Reddit thread r/hatemyjob

[Time2]

I found this thread of a 27 yr old that just got a 50 hr a week job after 2 years on unemployment. I think he is in his first week and already contemplating working two months and quitting. He gets some sympathy about having to work 50 hrs a week, but a couple others criticize his plan. I see a lot of this type complaint about working for a living on reddit, I don't have a sympathy as I spent many years working 50 hrs and more, although at a less physically demanding job.

https://www.reddit.com/r/hatemyjob/comments/spcd08/what_should_i_do/
What do you think, and is this more common now than in the previous generation?

 

[MichaelB]

Previous generations didn’t have Reddit and chose other ways to express themselves.

 

[Turbo29]

The original reddit poster writes later in the thread:

"I think I'll just keep trying to find cryptos to invest into, and keep working on twitch/YouTube and hopefully get paid to play video games, and have a nice relaxing life."

There have always been people looking for an easy riches.. Now with social media they can commiserate with each other. This may not be a good thing.

 

[Aerides]

I wonder if there are any threads on reddit linking to ER.org "look at these retirees arguing about when to take SS lol"

 

[MRG]

I'm not familiar with this sub, each has their own personality. Reddit in general is not work friendly and making money isn't necessarily a good thing..

Is this more common today? I don't think so at all. There's always been a group of people who put work, and it's associated lack of free time, on the "not for me pile". It's to be avoided if it interferes with my life. I remember guys quitting jobs to go deer hunting, "Boss wouldn't let me have my week so I quit. What's wrong with him I always go hunting this week".

Perhaps it's more common folks who have certain skills or whatever. My late brother was like that too, money was secondary. He didn't do well working for a boss who expected certain things like being there every day. He was self employed for that reason. He'd gladly shut down his mill because one of his buddies was needing help. I remember helping his buddy move lumber and equipment because of a potential flood. We didn't work so I didn't get paid which didn't set too well with me. Sometime later we needed a metal shop which that guy had and we spent a week there fixing something that broke. I didn't get paid again! I eventually got a job where there was a bank account people were paid from and things like benefits.

I get welding 50 hours a week would be physically demanding even if he's just spot welding most of the time. I remember a year at the sawmill doing 45 hours a week when times were good. I also remember working there and heading home for a quick shower, meal to turn around and go to night school another 5 hours a night. That was just providing warmup for Megacorp and the hours there.[emoji4]

 

[Time2]

The original reddit poster writes later in the thread:

"I think I'll just keep trying to find cryptos to invest into, and keep working on twitch/YouTube and hopefully get paid to play video games, and have a nice relaxing life."

I thought I'd read something about him saying he was not being able to edit video, so I went back and looked. To quote; "not smart enough to get twitch working properly, not smart enough to edit videos for YouTube."

If that's true why does he think he can earn a living on Youtube and Twitch?

There have always been people looking for an easy riches.

He mentions if he had got hit by a car he could have sued and he wouldn't have to work.

Now with social media they can commiserate with each other. This may not be a good thing.

Also, TV gives false sense of what most people actually have and how most people actually live.

 

[GenXguy]

I found this thread of a 27 yr old that just got a 50 hr a week job after 2 years on unemployment. I think he is in his first week and already contemplating working two months and quitting. He gets some sympathy about having to work 50 hrs a week, but a couple others criticize his plan. I see a lot of this type complaint about working for a living on reddit, I don't have a sympathy as I spent many years working 50 hrs and more, although at a less physically demanding job.

https://www.reddit.com/r/hatemyjob/comments/spcd08/what_should_i_do/
What do you think, and is this more common now than in the previous generation?

I've heard of this and similar subs where people are anti-work. I've never read the actual subs but have seen it referenced elsewhere. It's something that I rather not read. The laziness these days is unreal.

Most of these people complaining about terrible bosses and work conditions are probably just rationalizing an excuse for not working. Heck, I worked with one of these guys who didn't want to come back to work when we reached out to him because he was making more on unemployment! His job was not difficult or stressful, but her preferred the free money for not doing anything. So, they ended up terminating him completely while he continued raking in the free $$$.

 

[Amethyst]

Even for a young person, it takes weeks to adjust to sustained physical labor after long idleness. If this redditor wasn't used to hard physical work, he was probably half-dead from fatigue at that point, and had no one else to moan to.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I enjoy reading the Reddit antiwork and workreform subreddits. The majority of the complaints about awful working hours and treatment by horrible bosses are pretty reasonable and why a lot of us here on e-r.org ended up retiring early.

DH and I worked many 50 hours a week, too, and I don't think it was healthy at all. I don't wish that kind of life for our adult kids or anyone else. It is interesting on those forums to hear about people from other developed countries chime in with their comments. 50+ hours a week with unpaid overtime and 2 weeks vacation is not the norm in many other developed countries.

 

[Walt34]

The majority of the complaints about awful working hours and treatment by horrible bosses are pretty reasonable and why a lot of us here one-r.org ended up retiring early.

During the time I've been on this forum there have been several polls on "Why did you retire when you did?" or similar sentiment. Overwhelmingly the top reason given is horrible managers, followed by horrible commutes.

The wonder to me is why all these megacorps keep their bad bosses in spite of all the millions they cost their employers in employee turnover.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

I wonder if there are any threads on reddit linking to ER.org "look at these retirees arguing about when to take SS lol"

Or an ER.org thread of people reminiscing how much they hated their jobs.

 

[GenXguy]

Or an ER.org thread of people reminiscing how much they hated their jobs.

