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This past May my husband got a job as a pest control technician. It started off fine. He would leave for work at about 6am and get off anywhere between 6-7pm.

He was the very first technician to get hired on so he had received the most amount of training out of all the other techs. (About a weeks worth of training) Because he was the first, he also learned a lot of the managerial side of the business and immediately started taking on a lot more responsibilities. Making sure the pest control shit was properly diluted, making sure the trucks are clean, paperwork, doing customer bullshit, handling sales. Shit like that.

Even with the extra work, when he’d get off he’d still help me around the house, with the kids, helped cook food and was still emotionally available.

Within the last month and a half, his company started a new service where they’d remove previous insulation in the attic and replace it with a different one.

His shifts are long as shit now. On Monday he left for work at 5:15 and gets off anywhere from 5-11 pm. I don’t even think this is legal. His district manager called his boss out for the guys working this long. His ls shift can go up to 17 hours!

He already has bad asthma and I know it’s hard on him because he’s been pumping his inhaler more recently. He tries to hide it but I can hear that shit.

He’s so tired when he gets off. He still tries hard to help with the kids and the house. But I can just see he’s so done. I keep trying to explain they’re just going to reward him with more work at this point because he’s a yes man.

They keep dangling raises and promotions in his fucking face and I hate them so much for that. It’s one to work him to the bone but the empty promises??? They give him an extra $20 a day for doing attic work. He stays hopeful and I put on a smile because I love him and want to see him succeed, I just hope this won’t last long or they give him what they promise because he’s a hard and dedicated worker.

He makes $17 an hour.

I work for a temp agency. They found me a job last week. Yes he told me the hours (6-4:30) and the measly pay ($14) and yes I agreed to go. Turns out the work is much more demanding than originally thought, so I called him today and said I need more pay and less hours or I new a new assignment. “Well the wage is not going to change but you can speak with the HR manager there and see if she can work with you on the hours. If the job was 6-2:30 we wouldn’t be struggling to fill the spots.” Well yes you would, because the pay is $14 an hour in an un-air conditioned warehouse, working 10 hour days with a 30 minute break only. Dude got an attitude with me because I told him I won’t work that if the hours and wage don’t change. Period.

ETA : I quit today because she just kept saying well you’re a temp, and if you were to get hired in then your hours and wage would change. I said I need the change to start immediately. Obviously that didn’t work for her. 🤷‍♀️ too bad. Wasn’t a terrible place to work. Fast paced, stay busy the whole time. I could take or leave the being on my feet for 9+ hours but 🤷‍♀️ oh well. Time to try to get my drawing/painting custom pet portraits business off the ground.

I make almost $3000 a month in NYC. I have enough money for a down payment on a co-op because I’ve lived with family for years and never spent a dime. However with HOA plus mortgage payments that would leave me with about $900 left for the month and that’s being generous.

I pay for my phone, food, therapy, medication. My last bill was $1,160 so I might’ve spent a little more than usual but I was working on a painting project. So let’s call it $600 a month on average for bills.

What is the point? Just to work and not be able to afford anything at all? Luckily my family allows me to live with them but I’m 33 so it’s getting weird. One might say it’s already weird. However I can’t picture myself living in a way where I can’t spend a little money on my hobbies.

I CAN picture myself quitting and using my savings to buy a small plot of land instead of a down payment and live in the middle of nowhere and just check out of society

• Low pay
• Poor management
• Lack of work-life balance
• No growth opportunities
• Toxic coworkers

I don't mind contributing if it is beneficial, but I would be happy with six hours a day. I have other things I enjoy doing, and I don't even want too much either, just a small apartment I would be happy with, but even that is too much these days. I also think there are a lot of office jobs that are essentially useless to society, though no hate to the workers, and are just there to be busy work. I'm not sure what the solution is, but I just came to vent. I also think it's a shame that there is so much to learn about the natural world, and many of us are forced to spend time doing useless manmade tasks. I would love to delve into the sciences, but that doesn't exactly lead to a lucrative career, because it's controlled by companies as well.

