Life sometimes doesn’t seem fair at times, and it takes a lot of effort to achieve something that even remotely resembles justice at work. It sounds very difficult to do, especially in the context of massively rapidly rising costs of buying gas and food and mushrooming rent prices. And wages are failing to keep pace with inflation despite having risen quite a bit over the past year, too.
Many employees feel that unfairness is ripe in the workplace, and it’s practically dystopian how some companies treat their workers. To vent and share their thoughts about the current state of the job industry, some go to the ‘Anti-Work’ Facebook group (unrelated to the r/antiwork subreddit, but there’s an overlap in their outlook) which showcases the dark side of capitalism.
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We’ve collected some of their most powerful recent posts to show you just how bad things can get, and why it’s necessary to fight for workers’ rights. Scroll down to take a peek at the dystopia some people are living in. Meanwhile, be sure to check out what Bored Panda learned about the ‘right’ way to quit a job with financial expert Sam Dogen, the author of ‘Buy This, Not That: How to Spend Your Way to Wealth and Freedom’ and the founder of the Financial Samurai blog.
When you’ve looked through this list, feel free to share your thoughts about the current state of the economy and the job market in the comments. And if you enjoyed the values ‘Anti-Work’ exhibits, you’ll find Bored Panda’s previous feature about the Facebook group right over here.
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Working in the US vs working in France.
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The ‘Anti-Work’ Facebook group had 38.8k members at the time of writing, and it invites people to be kind to one another. They’re against the glorification of violence, ask people not to support any politicians, landlords, or company owners, and (oddly enough), their movement is against any type of reform.
Instead of reform, the ‘Anti-Work’ team aims for ‘abolition.’ And while we get the desire to overhaul literally everything, we also know that idealism doesn’t always match how politics works in real-life. Compromise, diplomacy, slow-but-steady change in voting patterns are (unfortunately?) how real change happens. The members of the group also suggest that Facebook users go outside and “touch grass” and urge them to avoid posting low-quality content.
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Financial expert and author Sam, from the Financial Samurai project, gave Bored Panda some insights into what employees should think about if they’re dissatisfied with their workplace and are considering quitting. Though some people have power fantasies about quitting with style, it’s important to consider the impact your decision will have not just on your life but on the day-to-day of your colleagues. It pays off to do things smartly, and not just slam the door.
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“The best way to quit a job is to actually try and negotiate a severance and not quit. When you try to negotiate a severance, you try to make the job quitting as painless and seamless as possible for your manager and colleagues,” the expert told us.
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“When you suddenly quit your job, you put your manager and colleagues in a bind, scrambling to find your replacement and do your work. However, if you try to negotiate a severance, you help find your replacement and train your replacement so that your company doesn’t feel too much pain,” Sam explained to Bored Panda that a compromise like that can end up benefiting both parties.
The expert shared his own experience with changing career tracks. “For example, when I negotiated my severance after 11 years, I stayed on for three months to train my junior employee. I introduced him to all my clients as well. As a result, I was able to receive a severance package equal to six years of living expenses!” he explained how the benefits can be greater if you approach the situation differently.
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“I even helped my wife negotiate a severance from a job she no longer liked as well. She was able to get full pay only working 2-3 days a week for several months. Then she got a severance check and a year off. Then her old firm hired her back as a consultant for 50% higher pay. It was one of the best severance negotiations ever because we found a win-win solution for both sides,” he pointed out that it’s not just a fantasy that both sides can end up winning out.
“The right way to quit your job is to make sure your company and employees are OK if you leave,” he explained what the mature way of changing jobs entails.
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Previously, my colleague spoke to the team behind the ‘Anti-Work’ Facebook page to learn more about the group and its values.
“Fundamentally, the idea of Anti-Work is that people should choose to be productive on their own terms, not as a result of coercion or having their stability threatened. The underlying message of the Anti-Work philosophy is that the connection between survival and employment status or productivity levels must be eliminated,” they told Bored Panda.
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The Anti-Work group is a fairly new niche on Facebook: it was created not even a year ago, in October of 2022 “as a result of needing to create a digital community tailored specifically for Facebook users.”
“In our group, we have people from all backgrounds. Writers, frontline nurses, school teachers, line cooks, truck drivers, forklift operators. To name just a few,” the Anti-Work team shared with Bored Panda, adding that they are explicitly anti-capitalist, support the creation and expansion of unions, and see the need for workplace democracy.
“As a society, we have the ability to provide for humanity’s needs, to give people a base layer of support and stability to encourage productivity without coercion,” they said. With the Facebook group, they aim to create a platform for inclusion and empowerment so that people from all walks of life feel safe to share their workplace stories. And while some trolls do pop up from time to time, overall, most members are “awesome people with valuable insights, and stories worth telling.”
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Reality is rarely (if ever) completely black-and-white. Capitalism, with all of its flaws and the need for reform, isn’t the all-encompassing evil that some think it is. The things that some people blame capitalism for are usually the result of excessive greed and corporatism. It’s capitalism taken to excess that’s the issue, not necessarily the system in and of itself.
Financial expert Rick Orford previously explained to Bored Panda that extreme capitalism and excessive greed are the results of a large enough part of the population being willing to take risks. Too much greed creates widespread problems. However, there are alternatives to capitalism, or rather, ‘softer,’ more humane forms of it.
“Greed is widely accepted to be the reason for the two largest financial crises in the last century; namely 1929 and 2008. It also creates the income inequality that’s largely seen in the United States. Indeed, while everyone, in theory, has an equal opportunity to flourish, the scales seem to tip to those with the most money,” financial expert Rick told us during an earlier interview.
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“[Capitalism] allows folks like you and me to succeed by creating or investing in businesses. Indeed, one looking to borrow money from the banks today won’t have to pay much for the loan. As such, it encourages growth. However, extreme capitalism creates a scenario where greed overtakes reason, and it risks the financial system,” he pointed out that capitalism, when it’s managed fairly, isn’t the main problem.
The financial expert suggested that social democracy, aka socialism, could be a good alternative to capitalism. Social democracies tax their citizens more than capitalistic systems, but the payoff is that more people have easy, free (or cheap) access to services that are deemed vital.
“Citizens are given services such as free and (easily) accessible healthcare, child care, social welfare, etc. Conversely, highly capitalistic societies charge for these services, making it incredibly challenging for the poor,” Rick explained.
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The expert also noted that capitalism gives everyone the opportunity to grow and flourish. What’s more, he said that there’s a misconception that the wealthy are always making a profit: business owners take big risks and can suffer financial setbacks, not just victories. The issue, however, is that some major corporations begin influencing the general public, and how they think.
“Today, the news is largely distributed by some of the largest American corporations: Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Think Brexit or the 2016 American Presidential election,” he said that small companies have to compete with multinational corporations with a lot of power. Not everyone has the kind of capital necessary to make it big.
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“Those [products] with the best quality, price, customer service, or combination (of at least two) often do well. Increasingly, however, those who are willing to spend more at the beginning are seeing both extreme gains and losses. Famously, Amazon and Tesla, for example, have spent hundreds of millions of investors’ dollars before ever making a cent,” the expert told Bored Panda.
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Source: boredpanda.com