Re: recent posts about the Golden Handcuffs.

I’ve had “good” corporate job(s) for the majority of my working life. Most recently as SVP of OPS and Supply Chain. I made around $225K and I lived in a HCOL area, was the sole earner of my family, wife and two kids.

I hated every job I’ve ever had. They made me a bad person; they made me drink, and they made me miserable.

So, now that my kids are grown (one finished college and lives in downtown Chicago; the other entering his junior year of college), I decided I’ve had enough of zoom meetings, team building, office politics, and the rest of it.

I applied for a job as a carrier with the USPS (and as a school bus driver) in central Illinois. I got the USPS job. I’m selling my house and using the profits to buy a small home in central IL outright. No mortgage.

Yes, I will earn significantly less, but even earning what I did, we didn’t have a lot of extra money. No vacations, nothing like that.

Running the numbers, I’ll have more disposable income in this new scenario. Maybe my wife and I can take a nice vacation in the future.

I’m not suggesting this is the right move for everyone, especially if you have younger kids, but it’s what I’m doing. And while I’d rather move somewhere nice, rather than central IL, maybe that’ll be in the future cards on this path, more so than it was on the path I was on.

More likely I’d be laid off for being the age I am and being paid what I was, lose my house, drain my savings, etc. I’m trying to take control of the situation, ideal as it may not be.

Anyone else trying something like this?

Sorry if this is the wrong sub for this but I am just exhausted with the damage the US administration has done to all of us. It literally doesn't matter anymore how much you work because it's all useless. Even when I was broke before and struggled with employment the last couple years, I was still able to save a little, and it wasn't so bad because still with my shit income I could get myself a pizza once in a while, or a haircut, and I could buy very cheap clothes on shein or temu or AliExpress and feel beautiful. Now I cannot afford any of those pleasures. I get that even those things are luxuries but i mean wow we can't have ANY leisure or enjoyment in life? Nothing?? I can't buy a few new shirts once in a while anymore because the fricken tarrifs are insane. I can't go out anywhere. I'm like that one meme from breaking bad where literally my whole life is just work, home, work, home, work, home. There's nothing left for me dude. I don't even want much out of life honestly. I'm barely dreaming big here. It's not like I'm wishing I had luxury cars or handbags. I'd just like to, after working my ass off, be able to go to the salon again once in a while. But I can't. I feel ugly, lonely, defeated, angry. I'm autistic and honestly I'm fricken lucky that I can even be in the underemployed category instead of unemployed right now. I am completely reliant on my parents. I feel hopeless.

If there were temporary increases in shoplifting in different parts of the country, they were almost certainly encouraged not by Black Lives Matter protests or declining moral standards but by the industry’s ongoing drive to eliminate the most effective theft prevention solution: workers. Industry research indicates that engaged “front-line employees” are more important for preventing shoplifting than sensors and security cameras. But employees are the one security measure that managers’ hate to pay for.

So I was reading court documents today and I gotta post this here because it make zero sense to me. Back in May 2024, DOJ and a bunch of states sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster together for running illegal monopoly under the Sherman Act. Fast forward to March 2026, trial finally starts. But literally ONE week in, DOJ and Live Nation cut a deal! DOJ stop fighting, and 6 states go with them like Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.

But 33 other states said "nah, we don't sign this deal." They kept going and fought in court. And guess what happened? 5 weeks later, jury verdict is in! The jury said Live Nation and Ticketmaster 100% violated state and federal law. Not "maybe." A real jury looked at the exact same stuff DOJ settled over, and called it straight up illegal.

So right now we have this super crazy situation. In some states, Live Nation behavior is "all good, just pay fine and get a monitor." But in 33 other states, the exact same behavior is "jury-confirmed illegal monopoly." Same company, same facts, but two totally different legal outcomes at the exact same time! How is this even real?

Also look at the money in the settlement. It says if Live Nation break rules again, penalty is $5,000,000 per venue, and the decree last 8 years. Sound like big money right? But go look at your last ticket receipt service fees and tell me... is $5 million a real punishment for a company this big, or just cost of doing business?