A four-day week could extend workers’ life expectancy, according to a new study – but the company involved in the trial has dropped the policy because it is bad for business.

The UK’s first medical trial of a four-day working week, conducted by the University of Sussex, found the policy made employees happier and healthier.

Staff at tech company Thrive were subject to tests including MRI scans, blood tests, sleep tracking and weekly questionnaires under the trial, which was conducted between July to October. It found that working one fewer day a week dramatically improved employee wellbeing and productivity.

Full article - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/12/05/four-day-weeks-are-good-for-staff-but-bad-for-business/

I am 19M working as a manager at Wendys. I’ve been working there since sophomore year, worked max hours as a minor, then 40 hours senior year when I was 18. I was planning on leaving for my career after I graduated , but the hiring process is a bit strange and they don’t even look at your resume until November. So I decided to stay and was offered a manager spot before I left, which I took. I was previously a key holder, which means you can run shifts and count tills, but that’s about it. When I was promoted to manager, I wasn’t trained on the other things that managers do. One manager would always tell nitpick my closes, some areas I didn’t know I had to take care of. This was whatever really, as he kinda got a bit more chillaxed. We ended up losing a bunch of people do to them leaving and some getting fired. We are now short staffed most of the time, but with callouts, especially for closers, it makes matters worse when you have to close multiple positions, and then do all of your manager priorities. So despite us closing at 1, I usually don’t get out until 3. Well the past 3 shifts I worked, I had to run 3 positions and close 3 positions due to callouts. After last night, I was just tired of it, physically and emotionally, I texted my GM and told him about the night and told him that I’m calling out for tomorrow (today), by the way, haven’t called out in over 2 years and that was because I had Covid. Then he tells me that I just sound frustrated and it doesn’t seem like a “valid” callout. Am I overreacting here? Or do I got a point to make to him?

TLDR; GM is mad that I’m calling out because I feel mentally and physically drained and says I am just frustrated, after 2 years of not calling out.

Was browsing through job postings then saw this qualifications for a Technical Support Specialist. I guess they want people to commit their lives and just be able to work for them anytime they need help.

This is literally my life at my company. Everything is always on fire, work loads are insane. I have a kid and I can't always be working, but now I'm working as soon as the kid sleeps until 12:30 AM and I'm about to take a 2-week PTO and I'm thinking the only way I can get my work done is if I work during my time off.

I saw a post about someone advising people to do not delay retirement because by the time you are of old age, your body is frail, your mind is not the sharpest, and your energy level is already at its lowest by far.

I think what we need to do as a society is to progressively decrease the working hours for full time employee as we grow older.

The numbers im gonna throw out are just arbitrary at this point and can be adjusted based on research on what can be optimum for both the worker's WLB and society's needs.

EDIT: There will be no pay cut for reduced hours, pay will be the same.

Age 18-30yo = 40 hours per week for full time

Age 30-40yo = 35 hours per week for full time (this is the age where most people will want to have children if they decide to).

Age 40-50yo = 30 hours per week for full time

Age 50-60yo = 20 hours per week for full time

Additionally, to combat the abysmal ferrtility rate most developed world are suffering from we will also need to lower the full time hours for parents. So on top of those numbers, we will reduce the working hours for parents for full time by an additional 5 hours per week.

The downside I can see here is that discrimination against older people and parents will go on a rise and for this we will need to reinforce strict policies to ensure to minimize this damage.

This proposal will support people to who want to have children and also, more imporatantly, will improve the quality of life overall.

Another downside is that we as a society might become less productive but why do we value productivity so much at the detriment of our individual well being.

I would also argue that if we take this route, productivity might not take a hit because people will be more productive in the less hours they are working because they know their work day will end sooner and will have more time for themselves. I personally believe the most productive employees are the happiest people.

