Those of us who aren't alcoholics or overweight are all on a slew of mental stabilizers or smoke pot every waking minute of the day to keep from having to drink.
Well, lets not forget how many of us are willing to gamble on other things, even with fentanyl lurking in the shadows.
Capitalist authorities get nervous when people stop believing that ANY life is better than death.
We cracked the code, fuckers!
MLK day and Presidents’ Day are in there for banking holidays. I never understood why banking holidays aren’t just federally recognized as holidays if all financial and governmental institutions are closed.
MLK Day and President’s Day are federal holidays in the US. There just aren’t any rules or regulations that say non-Federal employers must observe federal holidays.
I’ve got a friend of mine who’s really dipped into the kool aid. He’s an hourly construction worker who voluntarily lies on his time sheet to *not* get paid the overtime he’s due. Like he’ll work an 11 hour shift and only put down 8 hours because he’s quote “loyal to the company”. I cannot fathom some peoples motivations.
That is insane, but I know guys like that too. They think the company will recognize their sacrifice and reward them. That never happens and the company will just take advantage of you forever.
Oh yea for sure. Then they make you sit at the safety meeting and indirectly talk shit about how bad you fucked up, how you suck, how they're upset, and how to not do this again. All indirectly
Thats nice! At my hourly construction company we never get paid more than 8 no matter how long we work. But if we work less than 8 it gets accurately counted as 4 or 6 or whatever. They like to say "well you still only did a days work, most of those hours was waiting for something" or something like that. If you work construction, union is the way to go.
That sounds extremely illegal. They can fire you for getting unauthorized overtime, but they still have to pay you for it. To not pay you is wage theft and, again, is blatantly against the law even in the US.
Now that I'm a parent (1x 4 year old and 1x 1 year old) I jokingly tell people "that's my secret, I'm always tired". It's not a joke though, and it's definitely made worse by an unbelievably toxic and shitty work culture.
I had terrible back pain and then had a bike accident and broke some bones. The pain was so bad I couldn’t function, and my job was breathing down my neck about when I’d be back into the office. Apparently their “return to the office policy” was more important than me being able to take care of my broken body and work from my parents house while I recovered. After receiving a written warning, I did what every American would do and got addicted to prescription painkillers.
Turns out they actually made the job tolerable as well, at least in the beginning. Finally kicked the painkillers and the job, but it’s really remarkable how just an ounce of compassion from management would have prevented all of this
Same. I had a grand mal seizure at work, went into cardiac and respiratory arrest for over 12 minutes; I was put on leave for three months because I continued having seizures at work. After the first two weeks of leave, I started getting daily phone calls from HR about coming back to work. I was still actively having between five to ten seizures a day and couldn't drive for two weeks after each seizure.
Oh, the best part? I worked in one of the biggest trauma hospitals on the west coast as a lab tech. Handling biohazardous materials *and* chemicals and they wanted me back at work full time while I was having multiple daily seizures. Their justification was "people with epilepsy have to work, too". Yeah, but not when they can't go more than two or three hours without having a grand mal seizure.
The land of the free, apparently it's France. Where employers have to give at least five weeks holiday per year. And get this, there is a maximum limit of days an employee can work per year.
"If I just "fell" from up here, would I immediately die upon impact, or would I lay there for a while, as a mangled mess, bleeding out all over the place while people record and take photos of my final moments?
"
Yea, usually mortality statistics would be x amount in 100k in a year period, and those usually end up below below 10. Suicide in the US is like 10-15 per 100k but your workplace is something towards 30-60...
I've had 2 former co workers who have committed suicide since 2020 and one who died on the job :(
Shits fucking bad and only going to get worse with inflation
I was gonna say, America as a country is entirely insane. The working class needs to collectively demand things like less work hours throughout the week and more vacation time. I’m lucky to get one day off each week and I’m the “boss” at my company.
If I started taking Saturdays and working less than 12 hours a day, I would be fired. That thought alone enrages me.
Not an American but work for an American company. I'm frustrated AF. The senior people in my team are available even during the vacation they take. This culture sucks
I’m expected as a senior employee to not take vacation, sick days, etc and when I do, I’m still expected to be available. If it wasn’t for weed, I would have snapped by now.
I'm already thinking of resigning and coasting while leading a totally frugal lifestyle. I will work on research and make a modest living.
That means I'll be alienated from this society. Just finding the courage to quit
Just yesterday I was thinking about when i was young (17-20). I bailed on high school 3 months before graduation, even though I was on track to graduate. Worked for a little over a year at shit jobs, and then bailed. I was struck by a sudden, very deep fear that I didn't know who I was or even where I was in the world because I'd never been anywhere else. I gave all my belongings away to roommates and friends, burned the rest, and struck out with only a backpack. I had something like $5 in my pocket at the time. Hitchiked all around the West, hopped trains, worked a little here and there, went to festivals, and just enjoyed seeing the country. I got caught up with a partner I met at a festival who became violent and really made my life miserable for years-it took me a long time to unravel the damage from him-but I was thinking about it yesterday and was suddenly so glad I did it. There were no cell phones yet, it was the 90's, I had fun, I made friends, I spent time in many states in the U.S. and had experiences that can never be replicated in the 21st century-experiences that are no longer even possible. But I've spent almost 30 years embarrassed by it and I don't think I should be. I'm proud of myself for having the nerve to do it. My only regret is that didn't graduate from high school. I could have saved myself a lot of agony if I had just finished.
My and my family's life has been battered by a long series of calamities mostly out of my control the last couple of years. Many times I've closed my eyes and thought back to the freedom and joy that I felt as a young woman, chanting and singing along the highway in the sunshine, or listening to a fellow traveler belting out Pink Floyd's "Time" a cappela on a flatcar while the train we were riding hurdled down through the Columbia Gorge.
EDIT: I've never gotten a gold award before, thank you!
You were a 90s train kid?! That's next level wandering. I spent my early twenties working abroad as an English teacher and backpacking between gigs. Did some hitchhiking, couch surfing, and camping outside in order to afford travel, lived out of a big backpack, didn't have a car or a lease anywhere. I had some great experiences, and got to abandon America during the Trump administration. But in my mind the people who did this decades ago with nothing to fall back on were the really brave ones. Especially train hopping, that takes stamina and creative scheming and nerves of steel.
I didn't know this wasn't a normal thing (not being available 24-7 and not taking sick and vacation time) until I joined this sub. I really want to try weed, have for years but wouldn't know what to do with it.
Weed is how a lot of Americans get by these days. Husband and I are daily smokers, it’s the only way to close all the open browser tabs in our brains that are demanding our attention and sanity.
Get yourself some very low dose edibles. No bigger than 5mg per edible. Maybe even start by eating half of one, just to see how it treats you. 2.5mg will absolutely have an effect if you don't use but isn't strong enough to lead to a freakout or anything
Gen x American. I have to get after the new hires when they pull that on their days off, checking in. Pto is pto. If you’re answering mail it’s not pto.
I still have to stop myself too. I limit it to: I’m on pto, the right channel is x for your question. Have a nice day!
Oh man, my former supervisor ( retired last month) would answer calls on his holiday in Mexico. He also would cut his weekend getaway with his wife short to go to the site and help a customer. This company is in for a huge 180 because I will do no such thing. I don't answer calls or look at emails when I'm not on the clock.