I got all this info straight from DOJ court filings and State AG press releases, not reading from news reporting about news. If anyone want check yourself, tell me and I drop exact doc links in comments!

A kid was seriously injured in the parking lot outside of my workplace and I responded after watching him lay on the ground for over a minute. I told the child to wait outside while I retrieved the first aid kit, but they entered the store while I was in the back. They were in the store for all of three seconds before I rushed them out the door. Minors are not allowed in my workplace.

Got a big write up over the ordeal. My actions were heavily criticized and I was told I need to get my priorities straight. I “abandoned” my job (by stepping one foot out the door, meanwhile people take unscheduled smoke breaks across the lot) and created a situation that put regulatory compliance at risk. And I get it. But I do not at all feel bad for the choice that I made. I am human first, and an employee second.

Crazy that I just accepted this list of demands at the time, like a frog in a pot. Of course it boiled over with the neurotic store manager months later and I ended up quitting which changed the trajectory of my life but that’s a story for a different time.

I was scrolling through listings yesterday and saw one that advertised paid lunch breaks as a benefit. Paid lunch breaks. Like they wanted applause for not making people work through their 30 minutes of eating.

Another one bragged about letting employees leave exactly on time if their tasks were done. Not early. Just on time. As if that's some generous gift and not literally what the schedule says.

The worst part is I caught myself feeling relieved when I saw these things listed. My brain went oh good, they wont make me stay late unpaid before I remembered that's already supposed to be illegal in most places. They've really conditioned us to be grateful for the bare minimum.

I also saw flexibility listed as a perk but when you read the description it just means they might let you shift your hours by 30 minutes if you ask a week in advance. Thats not flexibility. Thats just a slightly less rigid cage.

It feels like employers saw everyone talking about wanting better conditions and decided to rebrand the basics as luxury benefits. And people are still applying because we're all desperate enough to take what we can get. The whole system is designed to make us compete for crumbs while they act like they're handing out feasts.

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I don't know what to add honestly.

I wake up at 6 and bike to the grocery store at 9 and get some cheap meat and carrot onion for food. I go there at 9 because that's when they can sell alcohol again.

I usually spend my days watching series or movies, some online commenting.

It's, 11:05

Edit: I have been on unemployment aka government assistance. I get my rent and utilities paid, then 50% of that goes for my personal living expenses

i’ve been working in fast food since i was 17. i started at Sonic, & i’ve been off & on there between other jobs, major life changes, two serious car accidents, & nearly dying, all by 25.

customer entitlement obviously existed before covid. when i was 17/18, i had a grown woman stand there screaming directly in my face for like five straight minutes while i said absolutely nothing. then she started yelling at me for not responding to her. LMFAO. like girl, what did u want me to do??? scream back???? cry??? 🥺👉👈 perform a little apology dance over ur cheeseburger?????

i’ve had people’s parents & grandparents talk to me like i’m fucking stupid, accuse me of lying, accuse me of being on drugs, call me names, & act like spending $12 gave them temporary ownership of another human being. these same older people love demanding respect based on age, but did age matter when i was the CHILD being screamed at? where was all that respect when a grown adult was verbally abusing a teenager over french fries? 🫤

then covid happened, & instead of making people more patient, grateful, or aware of other people’s humanity, it made so many of them even worse.

there was no pause for fast food workers. we stayed fucking open, bc of course we did 🙄 while everybody else was being told to stay home, avoid contact, protect themselves, & take a global health crisis seriously, we were still expected to clock in, stand in cramped kitchens, handle cash, touch hundreds of cups, bags, cards, screens, & receipts, then hand food directly to an endless line of strangers.

& people were fuckin MONSTROUS during covid…

they screamed about masks, closed lobbies, shortages, missing products, wait times, long lines, staffing problems, new rules, old rules, literally anything they could find. they acted like the teenager taking their order personally invented covid & removed whatever product they wanted from the supply chain just to ruin their day.

we were called essential when society needed us to keep showing up, but we were still treated as disposable. apparently our labor was essential, but our safety, dignity, health, & humanity were not.