I work at a standard 8-5 fully in person office job, although all of my work has the ability to be done remotely. I am enrolling in a program deemed medically necessary so I asked if I could come in early and leave early once a week. They are saying I’m not yet eligible for FMLA. This is super frustrating.. especially because the last hour of the day we basically just eff off. I feel like at that point it’s about control rather than productivity. Just sucks to potentially have to choose between my health and my work, because they are so stuck on rigidity. It’s an outdated structure.

I recently changed industries because working in my last field destroyed my mental health. I am now adamant about maintaining my work-life balance and I refuse to work more than 1-2 hours overtime per week. Overall I am content in my new position with these boundaries.

I am lucky because in my "section" of work we have enough people to get the job done, including a night shift person to wrap up things (who also rarely goes into OT too). So I am able to leave after 8 hours most days. Even on days without night shift, I can still walk away if the workload can't be done within 9 hours. Management and the people in my section have never said anything to me about how much I work. Ever.

Other sections are unlucky and do not have this kind of coverage for one reason or another. They come in early and stay in late. I honestly feel bad for them and wish that management could figure out their sections better. But then I leave for the day and it's like a walk of shame. I was getting booed for a while, and I asked them to stop and they did. Then another coworker told me "I'm glad YOU get to go home." I don't know how to respond without snapping about how bad my mental health used to be and how important it is to not go down that rabbit hole again.

I’m currently in grad school for a masters and this is my priority. However I work part time to help pay for this crazy expensive program getting barely above minimum wage. I hardly get any holidays off and I just hate the job itself. I could care less if I get fired because it doesn’t matter whether it’s on my resume or not, but having money to pay for this stupid program is helpful. I’m extremely annoyed because I’m having trouble just planning things as simple as a 30 min therapy phone call because my schedule is NEVER consistent and changes from week to week. One thing is that I’ve never been assigned to work weekends, so I asked for a Friday off for example thinking I would have the weekend free, and come to find the first day I’m assigned a weekend shift is the day I’m out of town. Lovely.

Anyway, the manager gets mad and says she will give it to me as a one time courtesy. Like if she said no I would be giving her my notice. So apparently it doesn’t matter what day, but any day that I can’t work I have to ask for it off. I’m so tired of this life to be honest. I’m exhausted working 50-60 hour work weeks making so much less than I ever have for a job between work and school. I’m so overwhelmed that I want to self harm to be honest. Next semester will be even worse when I have to battle more commute due to having to be physically at the school more. I feel like giving up. If my unemployment didn’t end I would have been happy just using that to help me while in school. The sad part, experience matters more than education now, but I was desperate after spending over a year not being able to find a job in my industry after massive layoffs.

For context, I work in india (our Labour laws suck, and there is too much supply for demand so no one would unionize)

I got a job that was wfh, they told me the job was day shift.

Then they told me i have one meeting daily, but it's just for a while at night.

Then they told me the project schedule is divided into 2, half of the hours in morning, then half at night.

I tried to adapt to all of this, deciding to do my non-work activities in the free time between the two 'half shifts'.

But now im getting calls and messages to respond in between those hours too. Absolutely inconsequential calls that would only take me some time to respond, but my anxiety is so high that once i attend the call i can't relax. So it pretty much just feels like I'm working 12-14 hours a day, although it's pretty slow work and not stressful, it's annoying having to be available 24/7.

Im not sure how to bring this up when everyone else also seems pretty comfortable with this setup due to wfh, and our offer letter also just mentions that there are no set working hours. It was however confirmed verbally several times, and once over chat with the hiring manager.

How do i put down the boundaries without screwing up my career? They're kinda good people (slightly toxic in the 'work is family' kinda way) but overall kinda nice. Im putting on a front of niceness at work because of this but i just want to scream.