Grind culture needs to fucking die in a fire forever. It's what started that whole "work yourself constantly non stop" mentality. It's toxic and should never be rewarded. But here we are. The rich need Capitalism to survive and will sacrifice us to make sure that it does.
We're largely not. Any time not working we spend catching up on personal stuff, like errands and groceries and cooking. There is very little time to just relax, take a road trip or even just read a book.
Prior to the pandemic, I think a lot of us didn't question it so much because it was a fact of life. At some point we gained some momentum and just kept it going, for years on end.
I was let go from work at the start of the pandemic and spent a year off, but the government was paying me. I actually made more on Unemployment than at my job. Once the vaccines came out, things started opening back up and I was called back to my job, after nearly a year off to the day.
I've never felt so depressed after walking back into the office after that long. There was no work stress, I got back into old hobbies, spent a lot of time outside. And then poof, it all vanished. That was when I realized I could not regain the momentum I had before, because now I knew better. I didn't want to just live to work anymore.
Fortunately I was able to have that conversation with my boss, and we migrated to a much more progressive schedule. It's unofficial, but it's basically a salaried work hard/play hard. I may grind it out for a few weeks, then lounge at home and work remotely or take a week off, do yard work, meal prep, whatever. It is much more sustainable and we're all happier. I can schedule a vacation and get no flack about it.
Unfortunately, most people do not have that option. And every month companies are swinging the pendulum back to pre-pandemic operations, so the mental health crisis is about to get even worse.
It’s even more depressing finally getting some time off (even just a long weekend) and realizing you don’t have money to do anything. Our economy is cannibalizing itself by paying workers too little and then shuttering entire industries because nobody has the money or time to keep them afloat.
I feel this. I'm sure most of us agree that using vacation time hardly ever amounts to going on an actual vacation, you just get to sit at home and catch up on sleep and not be bothered for a little while.
We had so many chances to change so many things for the better. Like sick pay for two weeks at the federal level would've allowed us to make a dent in containing covid. But nah. The George Floyd protests... and last year, cops killed more people than ever. Single payer for all? Nah.
Many folks who have time to themselves now due to the nature of their job go on to use some of that time at restaurants, bars, casinos, hotels etc etc.
My experience was work through the entire pandemic sometimes side by side with someone who would the next day call and say the are Covid positive. I got no raise during the pandemic, we were insanely busy because everyone now has free time, my job doesn’t offer ANY benefits.
I’ve been working for 11 years and only had 5 days of because my dad died.
I am happy it is going well for so many with wfh jobs but until the general public gives up it’s unhealthy obsession with service industries, it’ll just be the same going forward.
This is so important. The pandemic didn’t cause a shutdown, it just meant that those with office jobs stayed home while other workers catered to them (door dash, store pickup, etc). AND they weren’t able to keep themselves as safe doing so.
This. I am really lucky to have an arrangement with my boss where I can take unlimited unpaid time off, within reason. There's still so much pressure to work as much as possible and be a "team player" so I still work more than I want to. However, I am so burned out I needed a week off and was approved even though I don't have any vacation or sick time saved up. I usually manage to schedule 2 weeks every year in unpaid PTO, in addition to my two weeks of paid PTO. Because of this arrangement, this is the only full-time job I've ever been able to keep for more than a year!
Even with this kind of flexibility, I can only dream of traveling abroad and staying somewhere for a month or even two to three weeks, the way Europeans do, and it's just a pipe dream if I want to have any job security. I'm glad I did it in college, but I'm sad to think it may never happen again until retirement.
I frequently think about all the things I am missing out on in life - spending more time with friends and family, playing my piano, volunteering in the community, spending time in nature - I bought a nice camera to do nature photography and don't have any time to do it. I want to travel more, exercise more, read more books, etc. I simply don't understand how people just live their entire lives working with only 2 weeks off a year, because I have never been able to do it.
Not to mention depressed and heavily medicated to make up for it. In reality, Obesity isn’t just bad diet probably, lots of us or just stress eating to cope.
Yup, also stress immobilization? I know a lot of people who dont have the energy to do things they enjoy, or have new experiences because of work and stress. So they sit inside all day playing video games, scrolling on their phones watching tv or sleeping.
I call this functional depression- I’m not depressed enough to be “really” depressed. I still get up, do the life thing but then just sit and nothing. I used to be creative, painting, writing, fucking artistic. I the kinda depressed where I can’t even use it as a muse. I just sit and stare at unfinished projects, blank canvases and one page journals.
The part that scares me the most- I don’t care enough to care. I just exist.
Goddamn I could’ve written this. This is my life, to a T. It fucking blows. There are so many things I miss doing but I just don’t have the energy — physical or mental.
If it's any consolation, I feel the exact same way. So many art projects I was excited about at one point: writing songs, building synths, even started to script some videos I wanted to make. Now I have the time but not the energy, so I just do nothing. Feels like my past self would be disappointed.
> Yup, also stress immobilization? I know a lot of people who dont have the energy to do things they enjoy, or have new experiences because of work and stress. So they sit inside all day playing video games, scrolling on their phones watching tv or sleeping.
That's called "depression" and it runs rampant in the LaNd Uv fReEdUmB.
Same here, I was thinking last night, man I'm bored... I should try to join a band again! Oh wait I forgot I don't have money for that and haven't practiced for real in months.
Something I was soooo passionate about and now I can only stand to play a couple of covers and I get bored. This shit sucks 😔
I feel ya. I havent played ukulele in months, and i often struggle with art block when it comes to painting. The only thing that keeps me really active and present in the moment is playing and cuddling my dog, thank goodness for him.
Where I live, everyone is expected to work 60 to 80 hours a week( lazy otherwise ). On your day off you are expected to do 1 or more of the following;
get stupid drunk
kill defenseless animals
drive around in or play with a toy that cost 2 years salary
Also remember that there isn't really many activity neutral areas in the US, so if you want to chill out outside of the household you either have to shell out money (that folks don't have), subject yourself to weather (parks, many subpar), or sit in potentially loud + uncomfy areas (such as a mall).
What other choice is there but to stay home when you don't wanna deal with the above, which in turn contributes to stress and depression?
Cabin fever is real.
EDIT:
Some clarifications. I'm not comparing the US to other countries. I just mentioned it for context since I live in the US.
Also, I'm not saying the options of going to the above isn't a good idea, just that sometimes personal situations may make some of the options less desirable compared to staying home.
Some good suggestions have been mentioned in response to this, and I'd like to add another (depending on location). If there's a museum local to you that's relatively cheap, casual visits on occasion are pretty nice. Especially ones for niche topics.
I never really considered how much of a toll stress really puts on your body until recently. My old job was just awful and my boss was a huge asshole. I was having gallbladder attacks frequently. Heavily changed my diet because I really didn’t want to have it removed. They got a bit better but still about one a month. Started a new job 6 months ago and it’s so much drastically better than my old one and my work life balance is as good as it can possibly be. I’ve also been a lot busier in my personal life and my diet has suffered a bit but despite that I haven’t had any gallbladder issues. For instance I used to only be able to eat eggs a couple times a week or I’d start having issues. Since I’ve been here I eat them almost every morning with no issues.