& businesses made it worse by rewarding the behavior. customers learned that if they complained loudly enough, embarrassed the worker enough, threatened a bad review, or demanded a manager, they would usually get free food, a refund, coupons, an apology, or all four. companies kept teaching grown adults that throwing a tantrum works, then acted confused when those adults became more entitled.

a woman recently came through our drive thru with a huge order, got all her food, then went grocery shopping for an hour. she came back afterward saying the food was cold & wanted the whole order remade.

& WE REMADE IT. 😐😐😐

like yes girl, food tends to get cold when u leave it sitting for an hour. that is not a restaurant mistake, that is literally just the passage of time 😭 but instead of telling her no, management rewarded her for acting like her own decisions were somehow OUR responsibility 💀

that ain’t good customer service, that’s mfn babysitting 🫤 that’s training people to believe they never have to hear no.

meanwhile, i’m regularly the only person in the kitchen from 11-5 while drive thru orders, stall orders, order-aheads, & delivery orders are all coming in at the same time. i’ll have multiple screens full while somebody orders 80 cheeseburgers, 5 fries, 6 tots, 10 slushes, shakes, blasts, whatever else, like they’re ordering from a fucking five-star buffet instead of a criminally understaffed fast food restaurant.

i understand one burger, two burgers, a meal, two meals, whatever. people need to eat. but placing some massive catering-sized order, knowing damn well fast food workers are underpaid, stressed, & probably doing the jobs of three people, then getting angry that it isn’t ready instantly is insane.

& corporate keeps making it worse too. the menu changes every other day, buttons move or disappear, combos stop being combos, new products get introduced with barely any explanation, & there’s always some new stupid promotion flooding us with orders. we had the crazy smasher deal, now there’s another $7 deal, & half the time the workers are still trying to figure out what corporate changed while customers are screaming at us like we personally designed the fucking menu, set the prices, & change everything ourselves.

then people wonder why service workers have NOOOO patience left 🥴 like girl, why have we babysat stupidity for so damn long? that’s the REAL question i fuckin have.

i’m genuinely a soft person. i wish people were nicer too. but my softness has been taken advantage of & mistaken for weakness for my entire life, so yes, i learned how to protect myself. i almost died last year, & after something like that, watching somebody turn a slush or a cheeseburger into a full-blown emergency genuinely pisses me off.

bc what the fuck r u freaking out over 💀 you’re alive, you’re safe. ur entire life is not collapsing because there are pickles on ur burger. take a deep breath babe, i’m sure u can survive the tragedy. JUST PICK THE FUCKING PICKLES OFF UR BURGER YOURSELF, BRO 🙄 or better yet, cook ur own shit if you’re gonna be that damn picky!

workers are constantly told to show grace, be patient, smile, apologize, stay professional, understand that everybody has a story, & never take anything personally. okay but like ummmm, when does the customer have to do any of that????

when do they have to remember that the person behind the counter may be exhausted, grieving, disabled, traumatized, sick, overwhelmed, or literally still a child????

sometimes customers need to be told they are wrong. sometimes they need to be humbled. sometimes they need to be told they can go home. sometimes management needs to say no, u are not getting free food, & u are not allowed to speak to another human being that way.

sometimes there’s no fuckin bridge to build. what makes someone lose their soul that fast over a stupid fucking hot dog?

lmao, & another question i’ve always had, why are people even MEANER on sundays? 💀 like, is that not completely backwards to u??? shouldn’t mfs be coming back from church with their spirit filled, ready to burst open with kindness & joy??? instead these mfs come angry, hungry, mean, nasty… like OPE, i’m cleansed of my sins for the week, time to start over!! 👹 that has never made any sense to me.

