This little pig is very wise. Big happiness can seem complicated and unattainable- it often requires change and hard work. But small happinesses, while smaller, are much easier to find and achieve. And after a little apple and a run around… you realize it might be possible to get that big happiness after all. You have it in you!
“Oh boo hoo you shouldn’t ask your friends for favors we’re all adults”
I just spent three hours pulling up carpet and staples for a friend’s home renovation and we all did nothing but chat and joke and have wonderful conversation the whole time.
Helping somebody move or renovate or giving them a ride to the airport is functionally the same as going mini-golfing or playing a board game: it’s an activity that you do that is made more fun by having good company, and which provides something to talk about when the conversation lulls.
I wonder if work just.. got harder in the 2000s, comparatively.
So like… ok. I haven’t researched this and I’m mostly thinking out loud, so forgive me.
I entered the working world in 2005. I had a few odd jobs for a few years and then finally just bit the bullet in 2009, got a job at a grocery storeas an inventory clerk. My job was to count surplus items in the backroom and update the counts. Additional responsibilities included helping stock the front end. I left that job in less than a year.
A friend of mine now works at the same chain, different location, same job title, in 2022. But where I shared that title with two other people, he’s the only one with that job title. Additionally, there are less stockpersons, and he is often called out to the floor to help them, which impedes his primary job function. He is also expected to clean bathrooms and some other maintenance things that I cant imagine doing as an inventory clerk.
And I thought maybe it was just that his location is understaffed, but looking back on the past few years where I was expected to do everything (be the front end, the dispatcher, the manufacturer, the teacher, trainer, janitor, delivery driver, account handler… christ, how did I do all this?) I’m looking at the issue with fresh eyes.
I hear sometimes about the ‘slim down,’ where a lot of companies took on a trend of hiring less people than they need to cut down on the cost of labor, and I look at how fast a person can burn out at a job. And how many jobs are considered 'high pressure sales’ when they dont need to be.
Like I’m looking at the possibility of starting a business and I’m looking at the jobs I’ve had that burned me out and why. And it’s almost always been 'I was always juggling responsibilities because we needed more staff’.
Like it seemed like I was doing everything, but getting paid the same.
And I think about that backroom job, where occasionally i would have to help out the stockers on big days, but mostly my job was one function.
It’s not like that anymore, is it?
So when I hear someone bemoan that 'no one wants to work anymore’ I just think… y'know, work ain’t what it used to be. When you’re working the work of 3.5 people because someone at corporate decided it was right and good to hire less people than they need because it saves them 20$ per hour per store, but you still dint get your bonus because shrinks too high or they didnt make the amount of money they thought they would or you gave too many coupons ONCE. And it’s like they’re actively trying to chase people away, and then threaten you with automation but they do t make work attractive enough for people to show…
Work dont want no one anymore.
Oh damn, the notes on this. Apparently it’s not my imagination and y'all have lived some horror stories.
I feel like we should be able to do something about this. Like we should be able to say 'no’ to lean staffing and we should have a say in what our responsibilities are.
I’m thinking about all the times i should have just straight up said something. Like I think I had it in my head that if I took on all the responsibilities in the shop, eventually I would be rewarded with higher pay. But it doesnt work like that anymore. The reward for digging the best hole is a bigger shovel.
That’s no way to live, though. And I just put up with it like it was normal to be so tired at the end of the day that I couldnt move. Maybe I should have just said 'no, you do it’ when they started making me work outside my title.
Because that took a serious toll on my mental health.
I HAVE A UNION JOB AND LET ME TELL YOU SOME THINGS
It is part time, contract, hourly, full remote. Because it’s union? They have to offer me a minimum of 25 hours a week. If I *voluntarily* go under, that is on me, but they ALWAYS offer me up to that. If I ask for the hours, they HAVE to give them.
Overtime doesn’t trigger until 40 hrs/wk… but any time spent on emails, spreadsheets, my timesheet, ANY admin task that’s more than 15 min? I can bill for that. ALL training, meetings, etc? I bill for that.
I get holiday pay. Seperate from vacation, sick leave, personal time; if it’s a federal or state holiday I *automatically* get 5 hours of pay for that day. Period. Unlimited. I got paid 5 hours to do nothing on MLK day and presidents day, no questions asked, nothing taken away from my other pay.
I get sick leave, vacation leave, “personal” leave (anything that isn’t the former two – like, “my friend had an accident and I need to drive them home”). I get health insurance, dental insurance, life insurance. I get access to the credit union. I get access to job search help if my position gets dissolved / I get laid off!
It costs about $80/month in union dues, but I MORE than get that back in terms of benefits and peace of mind, and it’s automatically deducted from my paycheck.
U N I O N S.
as we are living through a new resurgence in unions, after they were systematically decimated for decades, people might ask ‘how do i join a union?’ or ‘how do i unionize my workplace?’. the IWW isn’t a union union in the sense that it will automatically give you benefits like the above. BUT it is the single best place to start if you want to begin unionizing your workplace, connecting with other workers (including prisoners), and generally learn about unions and the international labor struggle.
It never ceases to amaze me how many tiny, obscure fandoms simply exist and are loved by someone out there, no matter how niche the interest. There is literally something for everyone and it makes me marvel at how unique we are as individuals.
do you ever think about how sometimes it just… takes one random message? and suddenly you find yourself with a best friend or in constant conversation with someone who lives on the other side of the world but is just as much of a freak as you are or maybe you find yourself in love with someone without a last name but with so much kindness and affection in their words and presence. crazy how life and love and friendship just happen
Unpopular opinion: not everything that makes you uncomfortable is bad. Sometimes discomfort means your worldview is being challenged. It’s okay to sit with discomfort and think about where it’s coming from.
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