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Big corporations suck. Startups and SMBs suck even more mostly. Freelancing sucks too. I've done all three at high pay and senior levels.
You can mostly only choose how much it sucks and why, and what particular flavour of shit sandwich sucks least. For many, stability and benefits is what sucks least, even if the company is soul sucking.
The only good companies I've heard of are those with very strong unions or outright constructed on the German Derigisme model with worker board input.
I walked out of my $65/hr corpo job back in October, it was a workplace that was dehumanizing, stressful, and dangerous. I do not regret it.
dehumanizing, stressful, and dangerous.
This sounds way worse than my situation and I'm glad you did what was in your best interest at the end of the day.
It was more so dangerous to clients/customers due to an unrealistic amount of work expected to be done by a skeleton crew. Wasn't dangerous to us but I could no longer ethically work there.
are you stealing? you could be stealing a lot more than you are. when your boss gets up to use the bathroom, take the pictures of their family.
. Am I wrong for not being able to suck it up and cash my check?
Kind of.
I do my job and enjoy it relatively, but ultimately I don’t care. I just care when the deposit hits every two weeks. Other than that it’s no different that shitting or brushing my teeth. I’ll complain about it being pointless and boring and dumb etc. but even that seems pointless because I’m sitting on a computer and typing for 8 hours, not unloading trucks of food or cleaning bathrooms.
If you only care about work then it’ll annoy you to no end. Find something to do that’s physically and/or mentally stimulating. Dogs and cats may run immediately to you when you open a can of food, but if you leave them inside the house all day even if their needs are met, they’ll become depressed.
No you’re not an asshole. I stomached that sort of thing for about 5 years. My future is less fiscally certain, but I left the corpo life about a year ago and I’ve never been happier.
You must play w/ the cards your dealt. It’s a cliche bc it’s true and you won’t really know what that means until you’re staring down these sorts of decisions. Eventually u will be able to make ur life work for u if your current position becomes truly unbearable. You may wake up and find simply venting has been enough
I assume most people are just better at swallowing their pride or don't really see that they're in the belly of the Beast. I've always hated every job that was ever for a large company. Everything always feels soulless and painted over with a veneer of platitudes.
It was definitely soulless in corporate accounting. Everything seemed pointless. Who really cares if I coded a payable for a few boxes of cleaning rags to "5502001 Shop Expense - Consumables" instead of "5502002 Shop Expense - Supplies"? I certainly didn't. But the controller did, that soulless drone.
Yeah, I feel like I’m too idealistic to exist in that environment. I see right through the veneer while everyone else stares at it talking about how lucky they are to see it. It’s soul sucking…
I think the move to a big company was a mistake for me and I’m realizing that now.
Funny you should ask...
I'm just not happy. I hate the industry, the culture, the work itself
Yeah, this is definitely me (well, minus the work itself I guess; I enjoy programming well enough, although other parts of my job are awful). But:
have been there for 10+ years
This is also me (I have a fancy Certificate on my shelf saying I've worked at the company for 10 years, with a lovely glass brick next to it that has the company's logo engraved on it).
I don't know much about this company you work at, but being a sourpuss all the time runs the risk of getting yourself fired, or at least on the shortlist for layoffs if they happen. You can get away with being a grump if your work is good, though, especially if you can make yourself valuable enough that they don't want to lose you.
As for everyone else: the reality of the working world is, no matter how you feel about it, you gotta keep bringing home that cash, so you do what you have to do to make sure you can. I'd bet more of your coworkers feel like you do than you'd guess, but it's not exactly safe to express that where the boss can hear.
All of that said, I'm working on getting into graduate school pretty soon, because I feel like I'm letting my life slip past me, so keep in mind that it's worth exploring possibilities beyond your current circumstances.
PS: Thanks for making this post, it proved to be the impetus I needed to finish up an email to a potential grad school professor.
Comparison is the thief of joy.
You were lucky enough to be born in a place, at a time, where the center of your existential dread isn’t your next meal, unreasonable enemies as neighbors, or artillery through your door, walls, and/or roof, but not feeling the state of happiness you perceive others to be in, due to your superficial anecdotal experience of them.
To answer your question, yess that makes you an asshole, the life you live day-to-day is someone’s heaven & someone else’s hellscape, simultaneously.
Every year we make it through the Taurid Meteor Stream as a species, without nuclear war poppin, is a blessing.
That's a very fair point... I definitely try to keep it in perspective and try not to be ignorant of my privilege; and to be honest with you keeping this is mind definitely helps. Knowing I'm in a very good place compared to most can't be taken for granted.
Nope, you're not wrong. Corporate life is miserable, that's why Mike Judge keeps satirizing it with office space and the office. The people who are good at sucking it up and moving forward tend to stay longer and move up the ladder, making it more miserable for the rest of us. I use any opportunity I get to complain to my coworkers, it relieves stress and I learn a lot of others feel exactly the same. You're not alone and not missing anything, it's all ass.
Mike Judges content really isn't as hyperbolic as it first seems. In fact it's kind of selling the real thing a bit short. haha
Yeah before I got a job the office and office space were comedies, now they're almost like thrillers because it's so accurate.
sir, this is a marxist website
Yeah, and it’s also a group of people who hold jobs and struggle with careers.
Also, much of my ideology and beliefs play a part in my disdain.
Am I wrong for not being able to suck it up and cash my check?
i think you are a swell guy