Work isn’t the most pleasant of things in life, but calling it a necessary evil in the literal sense of the word is unfair too, I guess.
Sure, while some work is soul-crushing, you do get paid for it and it has other benefits too. So, all in all, you can get by without it being too much of a hassle.
That, however, doesn’t stop all the exaggerated satire in the form of memes, and there is actually an Instagram page that provides some cathartic relief to those whose jobs are just the worst.
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So, there’s this Instagram page (the name of which shall not be said because my mother raised me well) that deals in anti-work-themed memes. No relation to Reddit per se, but definitely something that folks online relate to. So much, in fact, that it has 424,000 followers and has posted nearly 1,000 posts as of this article.
All jokes aside, though, memes, while exaggerated and satirical, do still reflect a certain kind of reality. A reality that comes to light through memes.
Because how else can we fight bad employers if not by exposing all of their red flags? And since memes are a sticky way of communicating it, the word spreads quite effectively.
I 100% agree with this. One of my complaints when my kindergartner was sent home with a bunch of HW was, "This is not the work ethic I want to teach him." Everyone looked at me confused. I said, "Look, he's already been at school from 8-3. That's a full time job. Now they want him to come home and work. I do not do that. And if my boss needs me to do that I charge A LOT of money. That's the work ethic I want him to have." I've never been a proponent of homework. Especially not in kindergarten unless it's 10 minutes of reading.
And why are kindergartners in school that long ? It uded to be 8-12 or 12-4. This is all they should sit and the teacher has less kids per class.
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My dad gave up giving homework to his students years ago. If they didn’t understand the topic, homework wouldn’t help, and the time wasted chasing it all up and marking it was time he could have spent helping them understand.
Unless a student is falling behind and can use more practice, homework is ridiculous. My daughter's school (which is a public school and not really all that progressive) has never really given out homework unless it was something the child didn't finish during the day and/or they need extra practice.
I was always in trouble for not doing my homework. but I was, despite being very academic, severely bullied at school, and as soon as I left those gates I wanted to leave the whole trauma of school behind and be happy at home. not to have to perform mindless tasks that kept me in that traumatised headspace while I was in my safe place.
That's really interesting... now I'm going to research how homework is done on other countries, ones with healthier work ethics, and I'm afraid I'm going to get angry lol.
I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, being engaged with kids during homework time can help understand what the child is learning and where they may need more support. It also helps children learn how to manage their time and prioritize tasks, both important things to take into adulthood. I found it to be a good bonding time with my granddaughter and it helped uncover her learning disorder (dyscalculia). The flipside, of course, is the ridiculous volume of work that is being sent home. I am a firm believer that homework shouldn't start to hit hours-long ranges until high school. Sending an elementary school child home with homework that takes longer than 20 minutes is completely disconnected with where their attention spans are at that age.
An another note. We are being conditioned to obey from toddler to adult so when you join the workforce you will do what you are told no questions asked.
School is entirely designed to generate a docile and compliant work force - this is why no part of a child's education ever involves anything related to labor laws, critical thinking, or any other skills that would make them competent at advocacy.
I find it teaches critical thinking and research methods....something that half of Americans seem to be lacking.
The other way around: the one thing I like better about work is that come five o'clock, it's done. That makes life much more tolerable than when I was in school.
My daughter (on the spectrum) hated "homework" when she was going to school remotely two years ago. It was "schoolwork" not homework and since then she's done virtually no homework. I don't know if it's because they never assign any or that she's so militantly against that she refuses to do it at home and finds a way to do it at school. She's getting all A's and B's.
One of the things I love about our district is that the only homework my 5th grader has ever had is 25 minutes/day of reading (no restrictions to WHAT they read) and spelling lists for the spelling bee (which is always optional).
I was a non conformist as a child and that was a major red flag for my school, so they put me in a lot of unnecessary classes like reading. I have always been an avid book reader as I come from a family of readers. Things like that.
That would make sense, except equating school and work is wrong from the get-go. We do our jobs in order to make money to live on, and our work is valuable enough to be worth that money. School is 100% for the kid. They should be trying to squeeze every drop of opportunity from it that they can.
But, if we continue to be real, we also realize that work isn’t black and white. It does have shades of gray, let alone labor rights that make sure it’s never that.