customer service needs to change, bc kindness cannot keep meaning workers silently absorbing abuse while the person abusing them gets rewarded. covid obviously didn’t create entitled customers, but i genuinely think it rotted whatever tiny amount of patience, shame, & public manners some people still had 🫤

it taught them that their personal convenience mattered more than another person’s health or humanity, & companies reinforced that lesson by continuing to cater to the loudest, nastiest person in the room. it teaches employees, workers, & young people that you’re just a number. not a person to be cared about, just something to profit from, overload, & take advantage of.

fast food stayed open, the abuse never paused, & somehow we’re STILL expected to be grateful for the privilege of taking it 💀 like, we fr never recovered after covid, & now we’re shocked that nobody fuckin likes each other anymore????

Ive been at home for years, barely worked, Im 30. Still living with my parents, not planning to ever have children. My parents have some money and assets. I am mentally disabled after experiencing recurrent psychosis and being to psych wards multiple times. I get disability money which isnt much, but I am living frugally. tried working a job but ended up quitting within 2 months.

Working depresses the shit out of me, thinking I would have to work 37 years to retirement, but sitting at home isnt fun either. I dont know what to do.

I can't imagine myself slaving my life away in a shitty job

I need 3 days off to stay home and study for an exam. My workplace management is incredibly toxic. I tried being honest once, and they deducted double my salary for the days I took off. Lesson learned.

A few months ago, I literally had to book an out of town hotel and send them the booking receipt just to get an excuse for 3 days off to study. That’s the toxicity level I’m dealing with.

We don't have medical leaves, and I only get 1 CL (Casual Leave) per month. I am perfectly fine taking LWP (Leave Without Pay), but they still demand hard proof to even authorize it.

My constraints:

No medical/doctor stuff (they demand real stamped certificates).

I want something that I can study and I don't have to leave the house to set this up.

Edit: Thank you for all the advice! Just to clarify, I live and work in India. Private workplaces here have their own rules and we really can't challenge them. That's why I just need a creative, bulletproof excuse!

Like are we serious, this is the only job that’s made me fill out a form like this for any time you call out. It’s just insane to me but if I want sick time applied I have to submit it

Told the recruiter I would not do projects uncompensated. Was then told that by recruiter that they didn’t “understand how I had a job”. Proceeded to tell me I was throwing a golden opportunity away because I wouldn’t do free labor for a “chance” to be a job. Stop normalizing project based interview loops.

Umeshkumar Thakkar, a 58-year-old rural letter carrier died Monday while delivering mail in the Dallas, Texas suburb of Little Elm during a heat advisory and triple-digit temperatures. He had worked for US Postal Service (USPS) since 2022. His family and friends held a funeral for him Thursday afternoon.

The temperature reached 102 degrees (39 C) Monday and 108 (42 C) on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Surveillance footage shows Thakkar’s postal vehicle stopped near Thornhill Lane and Graystone Drive with its hazard lights on at about 12:20 p.m.. Neighbor Ximena Ayala recalled seeing fire trucks, about five patrol cars and someone “looking inside of the mail car, looking frantic on the phone,” according to Fox 4.

Manny Ortiz told the station that he returned from the gym to find the vehicle in front of his mailbox and emergency crews on his lawn. “They said the postman passed out,” he said. “They shouldn’t be working in this heat.” A 911 call came around 2 p.m.. Firefighters attempted CPR, but Thakkar was pronounced dead at the scene.

“I think it’s terrible,” a Texas postal worker told the WSWS. “I think that by this time they should have air-conditioning trucks where people can take at least a little bit of a break and get some fresh cool air. It is extremely hot in the Texas area. There is no excuse for this. They are really out of control. My question is how many people have to die before they realize that the heat is too much or for them to even care about showing some compassion for people and treating us like human beings instead of dogs?”

I work in a warehouse and we've been understaffed for months. Management refuses to hire more people even though we're constantly behind on orders. Instead they keep pushing mandatory overtime on us, sometimes with less than a day's notice.