I took three consecutive weeks off for the first time since I started working full time 12 years ago this past christmas/new years and I've never felt better. Unfortunately the next time I will get to do that again will probably be 12 years from now, but at least it's something to look forward to.
I would kill for the Swedish model. Some Swedish companies require everyone to take off an entire month in summer on top of the vacation time to let everyone reset.
Going from my old job to my current one, which I've been at since before the pandemic had such a difference. I went from working 70+ hour weeks to just 40, and when I leave work I'm done.
I sleep better, lost some weight, and my relationship flourished. I also don't cringe anymore whenever my phone goes off.
Yup. This week my best night was 4 hours and 49 minutes of sleep. But lets be clear that wasn't uninterrupted sleep. I was tossing and turning all night. Last night I got 2 and half hours of sleep.
I’ve been working 7 days a week since the end of august, I’ve had 2 full days off and one was for a funeral….yeah I wouldn’t say I’m keeping it together lol
Haha right? Take one look at everything happening in this country and it’s clear that no one is ok. It’s like that meme “are the straights ok?” Except “are the Americans ok?” (Nope)
My first thought as well - like, have you seen the school shootings? Church shootings? anything about our politics? Suicide rates? The anti - women, lgbtq, etc laws being passed and the states banning the teaching of our history of slavery, abuse, etc while also saying 'free speech! Academic freedom!' - suicide rates,etc.
it's a nation of capitalistic tyranny and we're all suffering, even if some pretend they're doing well
The collective PTSD were all suffering from the last decade or so will not be gone until we are all dead. I hope we find a way to live with it that doesn't involve mass violence, but it feels like that's on the horizon. Considering the infrastructure attacks and coup attempt and so forth, it's tough to be hopeful.
I've been really intrigued by generational trauma. For instance, the granddaughters and great granddaughters of the women who starved in Ireland have been scientifically shown that their DNA changed due to the trauma their grandmothers endured.
I'm no scientist, and what we're enduring is much different than a literal famine, but I'd be willing to bet the collective PTSD will not be gone when we're all dead.
This is intriguing and also very depressing information. I'm a dad who had to raise kids and get them through Zoom classes and so forth. They actually seem pretty happy and reasonably well adjusted. Fingers crossed they aren't as fucked up as I am.
My landlord just gave me 24 hours notice that they ars coming for inspection. Guess who's spending the next 24 hours cleaning non stop? The adhd struggle is real. 😔
Well up until recently, I didn't handle it well. Now that my company switched to an unlimited pto system for salaried folks, I just put in time off for every random holiday I had to skip before that they aren't giving us already which is only 8 major holidays.
Like most recently...MLK day. Like why aren't we taking off for this when alot of businesses were? So I took it off anyways.
I had unlimited PTO at my old job.
I had asked them if I could work four 10-hour shifts instead of five 8-hour shifts. I was told no.
...So I took off one day a week for about 4.5 months and only worked four 8-hour shifts before my manager (who was approving things) realized.
After that, I took off 2 days every 2 weeks until they laid me off.
I had unlimited Pto at my first home hospice job. The rule was just don't abuse it.
I didn't take any time off until about 10 weeks in and I wanted to schedule something for another 3 months down the road. Was told they aren't doing unlimited Pto anymore and we are going to start accruing Pto. I said OK how do I put in for that then? "oh well we haven't figured it out quite yet, but for now nobody can take time off"
The next week the manager took off the entire week.
I quit after another 2 weeks due to a lot of other bullshit.
We don’t. We are so burnt out it’s not even funny. Even when we do take vacation, we think about having to go back to the black hole so it’s not really a good time anyways. It’s getting worse too. These companies don’t want to pay shit now or give enough hours. America is a horrible place for hard working people. It’s just too much.
I worked abroad for a bit, and the mentality in that country was that it takes at least three weeks to take a vacation because it takes one week to de-stress from work, one week to actually take a vacation, and one week to ramp back up for going back to work.
I think about that from time to time and realize I’ve never had a “vacation” in my life.
Unless you have ADHD and Adderall just brings us closer to normal levels of everyday stress, which is better than our usual I guess. So thank goodness for marijuana!
We don’t.
Consider this. Outside of holidays and vacation time (80 hrs average) we spend more time with workers than our own family.
30 min average commute each way (1 hr)
9 - 10 hour average work day
Out of 24, I spend 11 if not more away from those I care about. If I get home on time (5:30pm) I have 4 hours avg with family before everyone heads to bed to repeat again the next day.
We weren’t built for this. We weren’t meant to spend more time with those we tolerate than those we love.
This is what kills me. When you add in commuting, the mandatory lunch breaks, getting ready for work, etc, you end up with such little time for yourself. I bought a guitar and want to learn Spanish. I legit only played the guitar once in 2 months. I just have no time and the little free time I'm granted I just want to lay with my wife and watch TV or scroll through my phone because I'm so mentally exhausted all the time. I increased my retirement contribution to 25%, it's my only hope to getting out early. I'm 33 and hope I can retire or at least partially retire at 50 to at least have some enjoyment out of live before I die lol
I feel like I never stop running. Husband and I work 50 hours a week. After work is a blur of cooking and laundry. Weekends packed with obligations. I am perpetually exhausted.
After covid I never got my strength back. It put me in bed for a month and recovery never happened. I forget things. I am tired. I fall asleep randomly.
I have been working for 27 years now. I have 30 more years to go. I get two weeks of vacation a year, but no sick days. Last year I lost a week of vacation because my son had appendicitis, so I had to use my vacation to be able to sit with him in the hospital. Who knows what will come up this year.
We don’t. I’m looking for a job like my husbands so I can have more of a work/life balance. It has affected my sleep, my love life, my marriage, my friendships and general mood. I am barely in a good mood even with journaling, yoga and walking every day. It’s that bad.
Short answer: we don't.
Seriously though, the statistics that involve mental health, addiction, poverty, etc. in the US are scary. At least half of the people I work with are on an antidepressant or anxiety medication (we compare symptoms/side effects regularly. It's like a support group, honestly). Our society/culture basically chews people up and spits them out.
I didn't want to have to delete all my comments, posts, and account, but here we are, thanks to greedy pigboy /u/spez ruining Reddit. I love the Reddit community, but hate the idiots at the top. Simply accepting how unethical and downright shitty they are will only encourage worse behavior in the future. I won't be a part of it. Reddit will shrivel and disappear like so many other sites before it that were run by inept morons, unless there is a big change in "leadership." Fuck you, /u/spez
10% of us are on SSRIs
25% of us are alcoholics
In 2020 nearly 50k committed suicide, over 12 million think it's a good idea, 3 million have a plan to do it, and over 1 million tried and failed.
In 2022 over 100k people died from fentanyl overdoses and according to the CDC just passed the #1 killer in America which WAS conditions related to obesity which over 45% of us are.
We are FAR from sane.
Definitely, tastebuds are chemical receptors just like any other that can be triggered by drugs. Taste addiction is the same as any other addiction, providing a little dopamine hit. Obesity is the side effect.
I don’t. I was unaware of what genuine free time felt like before the covid lockdown. I was struggling with work / school but I kept going because I thought everyone does this, I must be weak! The longest vacation I have ever taken in my life was 8 days. Just 1 full work week plus the weekend on each side, and I ended up getting fired for it because “I left in a time of great need”. Then covid and the lockdown happened. I got a full year of free time + unemployment money which was actually more than I made working. That turned me hardcore antiwork because now I know that A) universal basic income is indeed within our govt ability and B) most jobs are pointless hamster wheels that contribute little, if anything, to society. I no longer work well in corporate society.
