I found a nice quiet job in a lab that’s like this. No one fucks with me, some days I’m completely by myself, but the one drawback I’ve discovered is I find myself getting stuck in my own head a lot. Sometimes I have to go find something or someone to distract me.
I had the job shelving books. I’d show up in a button-up shirt and slacks and I could shove all day with no problem at all. No one would bother me. I’d show up in ripped jeans, a Metallica t-shirt, and 4 years since my last haircut and people would ask me for help every moment of the day. Libraries are weird.
Good example of outfits sending signals.
Slacks and a button-up probably made you look like management just out picking up slack, and people subconsciously left you alone - “oh, they’re probably really busy with management stuff and also had to go shelve books… I’ll leave them alone”
Casual clothes in contrast would have signalled “worker” - “I’ll just go ask that person, it’s not like they’re doing anything important, they’re just shelving books!”
It probably didn’t help that I was a 17-year-old that looked like I was in my late twenties.
I dunno I thought I wanted this and took a job at a datacenter
Some days I don’t even interact with another human
5 years into this and it’s completely killed my social skills and therefore social life, im thinking about moving on for this reason actually
If it pays ok, why not volunteer?
You get to socialise, you get to feel a part of your community, you get to feel like you’re making a difference, etc.
I don’t know why but the hermit nature of the job leaks into my real life and I tend to not want to socialize outside of work either
It’s all been a slow burn in this way
I’ll second the volunteering, though I never really feel comfortable socializing among the volunteers, it still feels good actually doing something I think matters, but at the same time know I’m utterly replacable and no one would specifically need me to do any of it.
I’ve climbed the corporate ladder and traveled all over the world until I got near the top where the nepotism is thick. Said ‘fuck that’ and bailed out early.
New plan: “Work for myself.” Took me a decade to get here because of little things like health care and capital.
Been on my own for almost 2 years now and it is glorious.
Never wanted to climb the ladder, but it was the only way I could really get better pay.
The higher I go, the more I can’t stand the conversations. Being straightforward is a career killer. Competing with folks that talk big without knowledge, knowing I need to carefully balance working with them while making sure my ass is documented and covered for any blame when they screw up and want to throw someone under the bus.
I have generally still loved talking to the “grunts” and customers. People who have real problems and doing real stuff without so much office politic crap going on. Not people trying to write blog posts to try to sound smart without actually doing anything or actually knowing the material.
I’m 40 and getting my massage therapy license out of nowhere. Similar line of thinking.
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almost all my friends dream of this. ideally, communes start with a community buying land and building infrastructure, which gets pricier each day 😌 I’ll settle for an RV at this point
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One of the best jobs I ever had was night shift stocker at a grocery store. I’d clock in as the store was closing and would clock out about an hour after it opened. I’d get stoned out of my mind, listen to music or audio books the whole time and restock cereal and stuff.
My job now is pretty cushy now, but I do reminisce when I didn’t have to think about work during off hours.
I actually started climbing the ladder and to be honest, I fucking hate it and am looking for a way out. I have never dealt with so many people that are willing to sacrifice their own dignity to be a sycophant for the sake of money.
Honestly, at 45 with a very patchy CV because I was forced to become a full time carer more than once (fuck cancer), I’m probably fucked.
Feel like I might as well flush my degrees down the toilet. Luckily I live in Europe, so I didn’t have to go into a huge amount of debt for them.
That’s life I suppose. Sticking around for the life ending asteroid Hollywood has promised us.
Get your library science degree now, there are only a few accredited programs. I thought about doing this earlier this year and was surprised at how complicated it actually was to become a librarian.
Yeah, feel the same since the great slopification of the internet and also my job…
Me at 34 I wanna go back in time and do nothing
Always interesting how the world works I spent from 2007 - 2018 in shit jobs where baby boomers were in control of everything and I hated it… They’re arseholes
Now it’s 2026… I’m nearly 40 and insecure Gen X managers (actual psychopaths) are doing everything they can to destroy people my age and younger.
Now before anyone starts up telling me I’m the same. I work with a few Gen z people and I do everything I can to prop them up, I want to help them I don’t want any of them to fail… When I was starting in IT support I got shit on by baby boomers and 50% of Gen X (the other half helped me).
Life is too hard to be cruel to people just trying their best. Every time I see a young person struggling and I help them out makes me happier that baby boomers will all die soon and Gen X will all fuck off into retirement.
I can’t even explain now many entitled psychopaths I have to deal with are all Gen X… They were the generation of “Fuck the rules, fuck the police”
Now they’re all old and they’re “Fuck the rules, give me what I want and give me it now! I am more important than everyone and you need to treat me like I’m a king/queen”
