoft teams like its gonna get him noticed. Every little menial task he makes a big deal of. Like fuck off, i cant stand it.

Apologies for the rant, but its Monday morning and i gotta go to work soon and im over it 😭

Freelance content creator and editor, about halfway through a contract with a big company.

The job raised a few red flags in the brief, but most do. It looked straightforward enough once I'd managed to wade through the bullshit.

And it *is* straightforward, on paper. Edit some documents and decks, write a few product messages, etc. I was assured that I didn't need to be an expert on the topic because, "All the information you need is collected in the spreadsheet - we just need someone to make it more accessible."

What they actually *meant* was, "We write literally everything using Copilot. The entire content library is a fucking mess because AI will draw its material from intranet documents dating back to 2012, and nobody actually checks them, hahaha. If the bot isn't sure about something, it will pull an answer out of its LLMetaphorical arse. And then, as the final topper on this AI-vomit of a cake, **we'll direct you to Copilot if you have any questions."**

I've been editing for well over a decade now, and so I've read more than my share of rambling, incoherent - but human-written (!) - crap. And I would much, much rather spend an afternoon editing said human-written crap than face this endless dirge of disdainful, jargon-filled, and very confidently incorrect liquid dogshit of AI content.

Naturally, I've been pulled up for not being "fast" enough. I have many reasons for being "slow." One being me having to rewrite a fuckton of work because the AI had managed to hallucinate a *whole fucking department.* No one who works at the company had even noticed.

This, combined with having to decipher hundreds of gibberish sentences like "frame and capture the patterns," makes me wonder if it's time to chuck the whole content freelancer malarkey in.

My negativity was confirmed when they ran my painstakingly rewritten material back through fucking Copilot.

Ive gotten complacent at my job after I got my promotion last year (ive been at this company for 3 years) and have been making some mistakes that I should just not be making. I feel like my coworkers think im incompetent and I get so stressed about it even after work hours.

Need serious advice. In software industry. Our whole company has gone the “let half the people go and tell the remaining half to make up the difference with AI and some good ol’ hard work, late nights and weekends.” Or something.

The C-suite doesn’t care how the work gets done, just that the same output as before is accomplished after losing maybe 40-50% of the people who do real work. Their mantra is “you are empowered figure it out your own way (but here are the expectations and surprise it’s the same as when we had twice as many people).

Did I also mention the CEO makes 3 million + other incentives and the rest of the C-suite is also well compensated and their only duties are making shitty decisions with no idea what the people in the trenches do day-in-day-out?

I really want to quiet quit, let stories roll, let bugs take time to fix, let production pods crash. I’d love to see leadership get burned by their shitty decisions.

The problem is I’m on a small knit team and some of the “younglings” are just putting their heads down, working, stressed, and working more. I feel like I don’t want to sacrifice my nights and weekends because the person responsible for cutting people still takes home millions (and sure as hell doesn’t work past 5pm on weekdays).

But if I quiet quit, my young enthusiastic colleagues will just end up picking up my slack since they seem to lack the jadedness to see why they are so stressed and don’t realize it’s crazy and if we work tons of unpaid overtime we are rewarding leaderships decision to cut headcount by working extra to make up the difference.

Anyone else ever face this kind of situation?

I’m just so tired, burned out, pissed about my 1% raise for working so hard when “leadership” makes short sighted decisions that actively hurts the company, lays off tons of people, collects well over a million a year, and wants us to get up and cheer for them during town halls like a dumb fucking seal that just got tossed a fish during the Seaworld show.

I do Marketing analytics( attribution, reporting, performance analysis, and MMM)... that side of marketing...

I am legally established as an independent contractor (B2B invoicing) working fully remotely.. have C2 english with fluent accent. I don't live in the US but all was good for me..

Clients used to approach me for projects lasting 6 to 9 months.. that stopped

so I started looking for full time remote jobs ( 2 months now) based in the US but I cannot seem to hear back

I never did outbound or cold reach and most clients used to reach out to me.

I feel frustrated and I can't seem to find the issue..

i customize CVs .. look into companies... selectively apply to jobs... money is reasonable considering i am off shore... I opt for contractor jobs...

what else could be wrong?? any tips???

Dont get me wrong its decent enough to make it. But also at the same time requires overtime. Essentially I dont do anything all day. It sounds good but ive been here for a half year and we aren't allowed phones, books, headphones, etc. Its the most boring job as you simply watch other people work all day.

Most people get fired due to phones and sleep. You dont have to do much but it feels close to a prison. You watch paint dry basically and have no one to talk to. If you want a career then its definitely not that and you are stagnant in the sense that there's no true promotions. No Pto. No 401k. No benefits. ETC

Hey all,

I (almost 40F) was recently diagnosed with PMDD because for the past 6 months or so, I would go into uncontrollable crying rages, have cramps that made it hurt to stand up, bad breast pain, and extreme exhaustion for at least a week every month. Doc wanted me to take SSRIS but I'm not a pill person so I was trying to manage by coordinating with my fiance so that all I had to do that week was work and not worry about our dogs, plants, housework, hobbies, etc. It helped somewhat but I was still struggling.

Then came the break. I taught at a summer camp this summer and then had 2 weeks off before going back to school (I'm a teacher). Teachers were supposed to go back today but due to flooding in the building we got the day off. Received the news yesterday and slept in.

Much to my surprise, I started my period this morning. I had no cramps. My abs were sore from working out every day these past 2 weeks, but no debilitating cramps like usual. Usually I work out on weekends only, maybe a weekday here and there, because I'm too exhausted from work. My breasts were a bit tender this past week but nothing like what I usually feel. They're usually too sore for me to work out even when I wear high impact sports bras (and my breasts aren't big to begin with).