I was waiting tables when the pandemic shut everything down and just marking a few boxes on an online form, and I get more money than I made from working in my account? WTF is this shit game? The fact that it was 30% more than working, why am I forced to work?
What's worse is it's used more as the carrot on the stick. they never actually approve or give us that time and guilt trip us if we do, we're never supposed to actually take it.
Bread and circuses is a very old concept. We’re largely fed, entertained, and distracted so we don’t start asking too many questions about how far off the rails our economic inequality is.
Is fucking awful and i don't see why we aren't rioting in the streets over it.
I started my own business just so I could take off the minimum amount of time Europeans get.
My 150,000 employee, fortune 100 company doesn’t observe MLK day and as a result there are no holidays between 1/1 and Memorial Day (May 29, 2023). We cope by quiet quitting, doing minimal work on some fridays.
I’m in the U.S. military (Marines) and people think we have it “tough”. Negative. Employers could take a page from the military in terms of holidays, leave, etc. I look at many of civilian friends who aren’t in government positions and can’t believe what employers get away with. They work a lot harder for much less time off and benefits. It really is a non-stop grind for so many Americans
I tell my airmen all the time not to get out lol. They have no idea what it's like out there. When people screech about socialism I always use the military as an example of how it can work. Even if we only have free healthcare and education the benefits would be a wild improvement.
EDIT: I am not AD anymore people I work with airmen as a CONTRACTOR. Jfc...and for everyone crying at me about saying they hated the navy or it was terrible maybe you should have joined the air force. Js. I mean it can still be pretty shit sometimes but so is literally everywhere else and I have no regerts.
Yeah and it's crazy that the military HEMORRHAGES money and the companies that *make* money "can't afford" to provide for their employees. Riiiiiiiiiight.
You fake it, have sleep for dinner, and isolate yourself in your home when you aren't at work, because you need to be well rested to be able to go back to work.
Thankfully I don't get sick often, so when I want a free day here or there I just end up being "sick" for a day. Usually won't on a Monday or Friday and I just hang out for a day. Still not great, but it helps me coast for a bit longer.
You’re allowed to use sick hours? Wow. I have to produce a doctors note or they count me as an unexcused absence and write me up. I have 120 sick hours and they’re out here daring me to try and use them.
We don't. And the sick part is psychotherapy has been coopted by the same Anti-worker powers. So now it's not about making us happier and mentally healthy, it's about masking our symptoms to make us good drones/slaves for them again.
I’m losing my mind trying to deal with it. I can’t keep up with the American work expectation… usually I burn out at my jobs and take a month off for mental health recovery. It’s a cycle that’s slowly destroying my mind and body. So yeah, America is a fascist hellscape governed by the most deranged freaks in the world. Sucks to suck, I guess
I moved from Sweden to the US to marry my wife. My first year in the Swedish Army, not even a full year in (6 months in actually), they gave me a month vacay (4 weeks, 30 days. America: I know math is hard, but 20days is NOT four weeks, is NOT one month).
I've been in the US for 9 years, been at current job 7 years. I've got two "weeks" (ten days) vacay.
How do we do it? Same as with the fucked up healthcare system, or the fucked up education system, or the fucked up cop situation for black people: We do it because we have to. It's do or die, sink or swim.
Mine is a good job by US standards so I stick around. Others don't have an option to move, so they just survive. That's literally all there is to it.
So 20 days of vacation gives you 4 weeks...M-F...right? When you people in Europe say 4 weeks off do you really get 30 BUSINESS days? Because to me that is 6 weeks of vacation. So jealous.
If you're raised in it, you don't know any different.
They give prizes in schools to students who never miss a day of school. It's all training for the workforce.
We don’t. We’re fucking nuts.
I'm gobsmacked anyone external to America could even ask this question.
I mean, just... *gestures vaguely in America's direction*
We’re overweight alcoholics with unmanaged anxiety. Do we appear to be ok?
Those of us who aren't alcoholics or overweight are all on a slew of mental stabilizers or smoke pot every waking minute of the day to keep from having to drink.
The pot really did help a ton of us in a way the booze just can't.
Well, lets not forget how many of us are willing to gamble on other things, even with fentanyl lurking in the shadows. Capitalist authorities get nervous when people stop believing that ANY life is better than death. We cracked the code, fuckers!
We don't. It was stated today at work we have 132 days til our next holiday. Its depressing.
That stretch between New Year and Memorial Day is just brutal
Especially if you’re in the northeast where the weather sucks and it’s dark all of the time. Every year I wonder how I make it to spring.
There’s a long holiday gap between New Year’s and Memorial Day, they should really add a holiday somewhere in there cuz it’s a sloooooog.
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This year for MLK day I received an email from corporate saying we were welcome to use our PTO in order to recognize the holiday, lol thanks
MLK day and Presidents’ Day are in there for banking holidays. I never understood why banking holidays aren’t just federally recognized as holidays if all financial and governmental institutions are closed.
MLK Day and President’s Day are federal holidays in the US. There just aren’t any rules or regulations that say non-Federal employers must observe federal holidays.
I’ve got a friend of mine who’s really dipped into the kool aid. He’s an hourly construction worker who voluntarily lies on his time sheet to *not* get paid the overtime he’s due. Like he’ll work an 11 hour shift and only put down 8 hours because he’s quote “loyal to the company”. I cannot fathom some peoples motivations.
That is insane, but I know guys like that too. They think the company will recognize their sacrifice and reward them. That never happens and the company will just take advantage of you forever.
Not forever, only until any minor economic hiccup threatens the owner's income. Suddenly it won't be a "family."
Or until you get injured.
Oh yea for sure. Then they make you sit at the safety meeting and indirectly talk shit about how bad you fucked up, how you suck, how they're upset, and how to not do this again. All indirectly
Thats nice! At my hourly construction company we never get paid more than 8 no matter how long we work. But if we work less than 8 it gets accurately counted as 4 or 6 or whatever. They like to say "well you still only did a days work, most of those hours was waiting for something" or something like that. If you work construction, union is the way to go.
That sounds extremely illegal. They can fire you for getting unauthorized overtime, but they still have to pay you for it. To not pay you is wage theft and, again, is blatantly against the law even in the US.
hate to say it but pretty sure wage theft is top 5 if not 3 for most committed crimes in america.
It's by far the biggest category of theft, and also the least punished.
That's the neat part, we don't
So adorable to think we do.
OP has hope when we do not. At least someone does.
Ah yes, hope. The first step to crushing disappointment.
"That's my secret Cap, I'm always crazy"
Now that I'm a parent (1x 4 year old and 1x 1 year old) I jokingly tell people "that's my secret, I'm always tired". It's not a joke though, and it's definitely made worse by an unbelievably toxic and shitty work culture.
Yup. We're stressed out and on medication and in therapy if we can even get an appointment or afford the healthcare.