But there’s more.
Without getting too preachy about it, a big part of how we understand work is what leads into this spiral of hate towards it.
Folks gotta understand that work in and of itself is not a bad thing. A job isn’t a bad thing.
Work doesn’t have to be defined by concepts like I gotta wake up at 6AM or I gotta deal with an unreasonable boss. But it can be with how can I improve my craft today? and how can I make a difference today?
It sounds dreamy, and mayhaps even delusional, true, but it goes a long way.
What if my spending habits are frivolous, like rent and food? Will the extra income fix those?
Now, sure, if a job sucks because of other reasons—poor conditions, insane employers, what have you—then it’s definitely time to go. But it’s important to remember that it’s not work per se that’s a problem, but rather the employer.
The key is to find a passion, a healthy obsession through exploration that would push you to your limits because you find purpose in it.
A major factor in why most think of work as a pain where the sun doesn't shine is society itself. It’s a societal construct that forces folks to choose something they might not want or even have an aptitude for.
But it boils down to what you do with it—and, mind you, you can do a lot with it to shape it into something you’d actually find rewarding.
This. At the library I used to work at, we had a loading dock out back and a bench. Employees only and only the occasional smoker used it. It was my hideaway for lunch and breaks.
Having to adult really sucks after you think school really sucks. Welcome to the suck.
So, yes, school is dull, but it is necessary. Work is dull too, but it too is necessary. And it becomes a game of min-maxing damage control in your life where you minimize the damage that the social construct of work imposes on you by making the best of it—doing what is at least nice and pleasant and brings less or no stress than what anything work-wise would.
So, once you identify what work suits you best, you do that, improve on it, make it better, progress and grow as an individual along the way.
Yes, this doesn’t solve the problem of having to put effort into making things work, or having to go places or talk to people—you know, the necessary evils—but if you fight with the scale and tip it to your advantage despite it, you’re set.
Oh, and, yeah, the memes.
It’s OK to be frustrated with work. Even if you have already made your job into a passion project with minimal actual work compared to how much stuff you do that’s good for the soul. Being frustrated is OK, and that’s where the memes come in. It’s a catharsis through the relatability of universal experiences. And we need it sometimes. No matter the job.
The best part is how we can make ourselves into victims over things we did to ourselves, but rationalize the times we are, in fact, victims of others.
About 20 years ago I worked at a place that was open 24/7. I worked any and every shift they needed. I worked doubles, I'd work weeks on end with no scheduled days off, they'd call me in the middle of the night when I did have a day off and I'd go in, etc. When I got a new job I had to work both jobs for 2 weeks (40+ hrs at each job plus 1.5 hrs drive time every day with no days off) because the new job needed me to start right away. I had submitted my two weeks notice in writing to my old job but they went ahead and put me on the schedule after my final date. I took the schedule to my manager and asked him why he thought he could do that. He told me they were going to be busy and needed me to work. I was so exhausted by this point I didn't even bother trying to be nice. I just flat out told him no. He was definitely not expecting that.
Anywho, if you’ve enjoyed this, there’s an entire Instagram page full of enjoyment to be had. Or even more enjoyment right here on Bored Panda.
But if you think clicking those links is work, maybe leaving a comment won’t feel like it, so consider typing up your thoughts and stories in the comment section below!
I was actually called in to a meeting and told I was an instigator and troublemaker when I compiled a list of complaints about a member of staff that was being extremely inappropriate within the workplace. When I pointed out that they see I clearly wasn't the only person complaining about this guy and you can see other names I was told, well in the past staff would have discreetly spoken to the office individually before ever thinking about creating a paper trail. So in other words I gave people confidence that I would use my voice to try and get things sorted- and that's a bad thing?
Whose bright idea was it to schedule a mandatory meeting on MANAGING BURNOUT, during an employee's lunch time? Did they mean to say, "How to manage to get burned out," (by taking away the little "free" time a person has during the work day?
Third grade was rough for me. But I'd like to think I was the reason that teacher was fired after one year at my school.
Management.."be glad you have a job." How did my auto-fill know what I wanted to say? That should be a sign.
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Why did you read the article if you don't like the topic? If it's not your thing, you could just choose something else to read.
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Why did you read the article if you don't like the topic? If it's not your thing, you could just choose something else to read.
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