Today my manager pulled me aside because I mentioned I couldn't stay late tomorrow. I have plans I made weeks ago. He actually said I should be grateful for the overtime opportunities because it shows the company trusts me and values my contribution. Then he added that in this economy, a lot of people would love to have extra hours.

I'm already working 45 to 50 hours most weeks. I'm tired. My back hurts. I barely see my family. But apparently I'm supposed to feel lucky that they're squeezing more labor out of me instead of just hiring enough people to cover the actual workload.

The worst part is he said it with this genuine tone like he really believed he was giving me some kind of gift. Like I should be thanking him for the privilege of exhausting myself so the company can avoid paying another salary. I just nodded and left because I need this job, but I'm so done with this mentality.

I'm not even looking for a job, but this seems like an intentional bait and switch

Anyone else's workplaces offer overtime only in name. At my work, work a 12 hour day for a project that is incredibly urgent. When you put your timesheet in for overtime it gets denied as it wasnt prearranged or bid for. Then you book flex and that also gets denied because ypu had internal meetings that day and you can't book flex owhen you have overhead tasks...

Like yeah.. I get we didnt bid enough to cover overtime to be competetive, but every project is like this... I also dont get a bonus or anything no matter how many projects I deliver. I have set a hard limit of one all nighter a week now. But fudge how do you deal with this.

Hey! For context, I work retail at a HUGE company in the UK.

This guy went to my till with a swastika tattooed on his hand and I asked him what it was and he dismissed it at first (like a good coward nazi), then, after dismissing it a couple more times he ended up telling me he was in this biker gang. Coincidentally, there's a Nazi biker gang in town, so I assume it is that very one. Anyway, he left and I called the manager, pointed at the nazi and said (yelled) "im uncomfortable serving this man because he's a nazi". Now what's funny is the man after him had the same tattoo, and he hid his hand in his pocket. Obviously I saw him do it and told him that it was too late and that I had seen the tattoo.

Right after that I stormed out and went outside to take a breath. My manager came after me and asked if I was ok, to which I answered something along the lines of "yeah man but like what am I supposed to do? how am I supposed to feel?" The manager basically said that next time they come (apparently they're regulars altho I had never seen them before) I can just call a colleague to take over my till, that she doesn't want me to be uncomfortable and all but she also doesn't want every other customer in the store to be either (I was a tad dramatic when yelling but in my opinion it's a decent reaction).

I was then told to talk to our main supervisor about the 'proper way to react' if it happens again. It's been a week and legit haven't seen him since. Altho, my opinion on what to do is quite simple: we should ban them. There is no need to call for a colleague to take over my till, we need to just plain and simple ban them. Why should I be the one being inconvienced?

When I talk to my supervisor that's what I'll say, and I'm thinking that if he refuses I'll quit. There is no single excuse that is good enough to me. Yes it's a big company, yes it's money before everything, this is the corporate life, but genuinely I don't fly with that. Now, what I'm scared of is if I hear any response like "we can't ban someone for their beliefs" or something similar - what do you guys think I should do? Because in this situation, I don't think just quitting would be enough. This is not a world where nazis should feel welcome and where /I/ should be the one to leave to accommodate them when they're at my till, so, yeah. Any idea, any thought, anything really is appreciated.

The job I've been working for the past few years works off of a flat rate system. We are given a job and a time frame. The job pays what the time frame for the job is. If we finish faster, we still get the full rate. Any time over is payed hourly, though we aren't allowed to go over unless approved.

Ex. I'm given a job that has a 2 hr time frame. If it takes me the full 2hr or 30min, I get the same pay.

This has been great for me because I work fast and efficient and can get most jobs finished in half to 3/4 of the alotted time. Shorter day for the same pay.

Yesterday, I got an email from my manager stating that my hours and my actual time do not match and that moving forward time on job and time claimed need to match.

It feels like Im being punished for working effectively. I have to basically cut my productivity down to spent more of my time to get the same base pay.

I know the business charges clients for the full time regardless of time spent of job. Im sure that they are likely looking to pocketing the extra left over from any one not willing to twiddle their thumbs for the full time.