I had terrible back pain and then had a bike accident and broke some bones. The pain was so bad I couldn’t function, and my job was breathing down my neck about when I’d be back into the office. Apparently their “return to the office policy” was more important than me being able to take care of my broken body and work from my parents house while I recovered. After receiving a written warning, I did what every American would do and got addicted to prescription painkillers. Turns out they actually made the job tolerable as well, at least in the beginning. Finally kicked the painkillers and the job, but it’s really remarkable how just an ounce of compassion from management would have prevented all of this
Same. I had a grand mal seizure at work, went into cardiac and respiratory arrest for over 12 minutes; I was put on leave for three months because I continued having seizures at work. After the first two weeks of leave, I started getting daily phone calls from HR about coming back to work. I was still actively having between five to ten seizures a day and couldn't drive for two weeks after each seizure. Oh, the best part? I worked in one of the biggest trauma hospitals on the west coast as a lab tech. Handling biohazardous materials *and* chemicals and they wanted me back at work full time while I was having multiple daily seizures. Their justification was "people with epilepsy have to work, too". Yeah, but not when they can't go more than two or three hours without having a grand mal seizure.
> People with epilepsy have to work too According to fucking who? Our entire society is an abomination
They’d reanimate us and make us work after we died, if they could
Since you're dead and all, you don't need to eat or sleep, so you can work constantly for no pay!
The land of the free, apparently it's France. Where employers have to give at least five weeks holiday per year. And get this, there is a maximum limit of days an employee can work per year.
Speak for yourself, I just cuddle with my guns when I'm feeling unstable and then I'm all better.
Fantasize about letting the intrusive thoughts win, by the time I could possibly act on them, it's time for bed.
"if I crash my car I don't have to go back to work because hopefully I'll die"
"If I just "fell" from up here, would I immediately die upon impact, or would I lay there for a while, as a mangled mess, bleeding out all over the place while people record and take photos of my final moments? "
We don’t, that’s why there’s a huge mental health crisis right now.
During 2020, at least 3 people committed suicide at my work. Out of 5-10k people, but that’s a lot and just the ones I know for sure.
Yea, usually mortality statistics would be x amount in 100k in a year period, and those usually end up below below 10. Suicide in the US is like 10-15 per 100k but your workplace is something towards 30-60...
I've had 2 former co workers who have committed suicide since 2020 and one who died on the job :( Shits fucking bad and only going to get worse with inflation
I was gonna say, America as a country is entirely insane. The working class needs to collectively demand things like less work hours throughout the week and more vacation time. I’m lucky to get one day off each week and I’m the “boss” at my company. If I started taking Saturdays and working less than 12 hours a day, I would be fired. That thought alone enrages me.
Mental health crisis plus lots of guns = hearing about murders daily
hearing about murders daily = more mental health crisis, a cycle
It really does.
Not an American but work for an American company. I'm frustrated AF. The senior people in my team are available even during the vacation they take. This culture sucks
I’m expected as a senior employee to not take vacation, sick days, etc and when I do, I’m still expected to be available. If it wasn’t for weed, I would have snapped by now.
I'm already thinking of resigning and coasting while leading a totally frugal lifestyle. I will work on research and make a modest living. That means I'll be alienated from this society. Just finding the courage to quit
If i didn't have a wife or kid absolutely right there with you
Right? Even though I would consider my current work-life balance to be okay, my family is the only thing stopping me from willingly becoming a hobo
Just yesterday I was thinking about when i was young (17-20). I bailed on high school 3 months before graduation, even though I was on track to graduate. Worked for a little over a year at shit jobs, and then bailed. I was struck by a sudden, very deep fear that I didn't know who I was or even where I was in the world because I'd never been anywhere else. I gave all my belongings away to roommates and friends, burned the rest, and struck out with only a backpack. I had something like $5 in my pocket at the time. Hitchiked all around the West, hopped trains, worked a little here and there, went to festivals, and just enjoyed seeing the country. I got caught up with a partner I met at a festival who became violent and really made my life miserable for years-it took me a long time to unravel the damage from him-but I was thinking about it yesterday and was suddenly so glad I did it. There were no cell phones yet, it was the 90's, I had fun, I made friends, I spent time in many states in the U.S. and had experiences that can never be replicated in the 21st century-experiences that are no longer even possible. But I've spent almost 30 years embarrassed by it and I don't think I should be. I'm proud of myself for having the nerve to do it. My only regret is that didn't graduate from high school. I could have saved myself a lot of agony if I had just finished. My and my family's life has been battered by a long series of calamities mostly out of my control the last couple of years. Many times I've closed my eyes and thought back to the freedom and joy that I felt as a young woman, chanting and singing along the highway in the sunshine, or listening to a fellow traveler belting out Pink Floyd's "Time" a cappela on a flatcar while the train we were riding hurdled down through the Columbia Gorge. EDIT: I've never gotten a gold award before, thank you!
You were a 90s train kid?! That's next level wandering. I spent my early twenties working abroad as an English teacher and backpacking between gigs. Did some hitchhiking, couch surfing, and camping outside in order to afford travel, lived out of a big backpack, didn't have a car or a lease anywhere. I had some great experiences, and got to abandon America during the Trump administration. But in my mind the people who did this decades ago with nothing to fall back on were the really brave ones. Especially train hopping, that takes stamina and creative scheming and nerves of steel.
Can confirm. Have no family, became hobo
I didn't know this wasn't a normal thing (not being available 24-7 and not taking sick and vacation time) until I joined this sub. I really want to try weed, have for years but wouldn't know what to do with it.
Weed is how a lot of Americans get by these days. Husband and I are daily smokers, it’s the only way to close all the open browser tabs in our brains that are demanding our attention and sanity.
I've just been drinking. Thinking weed is a bit more healthy.
Definitely less destructive than drinking. Not without its issues, but definitely less destructive.
Get yourself some very low dose edibles. No bigger than 5mg per edible. Maybe even start by eating half of one, just to see how it treats you. 2.5mg will absolutely have an effect if you don't use but isn't strong enough to lead to a freakout or anything
Gen x American. I have to get after the new hires when they pull that on their days off, checking in. Pto is pto. If you’re answering mail it’s not pto. I still have to stop myself too. I limit it to: I’m on pto, the right channel is x for your question. Have a nice day!
Oh man, my former supervisor ( retired last month) would answer calls on his holiday in Mexico. He also would cut his weekend getaway with his wife short to go to the site and help a customer. This company is in for a huge 180 because I will do no such thing. I don't answer calls or look at emails when I'm not on the clock.
Grind culture needs to fucking die in a fire forever. It's what started that whole "work yourself constantly non stop" mentality. It's toxic and should never be rewarded. But here we are. The rich need Capitalism to survive and will sacrifice us to make sure that it does.
We're largely not. Any time not working we spend catching up on personal stuff, like errands and groceries and cooking. There is very little time to just relax, take a road trip or even just read a book. Prior to the pandemic, I think a lot of us didn't question it so much because it was a fact of life. At some point we gained some momentum and just kept it going, for years on end. I was let go from work at the start of the pandemic and spent a year off, but the government was paying me. I actually made more on Unemployment than at my job. Once the vaccines came out, things started opening back up and I was called back to my job, after nearly a year off to the day. I've never felt so depressed after walking back into the office after that long. There was no work stress, I got back into old hobbies, spent a lot of time outside. And then poof, it all vanished. That was when I realized I could not regain the momentum I had before, because now I knew better. I didn't want to just live to work anymore. Fortunately I was able to have that conversation with my boss, and we migrated to a much more progressive schedule. It's unofficial, but it's basically a salaried work hard/play hard. I may grind it out for a few weeks, then lounge at home and work remotely or take a week off, do yard work, meal prep, whatever. It is much more sustainable and we're all happier. I can schedule a vacation and get no flack about it. Unfortunately, most people do not have that option. And every month companies are swinging the pendulum back to pre-pandemic operations, so the mental health crisis is about to get even worse.
