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As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

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Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#201

Post by aoifjaslfivjcam »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #145
srackey wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And also anecdotally, every professional office worker under ~30 I know has been absolutely miserable during this remote work experience, and is yearning to get back to the office - most for a full 5 days a week.

That's baffling, haven't people got friends?

Not since covid, no.

Some of us have been stuck in single rooms with no family or social contact for over a year.

Exercise groups - Illegal meeting up with other people - Illegal dating - Illegal going outside without a valid reason - Illegal

Former friends with established families and large properties with gardens berate you for complaining, as its selfish, "people are dying!", but they travel for holidays, take their kids to stay with their parents so they can have a weekend getting drunk in their garden, etc that sort of thing. Not friends anymore.

Also most people who I considered friends before, it turns out are just acquaintances. People I've known for 10-15 years who it turns out don't care about my wellbeing, just see me as a guy they did activity X with, went to events with, etc. A whole lot of that. Also lots of people do not like the fact that I questioned the rationale for the lockdown measures, questioned the data ( as in wanted to know what the actual data was), etc. They did not like it AT ALL.

Now restrictions might be lifting in the future, I am faced with the situation of being without a social circle. A social life of nothing. The only people I speak to are my colleagues, and that's how it's been for quite some time. Again I emphasize that it has been illegal to even try to change that, and socially taboo enough to question this and say that this is making me miserable as fuck that any existing friends have abandoned me, lots of blocked contacts on whatsapp (there's this impression amongst many that questioning the lockdowns, asking for data, saying this is not good you personally makes me a republican conspiracy theorist nutcase, etc).

How do I rebuild a new life when my ability to trust other people is lower than I ever thought it could be?

I have no family to lean on for support.

As far as I am concerned I might as well be a secret Jew in 1944 Berlin for the level of trust I have for other people now.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#202

Post by bradlys »

streamofdigits wrote: post #83
mjburgess wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which among others has demolished the brain-damaged neoliberal narrative oh?

had governments not bailed out unconditionally a big chunk of the economy many business sectors would have collapsed. This would have triggered a run on the financial system like no one in recorded history. maybe we should have left "creative destruction" to play out. after all a pandemic is a known business risk.

But the bailing out hasn’t really changed anyone’s mind about capitalism. The fun part of capitalism in America is that people think individually they are owed stuff from the government but collectively should have no intervention.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#203

Post by skciva »

Robotbeat wrote: post #157
HarryHirsch wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's baffling, haven't people got friends?

It’s hard to make friends as an adult. Especially: 1) If you don’t have kids (socializing with other parents). 2) Don’t go to church/synagogue/etc (church attendance in decline) 3) Do not live where you grew up. (People chase opportunities in other cities.) 4) Aren’t in school any more. Neighbor friends are also possible, but it can take many years for people to become comfortable enough to be friends, and due to #3,…

I've been seeing this sentiment shared recently and what I always suggest is to

1) Look at your hobbies 2) Find people who share those hobbies

Plenty of opportunities exist whether through meetup, BumbleBFF, local postings in cafes/on lamp posts, etc. (this is true of cities, remote destinations may be more difficult but thats the tradeoff of living around less people I suppose)

If you can't find groups for your hobbies, try starting them! Doesn't have to be a permanent leadership role, but if you get the ball rolling others will likely come and BOOM you've found potential friends.

If you don't have hobbies, look into volunteer groups. Rewarding and often extremely kind people who will value what you bring to the table.

Hope this helps!

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#204

Post by rpmisms »

jghn wrote: post #200
rpmisms wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm quite definitely under 30, and I just quit in order to stay remote. I'm so much more relaxed, and I can spend actual quality time with my wife and friends. I'm not sure why anyone would want to go back.

Yeah I suspect the real connection are people who look to depend on the office culture to provide a key part of their social interaction. In some cases that will track with age, but not always.

I mean, I like my coworkers well enough, but I'm a redneck at heart. I'm never going to actually fit in with the yuppies.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#205

Post by aksss »

sureglymop wrote: post #194
HarryHirsch wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's baffling, haven't people got friends?