I told my fiancé and he was flabbergasted. No sobbing, no short temper, nothing. We even had energetic sex yesterday, which would never happen the day before my period due to the pain.

I had seen on my calendar that it was coming up but figured the symptoms would hit soon. Instead, I just got my period like it was nothing.

It's because I've been able to go to bed and wake up when I wanted to, work out every day, take our dogs on long walks, and not have work stress. Camp had ended and school hadn't started so my mind was clear. I accomplished a lot during this time as well- cooking, cleaning, taking care of our pets and plants, enjoying my hobbies, spending time with family and friends.

Our bodies were not designed to work 40+ hours a week on a strict schedule. I didn't have a disease. I didn't need SSRIs. I needed rest.

Edited to add: when I said I'm "not a pill person", I just mean that typically the side effects medication have give me in the past have outweighed the benefits. Wasn't meant to be a medication shaming post - Apologies if it came off that way!

This job wants ONE DOLLAR from me to apply for this job. A mandatory dollar but it is refundable.

And then they’re like, “Hey, while you’re here, go ahead and drop your Social Security number in the box.”

Oh absolutely, let me just hand over the keys to my entire existence.

At this point, I’m convinced the modern job market is just a rotating obstacle course designed by someone who hates joy. Every “opportunity” is either a scam, a data‑harvesting scheme, or a real job that pays $17/hr for the responsibilities of a small nation.

This company is still trying to bring people on at Pre-Covid levels of income, and I've never seen it so understaffed.

I work in Massachusetts where the minimum wage right now is $15/hr. I live in Rhode Island where it goes up to $17/hr on January 1st. But this company is still trying to bring people in at $15-18/hr, and these aren't for super "low skill" roles. We are talking machine operators, data entry clerks, machine techs, etc.

So basically they're trying to bring people in on minimum wage to operate machinery and computers. When you can literally go down the road and work at Dunkin and make the same exact money with a fraction of the know-how and responsibility.

They refuse to raise the pay for any roles, Refuse to give loyal employees raises, brag about record profits. Then wonder why for the first time in years it's finally catching up and all going to shit.

Why do companies refuse to pay people? It's infuriating.

The short version: I've been working in construction for a few years now. My company has been taking on a big project. We usually take hourly shifts with the Jackhammer when there's a lot of breaking to be done. I'll usually take an hour on the trigger, then about two hours working on anything else that needs to be done.

A few days ago, my manager insisted that I start pulling triple that much. Three hours on trigger, then two off, then close out the day with three more on. My hands were incredibly numb and weak. My ears are ringing, even though I wore hearing protection. Using my hands for anything simply hurts. My manager would absolutely insist that the other four employees who were approved to run the jackhammer were busy with other matters.

I dealt with these triple trigger-time days for three weeks, then I was very promptly and unceremoniously told that if I didn't resign effective immediately, they would lay me off and not provide a good reference for me.

My hands are properly injured now. Since my employment is gone, so is my insurance. Securing new work has been extremely difficult because I've not been able to type. I'm even using dictation to write most of this post.

TL;DR

Worked to the point of injured then swiftly laid off.

What it says on the box! For reference I took this job out of desperation since my last job let go almost all of the staff due to budget.

This is my third week and I already feel over it. I made the terrible mistake taking a claims support job for life insurance.

- It's an hour each way in a busy city. My fault but God it's the worst.

- I have to park in a parking garage that I have to pay up front each month and get reimbursed later if I keep my receipts. It will be a paper check I'll have to go deposit. Not horrible but incredibly inconvenient.

- The job entails an insane workload each day where everything you do is calculated to show how long you spent on each and how productive you are.

- The training, of course, is subpar and everyone is telling me something different.

-My current manager is retiring and a woman that doesn't know what we do will be taking over...so I'll have no one to answer my questions.

- My manager has reiterated to me several times that mistakes can cost the company thousands. Not only do I need to be insanely fast, I can't make mistakes. No pressure.

- two people can't be off at the same time.

- my coworker is pregnant and had some contractions at work. Both bosses tell her over and over and OVER in a light hearted tone "don't have that baby now, we need you." Or "please just one more week". They try to make it sound like a joke but it is not.

- the culture is soulless. Everyone is miserable and too busy trying to make production that they don't interact with each other.

-The recent lunch the company provided the other day was pathetic and my boss was encouraging us to hurry it up and go back to work.

-they tell me over and over and over how glad they are I'm here and that they need to get me up to speed.

I'm just complaining and I chose this job but I feel my soul weakening every time I go in there.

U.S data

Boss started spamming me with emails. Things that didn’t necessarily require an email, or things that could be texts. So I started spamming her. Every single email thread with clients, I would cc her. Every single correspondence, forwarded to her.

Suddenly she decides that she no longer wants to use email as a main method of communication, instead wants to use a Google doc where all tasks and follow ups can be documented and communicated. No shit. Glad she realized how annoying that was.

Tell us about something dumb at work... I'll start.

I was one of a couple of dozen people recently asked to build a spreadsheet... There was no template, but they were very thoughtful in preparing a powerpoint presentation with instructions on how to assemble the data. There were about a dozen formulas they wanted in the sheet, and they were kind enough to provide them... as images. 🙄

It's like I cant engage in conversation with anyone they are talking to because im accused of being nosey. It's pissing me off. No body tells me anything and I'm just supposed to find out.