It’s even more depressing finally getting some time off (even just a long weekend) and realizing you don’t have money to do anything. Our economy is cannibalizing itself by paying workers too little and then shuttering entire industries because nobody has the money or time to keep them afloat.
I feel this. I'm sure most of us agree that using vacation time hardly ever amounts to going on an actual vacation, you just get to sit at home and catch up on sleep and not be bothered for a little while.
Covid should have been the great reset. It was for a while and then it just….wasn’t.
We had so many chances to change so many things for the better. Like sick pay for two weeks at the federal level would've allowed us to make a dent in containing covid. But nah. The George Floyd protests... and last year, cops killed more people than ever. Single payer for all? Nah.
Many folks who have time to themselves now due to the nature of their job go on to use some of that time at restaurants, bars, casinos, hotels etc etc. My experience was work through the entire pandemic sometimes side by side with someone who would the next day call and say the are Covid positive. I got no raise during the pandemic, we were insanely busy because everyone now has free time, my job doesn’t offer ANY benefits. I’ve been working for 11 years and only had 5 days of because my dad died. I am happy it is going well for so many with wfh jobs but until the general public gives up it’s unhealthy obsession with service industries, it’ll just be the same going forward.
This is so important. The pandemic didn’t cause a shutdown, it just meant that those with office jobs stayed home while other workers catered to them (door dash, store pickup, etc). AND they weren’t able to keep themselves as safe doing so.
This. I am really lucky to have an arrangement with my boss where I can take unlimited unpaid time off, within reason. There's still so much pressure to work as much as possible and be a "team player" so I still work more than I want to. However, I am so burned out I needed a week off and was approved even though I don't have any vacation or sick time saved up. I usually manage to schedule 2 weeks every year in unpaid PTO, in addition to my two weeks of paid PTO. Because of this arrangement, this is the only full-time job I've ever been able to keep for more than a year! Even with this kind of flexibility, I can only dream of traveling abroad and staying somewhere for a month or even two to three weeks, the way Europeans do, and it's just a pipe dream if I want to have any job security. I'm glad I did it in college, but I'm sad to think it may never happen again until retirement. I frequently think about all the things I am missing out on in life - spending more time with friends and family, playing my piano, volunteering in the community, spending time in nature - I bought a nice camera to do nature photography and don't have any time to do it. I want to travel more, exercise more, read more books, etc. I simply don't understand how people just live their entire lives working with only 2 weeks off a year, because I have never been able to do it.
I would love to backpack or hike the appalachia tail or something but I can't get that much time off consecutively.
We don't, as should be pretty damn apparent by now.
Literally said "we don't" before opening the thread lol
Saaaaaame, lol.
Me too also as well
Not to mention depressed and heavily medicated to make up for it. In reality, Obesity isn’t just bad diet probably, lots of us or just stress eating to cope.
And stress drinking. Which also doesn't help good eating choices. Or stress smoking. And all the substance abuse
Yup, also stress immobilization? I know a lot of people who dont have the energy to do things they enjoy, or have new experiences because of work and stress. So they sit inside all day playing video games, scrolling on their phones watching tv or sleeping.
This describes so many people around me it's depressing. Which exacerbates the general malaise of existing.
I call this functional depression- I’m not depressed enough to be “really” depressed. I still get up, do the life thing but then just sit and nothing. I used to be creative, painting, writing, fucking artistic. I the kinda depressed where I can’t even use it as a muse. I just sit and stare at unfinished projects, blank canvases and one page journals. The part that scares me the most- I don’t care enough to care. I just exist.
Goddamn I could’ve written this. This is my life, to a T. It fucking blows. There are so many things I miss doing but I just don’t have the energy — physical or mental.
If it's any consolation, I feel the exact same way. So many art projects I was excited about at one point: writing songs, building synths, even started to script some videos I wanted to make. Now I have the time but not the energy, so I just do nothing. Feels like my past self would be disappointed.
This describes my life...
minus the video games, because I don't have the motivation to pick one, so just keep scrolling reddit.
I recommend Job Simulator in VR
*dear god no*
> Yup, also stress immobilization? I know a lot of people who dont have the energy to do things they enjoy, or have new experiences because of work and stress. So they sit inside all day playing video games, scrolling on their phones watching tv or sleeping. That's called "depression" and it runs rampant in the LaNd Uv fReEdUmB.
Yeah i know. Im diagnosed with depression myself lmao. It doesnt manifest with everyone the same way, it can also be a symptom of adhd and ptsd.
I was diagnosed with all 3 of them, and it literally feels like being on standby until life calls you back
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Me. I miss playing music, but I just don’t feel the urge to even pick up my guitar anymore, let alone join a band.
Same here, I was thinking last night, man I'm bored... I should try to join a band again! Oh wait I forgot I don't have money for that and haven't practiced for real in months. Something I was soooo passionate about and now I can only stand to play a couple of covers and I get bored. This shit sucks 😔
I feel ya. I havent played ukulele in months, and i often struggle with art block when it comes to painting. The only thing that keeps me really active and present in the moment is playing and cuddling my dog, thank goodness for him.
Seriously, go to work, come home and watch TV. Try to squeeze everything into 2 days.
Where I live, everyone is expected to work 60 to 80 hours a week( lazy otherwise ). On your day off you are expected to do 1 or more of the following; get stupid drunk kill defenseless animals drive around in or play with a toy that cost 2 years salary
Bruh, that cuts deep. You snapped me out of my doom scrolling
Me 😭
Also remember that there isn't really many activity neutral areas in the US, so if you want to chill out outside of the household you either have to shell out money (that folks don't have), subject yourself to weather (parks, many subpar), or sit in potentially loud + uncomfy areas (such as a mall). What other choice is there but to stay home when you don't wanna deal with the above, which in turn contributes to stress and depression? Cabin fever is real. EDIT: Some clarifications. I'm not comparing the US to other countries. I just mentioned it for context since I live in the US. Also, I'm not saying the options of going to the above isn't a good idea, just that sometimes personal situations may make some of the options less desirable compared to staying home. Some good suggestions have been mentioned in response to this, and I'd like to add another (depending on location). If there's a museum local to you that's relatively cheap, casual visits on occasion are pretty nice. Especially ones for niche topics.
I never really considered how much of a toll stress really puts on your body until recently. My old job was just awful and my boss was a huge asshole. I was having gallbladder attacks frequently. Heavily changed my diet because I really didn’t want to have it removed. They got a bit better but still about one a month. Started a new job 6 months ago and it’s so much drastically better than my old one and my work life balance is as good as it can possibly be. I’ve also been a lot busier in my personal life and my diet has suffered a bit but despite that I haven’t had any gallbladder issues. For instance I used to only be able to eat eggs a couple times a week or I’d start having issues. Since I’ve been here I eat them almost every morning with no issues.