As someone in their 20s without social media, I have exactly 0 friends. I live in a central European country and everyone around me has a friend group that originated during their childhood; they have childhood friends. I do not, mainly because throughout my time in school I switched schools a whole lot for various reasons. Over the years I've also grown quite insecure about it and anxious. Now I also happen to not l…

You need to join organizations - hobby groups, collector groups, professional groups, etc.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#206

Post by fullstackchris »

dougmwne wrote: post #11

5 years ago I hit a burnout point and took a year off work. It was a huge perspective shift. I realized that my day-to-day of a rushed commute to work, a stressful and distracting office, thimble-deep coworker relationships and a life completely orientated around doing the above was an insane waste of my short time on Planet Earth. I reoriented my life around family, remote work, flexibility and balance. My quality o…

Hearing stuff like this a lot recently, I always think about the often repeated vision that Keynes had, saying that we (his grandchildren) would be working 15 hour work weeks. I think our economy is so rich and efficient now, that scenario could actually exist, but everyone is still duped by the workaday culture infinitely persisting the 40 hour work week idea.

Before I'm barraged with "what about people in the service industry!?" I do confess, I'm not sure what the argument would be - indeed, some people are perhaps only working part time at those positions, perhaps maybe around that 15 hour figure. But for those who work full time in the service industry, I guess I'm not sure what there leverage could be - raising the minimum wage perhaps? But that argument is age old and I've heard pros and cons both for and against. Also, in a country like the US where are social programs are far behind most of places like the EU for example, it's especially hard to argue or expect anything to actually become a reality for some of those service jobs. I guess only time will tell.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#207

Post by bradlys »

danuker wrote: post #147
kayamon wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spent the last few years doing remote work, before COVID. I don't want to waste any more years of my life staring into a rectangle. If I go back to programming it's sure as hell going to be onsite. It's all fun and games at first. "Look, I can work from home in my underpants!" Then after a while you realize you're just sitting there alone in your underpants.

> to waste any more years of my life staring into a rectangle Do you not stare into a rectangle on-site? Do you prefer to additionally go through soul-sucking commute?

It’s a bit presumptuous to assume everyone has a soul sucking commute. Most of my jobs I’ve had a 10 minute commute.

I’ve decided to take a longer commute now (30ish minutes) but it’s not a big deal because it’s in a place where I was going many times a week anyway and had to do the commute then too. Also, it’s going to be hybrid now and isn’t 5-days/week probably.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#208

Post by reidjs »

foobarbecue wrote: post #51
kaycebasques wrote: post #45

On a tangential note, it really feels like we continue to live in a historic time. Maybe it's a completely personal experience but it just seems like so many basic societal assumptions are getting meaningfully challenged or brought into focus. The pandemic panic and subsequent lockdowns focused our relationships with other humans. The racism protests also. The "inner temple" of the US empire getting breached/"violate…

Aren't all times historic? What would you consider the least historic decade?

Would you agree that 2020-2021 was a more interesting period of time than 2018-2019?

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#209

Post by mandelbrotwurst »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #186
mkr-hn wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to save, especially for years, is a special circumstance. At least in the US where wages have been flat for quite a while even as cost of living skyrocketed.

Per the US government (BLS), the median household has the ability to save about $1,000 per month without changing how much they spend on ordinary costs of living. So not everyone can but most people can if they choose to. Of course, Americans are notoriously poor savers, which is the bigger culprit.

If I have monthly income of 3000 and spend it all, how am I to save 1000 monthly without lowering my costs?

This sounds impossible, unless maybe you’re not counting all spending as “ordinary costs”?

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#210

Post by lowercased »

saiya-jin wrote: post #180
lowercased wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh... EU... your 'social safety net' is ... stronger than ours in the US. I am nervous/scared about the future, and I have about 3-4 years of expenses in savings (not counting investments and retirement accounts). But I'm still somewhat 'nervous/scared'.

There is no single EU when it comes to topics like these, some parts are much better than others. But no place will ever save you from really bad financial mistakes or tons of small ones. But you won't ever starve or have no place to sleep and your health will generally be taken care of, albeit not always in best way possible (ie dental care).

> But you won't ever starve or have no place to sleep and your health will generally be taken care of

Which are things I concerned myself with early on. I probably won't ever have to be homeless, but... health stuff - knowing that if I stop paying for 'insurance', regardless of how much I've paid in over... decades... I'll be denied things - that's still troubling.

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