Some people might. I've never hated my job - it's actually interesting and even peaceful most of the time (I have my own office), although it can be stressful at times. Like so many others here, my primary interest in retiring is to have a lot of free time to enjoy doing stuff I'm even more interested in than working a full time job. But at least I've waited until my 50's and am still not retired, yet.

 

[KCGeezer]

I wonder if there are any threads on reddit linking to ER.org "look at these retirees arguing about when to take SS lol"

Lord I hope not. I’ve read through a couple of Reddit threads and prefer the community here by far.

 

[calmloki]

I've read some of the anti-work reddit group and hope that most of it is just BS and what the writers fantasize about doing or saying to their mean old bosses. Just gotta luck into the right job, sez the guy who has a whole $60 or so hitting his checking account from SS after the medical is taken out (worked for myself mostly, and my tenants). Just gotta figure out a way....

 

[daylatedollarshort]

During the time I've been on this forum there have been several polls on "Why did you retire when you did?" or similar sentiment. Overwhelmingly the top reason given is horrible managers, followed by horrible commutes.

The wonder to me is why all these megacorps keep their bad bosses in spite of all the millions they cost their employers in employee turnover.

My last job had a reverse review process (one time) where employees got to rate their managers. Then the managers were supposed to meet with their directors and the VP to discuss their respective reviews. I was really happy with my reviews, but upper management not so much. They did nothing about their bad reviews except to learn not to ever do reverse reviews again. I remember the VP just talked to me about stuff like the weather and his new house during my session with him because he didn't want to address his own poor reviews.

It really seemed like a good idea to me and something every company should implement and actually act on. Peer reviews would be good to add, too.

 

[jollystomper]

I wonder if there are any threads on reddit linking to ER.org "look at these retirees arguing about when to take SS lol"

Or threads linking to here with "look at all those retirees gaming their riches to get ACA subsidies LOL"

 

[jollystomper]

Previous generations didn’t have Reddit and chose other ways to express themselves.

My view is that previous generations did not have outlets where they could find others who thought just like them, and tended to keep it to themselves. A humorous observation once made was "the problem with the internet is that it allows crazy people to easily find each other and convince themselves they are the normal ones" .

 

[Linney]

DH and I worked many 50 hours a week, too, and I don't think it was healthy at all. I don't wish that kind of life for our adult kids or anyone else.

I've been reading threads like this to try to get some insight into the way that some of my nephews and nieces think. I do agree with daylatedollarshort that it isn't healthy to work 50 hours a week on an ongoing basis. Been there, done that, wasn't good. But the nieces and nephews are complaining about their 40 hour workweeks saying that is unacceptable. They want higher pay, while working less than 40 hours a week, and to be able to take days off "anytime they don't feel like working" (and still get PAID!). They don't have money to buy a house because they take so much time off work, then gripe about how unfair it is. I struggle to not roll my eyes and sigh. One of them regularly re-posts memes on social media about the unfairness of work and I think it does them more harm than good as it reinforces and entrenches their viewpoint.

 

[Koolau]

Heh, heh, I used to w*rk 50 hours weeks for years at a time. The issue was that I only got paid for 40 hours since I was considered a "professional." YMMV

 

[folivier]

My opinion is that it is now far too easy to live a decent lifestyle NOT working. You want more out of life then work for it.

 

[punkinhead]

My opinion is that it is now far too easy to live a decent lifestyle NOT working.

What's your idea of "decent" and how do you get that amount of money without working?

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Heh, heh, I used to w*rk 50 hours weeks for years at a time. The issue was that I only got paid for 40 hours since I was considered a "professional." YMMV

Me too, plus 3 to 4 nights a week away from home sleeping in hotels. All for what?

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

My last job had a reverse review process (one time) where employees got to rate their managers. Then the managers were supposed to meet with their directors and the VP to discuss their respective reviews. I was really happy with my reviews, but upper management not so much. They did nothing about their bad reviews except to learn not to ever do reverse reviews again. I remember the VP just talked to me about stuff like the weather and his new house during my session with him because he didn't want to address his own poor reviews.

It really seemed like a good idea to me and something every company should implement and actually act on. Peer reviews would be good to add, too.

Military units have "command climate" surveys and occassionally they get interesting. Not always but
Occassionally. I revall a navy unit where I saw some of tge responses and some were "this is shore duty so any climate is easy compared to sea duty" some abbreviated responses to just "shore duty"

 

[Sojourner]

My view is that previous generations did not have outlets where they could find others who thought just like them, and tended to keep it to themselves. A humorous observation once made was "the problem with the internet is that it allows crazy people to easily find each other and convince themselves they are the normal ones" .

+1000
I would edit the quote to include quite a lot more than just the "crazy" people: "The problem with the internet is that it allows crazy (or stupid, or angry, or lazy, or delusional, or ignorant, or ...) people to easily find each other and convince themselves they are the normal ones."

I guess the flipside is also true to some extent, as evidenced by my happy participation in this forum for many years.

 

[Koolau]

Me too, plus 3 to 4 nights a week away from home sleeping in hotels. All for what?

I guess the "all for what?" question, for me, is that I do now have a very nice FIRE life-style. Also, I have "enough." Megacorp made that possible though I paid a hefty price for it back in the day. I watched my parents w*rk a lot harder in the family business (in fact I w*rked a lot harder in the family business than I ever did for Megacorp) and they ended up with relatively little - coming out even at death. The family business is still going strong under the guidance of the 3rd generation - almost unheard of. Then again, Megacorp (stock) made me a roaring FORTUNE last year. I took my 401(k) RMD (+) from it and hardly noticed a decrease. So, I guess I was sort of "back loaded" on all those extra hours.

I have relatively few regrets but I did put in a LOT of hours to get here. YMMV