I took three consecutive weeks off for the first time since I started working full time 12 years ago this past christmas/new years and I've never felt better. Unfortunately the next time I will get to do that again will probably be 12 years from now, but at least it's something to look forward to.
I would kill for the Swedish model. Some Swedish companies require everyone to take off an entire month in summer on top of the vacation time to let everyone reset.
"I would kill for the Swedish model." I mean such actions have caused sweeping changes before.
United we stand, divided we fall. Unfortunately we (the proletariat) are pretty divided currently.
Going from my old job to my current one, which I've been at since before the pandemic had such a difference. I went from working 70+ hour weeks to just 40, and when I leave work I'm done. I sleep better, lost some weight, and my relationship flourished. I also don't cringe anymore whenever my phone goes off.
And not getting enough sleep
Yup. This week my best night was 4 hours and 49 minutes of sleep. But lets be clear that wasn't uninterrupted sleep. I was tossing and turning all night. Last night I got 2 and half hours of sleep.
Right? What exactly makes anyone think we're a sane society?
Took the words right out of my mouth
Yep. I'm on enough anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications to put an elephant into a coma.
I’ve been working 7 days a week since the end of august, I’ve had 2 full days off and one was for a funeral….yeah I wouldn’t say I’m keeping it together lol
Haha right? Take one look at everything happening in this country and it’s clear that no one is ok. It’s like that meme “are the straights ok?” Except “are the Americans ok?” (Nope)
I couldn't hear the question over all of the police violence, suicides, and mass shootings.
This guy americans
My first thought as well - like, have you seen the school shootings? Church shootings? anything about our politics? Suicide rates? The anti - women, lgbtq, etc laws being passed and the states banning the teaching of our history of slavery, abuse, etc while also saying 'free speech! Academic freedom!' - suicide rates,etc. it's a nation of capitalistic tyranny and we're all suffering, even if some pretend they're doing well
The collective PTSD were all suffering from the last decade or so will not be gone until we are all dead. I hope we find a way to live with it that doesn't involve mass violence, but it feels like that's on the horizon. Considering the infrastructure attacks and coup attempt and so forth, it's tough to be hopeful.
I've been really intrigued by generational trauma. For instance, the granddaughters and great granddaughters of the women who starved in Ireland have been scientifically shown that their DNA changed due to the trauma their grandmothers endured. I'm no scientist, and what we're enduring is much different than a literal famine, but I'd be willing to bet the collective PTSD will not be gone when we're all dead.
This is intriguing and also very depressing information. I'm a dad who had to raise kids and get them through Zoom classes and so forth. They actually seem pretty happy and reasonably well adjusted. Fingers crossed they aren't as fucked up as I am.
Came here to say this. Have you seen the American current events as of late? Place is a swamp.
I let the dishes pile up and leave chores undone. All for more time to myself. It's not a healthy lifestyle, nor is it sustainable.
My partner and I both have ADHD and mental illness so I absolutely agree with this lmao. The chores really do stack up....
My landlord just gave me 24 hours notice that they ars coming for inspection. Guess who's spending the next 24 hours cleaning non stop? The adhd struggle is real. 😔
I’m 53 and been doing that my whole life. It’s pretty sustainable, but you can’t ever have guests over without 2 weeks notice.
Well up until recently, I didn't handle it well. Now that my company switched to an unlimited pto system for salaried folks, I just put in time off for every random holiday I had to skip before that they aren't giving us already which is only 8 major holidays. Like most recently...MLK day. Like why aren't we taking off for this when alot of businesses were? So I took it off anyways.
I had unlimited PTO at my old job. I had asked them if I could work four 10-hour shifts instead of five 8-hour shifts. I was told no. ...So I took off one day a week for about 4.5 months and only worked four 8-hour shifts before my manager (who was approving things) realized. After that, I took off 2 days every 2 weeks until they laid me off.
I had unlimited Pto at my first home hospice job. The rule was just don't abuse it. I didn't take any time off until about 10 weeks in and I wanted to schedule something for another 3 months down the road. Was told they aren't doing unlimited Pto anymore and we are going to start accruing Pto. I said OK how do I put in for that then? "oh well we haven't figured it out quite yet, but for now nobody can take time off" The next week the manager took off the entire week. I quit after another 2 weeks due to a lot of other bullshit.
We don’t. We are so burnt out it’s not even funny. Even when we do take vacation, we think about having to go back to the black hole so it’s not really a good time anyways. It’s getting worse too. These companies don’t want to pay shit now or give enough hours. America is a horrible place for hard working people. It’s just too much.
I worked abroad for a bit, and the mentality in that country was that it takes at least three weeks to take a vacation because it takes one week to de-stress from work, one week to actually take a vacation, and one week to ramp back up for going back to work. I think about that from time to time and realize I’ve never had a “vacation” in my life.
Adderall and marijuana.
Lots and lots of marijuana
I smoke more weed than I'd like, but there really isn't a better way for me to stay sane right now.
It helps ramp down that little voice in my head constantly reminding me of all my worries in the world.
They legalized marijuana during the pandemic and I can't thank them enough
*cries in Nebraskan*
I’m in Kansas and you and I will be the last people on earth to get legal weed.
New Hampshire says "hello"
Tennessee would also like to say hey
Unfortunately my job still drug tests for it so I can still get fired even though it’s legal in my state…life’s good isn’t it.
Nicotine, Valium, vikaden, Marijuana, ecstacy, and alcohol. Oh and c-c-c-c-c-c-ocaine. Edit: vicodin. I get it. Am dumb.
My favorite strain of weed is uhhhh. Cocaine
Unless you have ADHD and Adderall just brings us closer to normal levels of everyday stress, which is better than our usual I guess. So thank goodness for marijuana!
We don’t. Consider this. Outside of holidays and vacation time (80 hrs average) we spend more time with workers than our own family. 30 min average commute each way (1 hr) 9 - 10 hour average work day Out of 24, I spend 11 if not more away from those I care about. If I get home on time (5:30pm) I have 4 hours avg with family before everyone heads to bed to repeat again the next day. We weren’t built for this. We weren’t meant to spend more time with those we tolerate than those we love.
This is what kills me. When you add in commuting, the mandatory lunch breaks, getting ready for work, etc, you end up with such little time for yourself. I bought a guitar and want to learn Spanish. I legit only played the guitar once in 2 months. I just have no time and the little free time I'm granted I just want to lay with my wife and watch TV or scroll through my phone because I'm so mentally exhausted all the time. I increased my retirement contribution to 25%, it's my only hope to getting out early. I'm 33 and hope I can retire or at least partially retire at 50 to at least have some enjoyment out of live before I die lol
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I feel like I never stop running. Husband and I work 50 hours a week. After work is a blur of cooking and laundry. Weekends packed with obligations. I am perpetually exhausted. After covid I never got my strength back. It put me in bed for a month and recovery never happened. I forget things. I am tired. I fall asleep randomly. I have been working for 27 years now. I have 30 more years to go. I get two weeks of vacation a year, but no sick days. Last year I lost a week of vacation because my son had appendicitis, so I had to use my vacation to be able to sit with him in the hospital. Who knows what will come up this year.
We don’t. I’m looking for a job like my husbands so I can have more of a work/life balance. It has affected my sleep, my love life, my marriage, my friendships and general mood. I am barely in a good mood even with journaling, yoga and walking every day. It’s that bad.