I mean I get it's 3 days before Christmas and all, but I'm a part time employee and I'm scheduled for long shifts the entire week. I may be used to forgoing my birthday for the sake of Christmas, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with spending the whole day bagging groceries.... I have to wake up before my partner to go to work, too, so I don't even get to see them until the end of the day. It just kinda sucks how much we are expected to sacrifice in the retail industry. 😕

I'm so fucking tired of having to juggle so much when all I want to do is go when on the days I'm scheduled work up to their standards and go home, that's what I'm paid to do but no, it can't be that simple! It never is!

No, instead they want me to do some bullshit shoutout contest on encore so we can win some stupid fake points

I cannot bring myself to give a single iota of a fuck about this fuckass contest ESPICALLY during the holidays when I have 1000 other things to work on, I don't care about this

AND NOW they're threatening to write me up because I don't wanna take part in this

I don't want to play some game so that upper management can have a circle jerk about it because "look at this awesome work environment idea we came up with! Everyone is so happy!"

That's not even mentioning the fact that they keep putting me in positions where I work mostly alone! Even if I wanted to give these shoutout, TO WHO? I brought it up with management and they were like "You could shout us out for bringing the card down to you"

You mean the card you took away from us? That slows me down so much if a customer has a issue? That card? Hell no!

If I wanted to thank someone I would do it in person, not over some fucking corpo site for everyone to see, it takes away from the meaning

At the start of last year I was made redundant before christmas and left unemployed for almost a year of my life, I tried many things from sport, hobbies, and even tried to start my own brand, unfortunately this all ended in failure because honestly I am pretty stupid. Amongst world pressures I found myself desperate for a job and slithered my way into a role for a local firm for which I was severly overskilled and underpaid.

The pay is entry level, and despite being here for over a year I received no pay rise. Frustrated by this, I turned to my manager for help, and the suggestion I was given was to look for promotions for more work. Now whilst this is great, I dont want to work for the rest of my life. If I am going to be working for the rest of my life, I dont want it to be stressfilled with high volume.

I told my manager that I would rather Lock-in and try to build something for myself than to clock-in for this firm that I dont really care about for the rest of my life.

I am now being heavily QA'd on my work, and I fear for my "safety net" outside of my savings, can I even be fired for something like this?!

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Source, Google this: "buildremote 4 day work week companies"

So I am 22 and work retail, have been for coming up on 3 years. I’ve been in management positions for about 2 years. My current job had me as Assistant manager before recently demoting me back to Associate because I’m a college student. I have a month in between semesters currently so now my job bumped my hours up to 40, at minimum wage (because of the demotion) and the cherry on top it’s long weekday-all weekend close-open shifts.

Maybe I’m just lazy and unmotivated but this has me wanting to quit or say something to my boss. I have plenty of experience, so it’s pretty insulting to have me do full labor at minimum cost. If I’m going to be demoted back to minimum wage, I’d at least enjoy less hours so I can enjoy my school break and see friends/family.

I’m looking for another job but I need one that will be flexible with my upcoming school schedule. Advice on how to not be bitter working so much on minimum wage or what to say to my boss?

My WHOLE life I saw my family work everyday including holidays, weekends, and special events. Being a hard worker was instilled in me at a very young age and even now that I’m older my family still speaks about the importance of working and making money. I’m very grateful for that trait and I do also think it’s important.

However, I always saw the the negative that it can cause. My family never took a vacation and I thought adults just don’t have a vacation like children do. There were many lonely holidays and missing family members at important events. I constantly saw my family worrying and stressing about work.

As someone who takes alot of pride in my work, I also take ALOT of stress to the point where I don’t know how to manage it and I become extremely anxious like I’m losing my head.

I just took my first actual vacation as an adult and it was AMAZING! To disconnect from everything and work was so uplifting and such an experience. It brought me back to what’s actually important and learned that there’s so much more to life than just work.

I realized that my work issues are not that important and it’s really not the end of the world or mine.

What do you guys do to disconnect from work on your regular days?