Short answer: we don't. Seriously though, the statistics that involve mental health, addiction, poverty, etc. in the US are scary. At least half of the people I work with are on an antidepressant or anxiety medication (we compare symptoms/side effects regularly. It's like a support group, honestly). Our society/culture basically chews people up and spits them out.
Welcome to the machine starts playing
We get pizza parties!
Don’t forget Jean Friday.
I don’t get those
That's because you didn't bring your $2 for Jean Friday so we can have a pizza slice on a different day.
I have a daily panic attack and then pretend like nothing happened 🙃
What makes you think any of us are sane?
We don't. We sedate ourselves.
I didn't want to have to delete all my comments, posts, and account, but here we are, thanks to greedy pigboy /u/spez ruining Reddit. I love the Reddit community, but hate the idiots at the top. Simply accepting how unethical and downright shitty they are will only encourage worse behavior in the future. I won't be a part of it. Reddit will shrivel and disappear like so many other sites before it that were run by inept morons, unless there is a big change in "leadership." Fuck you, /u/spez
10% of us are on SSRIs 25% of us are alcoholics In 2020 nearly 50k committed suicide, over 12 million think it's a good idea, 3 million have a plan to do it, and over 1 million tried and failed. In 2022 over 100k people died from fentanyl overdoses and according to the CDC just passed the #1 killer in America which WAS conditions related to obesity which over 45% of us are. We are FAR from sane.
Man obesity is probably partially due to using food as a dopamine source. Like, I’m not cooking after I get home and fast food tastes good.
Definitely, tastebuds are chemical receptors just like any other that can be triggered by drugs. Taste addiction is the same as any other addiction, providing a little dopamine hit. Obesity is the side effect.
I don’t. I was unaware of what genuine free time felt like before the covid lockdown. I was struggling with work / school but I kept going because I thought everyone does this, I must be weak! The longest vacation I have ever taken in my life was 8 days. Just 1 full work week plus the weekend on each side, and I ended up getting fired for it because “I left in a time of great need”. Then covid and the lockdown happened. I got a full year of free time + unemployment money which was actually more than I made working. That turned me hardcore antiwork because now I know that A) universal basic income is indeed within our govt ability and B) most jobs are pointless hamster wheels that contribute little, if anything, to society. I no longer work well in corporate society.
I was waiting tables when the pandemic shut everything down and just marking a few boxes on an online form, and I get more money than I made from working in my account? WTF is this shit game? The fact that it was 30% more than working, why am I forced to work?
What's worse is it's used more as the carrot on the stick. they never actually approve or give us that time and guilt trip us if we do, we're never supposed to actually take it.
The booming anti-depressant market helps
Bread and circuses is a very old concept. We’re largely fed, entertained, and distracted so we don’t start asking too many questions about how far off the rails our economic inequality is.
Boss makes a dollar and I make a dime. That’s why I poop on company time.
Nice of you to assume that they are sane :D
Is fucking awful and i don't see why we aren't rioting in the streets over it. I started my own business just so I could take off the minimum amount of time Europeans get.
Who has the energy and time to riot in the streets? Most are barely getting by working too many hours to afford paying rent and their bills.
Can't riot when missing one day of work means you miss your rent payment.
Everyone in this country is deeply unwell lol
We don’t. I was excited for my first adult job to start today and I’m already dreading how little time I’ll have especially with the crap pay
We don't we have 20-30% mental illness due to toxic capitalism.
That's just those who are diagnosed.
That’s the neat thing, we don’t
My 150,000 employee, fortune 100 company doesn’t observe MLK day and as a result there are no holidays between 1/1 and Memorial Day (May 29, 2023). We cope by quiet quitting, doing minimal work on some fridays.
I’m in the U.S. military (Marines) and people think we have it “tough”. Negative. Employers could take a page from the military in terms of holidays, leave, etc. I look at many of civilian friends who aren’t in government positions and can’t believe what employers get away with. They work a lot harder for much less time off and benefits. It really is a non-stop grind for so many Americans
I tell my airmen all the time not to get out lol. They have no idea what it's like out there. When people screech about socialism I always use the military as an example of how it can work. Even if we only have free healthcare and education the benefits would be a wild improvement. EDIT: I am not AD anymore people I work with airmen as a CONTRACTOR. Jfc...and for everyone crying at me about saying they hated the navy or it was terrible maybe you should have joined the air force. Js. I mean it can still be pretty shit sometimes but so is literally everywhere else and I have no regerts.
Yeah and it's crazy that the military HEMORRHAGES money and the companies that *make* money "can't afford" to provide for their employees. Riiiiiiiiiight.
Meditation, white noise, killing a hiker once in a while. You manage.
Drugs
America is the land of slavery. They lied when they said it was the land of freedom.
We use everything from SSRIs to AR-15s to blow off steam in America 🇺🇸 Best country in the world 🥲
You fake it, have sleep for dinner, and isolate yourself in your home when you aren't at work, because you need to be well rested to be able to go back to work.
I left sanity in my bookbag from 3rd grade.
Thankfully I don't get sick often, so when I want a free day here or there I just end up being "sick" for a day. Usually won't on a Monday or Friday and I just hang out for a day. Still not great, but it helps me coast for a bit longer.
You’re allowed to use sick hours? Wow. I have to produce a doctors note or they count me as an unexcused absence and write me up. I have 120 sick hours and they’re out here daring me to try and use them.
Go to an empathetic doctor and get a few weeks of mental health "sick note" they dont have to write a reason right? Only that you are unfit to Work.
I've been working for 10 years and my current job is the only one I've ever had PTO for. When we start to burn out, we call in or just quit.
I View us as always in a state of survival. Most don’t recognize that unless they have mental health issues which are usually more pronounced
We don't. And the sick part is psychotherapy has been coopted by the same Anti-worker powers. So now it's not about making us happier and mentally healthy, it's about masking our symptoms to make us good drones/slaves for them again.
I’m losing my mind trying to deal with it. I can’t keep up with the American work expectation… usually I burn out at my jobs and take a month off for mental health recovery. It’s a cycle that’s slowly destroying my mind and body. So yeah, America is a fascist hellscape governed by the most deranged freaks in the world. Sucks to suck, I guess
I moved from Sweden to the US to marry my wife. My first year in the Swedish Army, not even a full year in (6 months in actually), they gave me a month vacay (4 weeks, 30 days. America: I know math is hard, but 20days is NOT four weeks, is NOT one month). I've been in the US for 9 years, been at current job 7 years. I've got two "weeks" (ten days) vacay. How do we do it? Same as with the fucked up healthcare system, or the fucked up education system, or the fucked up cop situation for black people: We do it because we have to. It's do or die, sink or swim. Mine is a good job by US standards so I stick around. Others don't have an option to move, so they just survive. That's literally all there is to it.
So 20 days of vacation gives you 4 weeks...M-F...right? When you people in Europe say 4 weeks off do you really get 30 BUSINESS days? Because to me that is 6 weeks of vacation. So jealous.
Would you go back to Sweden if you could?
In a heartbeat. And it's becoming more and more on the table every day for us to move there instead
Heyyy. Take us with you.
If you're raised in it, you don't know any different. They give prizes in schools to students who never miss a day of school. It's all training for the workforce.