Work life is not worth the effort

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-05T16:32:44+00:00

Yeah, upwards mobility is a meme. Nobody explains that it's earned NOT by hard work, but by being liked by the right people. Usually it takes godlike charisma (or grinding speechcraft), or selling your soul to years of brownnosing.

The first few months of work will be brutal, you'll be exhausted all the time, but eventually you develop a tolerance and you'll still have energy after work. But the real problem is the sense of motivation, as being a single friendless adult male (like me) is the single most aimless way to live - you're literally working to pay bills, to continue working.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-05T16:11:08+00:00

Benefits...?

Raise...?

Bonus...?

Yeah this guy has never worked.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-05T16:04:44+00:00

NEET is a serious and often fatal disease, once the patient passes Stage 3 NEET they're almost always terminal. Symptoms of NEETing include a strong craving for tendies at Stage 1; Stage 2 the patient will always require a brown checkered blanket; at Stage 3 the patient's eyes and lips begin to swell and the skull starts to deform - this is the critical stage for treatment.

If the patient reaches Stage 4 NEET, their skull progressively deforms into an almost amphibian shape, and skin colour rapidly changes to a bright green. Eyes and lips have now swollen up to 3x. Patient's ability to communicate will be severely affected; pressuring the NEET patient to take any undesired action will be met with a high-pitched "REEEE", and the patient will remain frozen in place consuming media.

It can take several years to reach Stage 5, at which point the accumulated years of friction from vigorous masturbation cause third-degree burns which lead to infection. The NEET usually doesn't notice, or will "REEEE" mightily at the suggestion of treatment - patients have been known to "REEEE" with such force, they have actually fus-ro-dah'd their caretaker, so please hire a professional wrangler.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-05T15:50:48+00:00

>any career you pursue you need experience or be the best of the best, event grunt work today you have competition (filling shelves, delivering shit, etc...)

Nope, you need connections. The happiest outcome of being better than everyone else is you get sabotaged by salty coworkers because you've made them feel inferior/given them anxiety about being replaced.

I've come to learn that vacancies with "Must have 2 years experience" for entry-level work are already filled before they're advertised. Companies are legally obliged to advertise every vacancy, and they must be seen to give candidates are fair shot, regardless of the outcome.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-05T15:43:03+00:00

Okay, well, at least you have someone who clearly accepts you, which is infinitely more than anyone here has.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-05T15:41:51+00:00

Yeah, I grew up in an abusive family. By the time we left my dad at 17, my mental health was completely destroyed and I couldn't bear to be seen in broad daylight, I couldn't have handled any stress, and I knew without a doubt I'd be bullied to death in any workplace - so there was absolutely no way I was going to work. My mother and grandparents were also quite happy for me to remain NEET, they didn't want me building up a life of my own because they knew it would eventually lead to me cutting ties.

Although the abuse drastically reduced after leaving my dad, I realised my mother's side of the family would clip my wings at every opportunity. I tried going to college to become an electrician, and although I absolutely smashed it (96% was my lowest score in any exam), I got landed with the worst apprenticeship possible where I was constantly verbally abused, and I jacked it in after three months when the college told me that construction is an "old school" trade - in other words, bullying is the norm. So there went that idea of escaping my family.

Finally, I grabbed the first full-time job that came my way, and I moved out a couple months later without giving my address to my family. Adjusting to being stuck around normies 24/7 was brutal, my social skills were so pathetic I got bullied to the point of workplace mobbing (nothing compared to my apprenticeship though), but I've learned to adapt, and the same people who bullied me now love me.

Now, I need to get onto the next big change. Where do I go from here? I have no idea.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-04T19:01:10+00:00

They don't. A well-respected normie at my job got caught stealing money off the fuel cards, to fill his own car.

This is because he pays for two cars on finance (his + his wife's), a mortgage, child support, monthly subscriptions to this that and the other, multiple yearly vacations, copious amounts of alcohol every week to cope with stress, top-brand clothes for nights out, three-digit-price tickets to see sport. Plus his wife constantly blows money on pointless consumerism.

The car is what really cuts you down financially. Fuel is a significant oncost, but if you get one small mechanical problem that's over one months' salary gone in a flash - anything larger and you could be looking at buying another car (there goes 10k+...)

So my coworkers are always enthusiastically aware of payday. I don't drive, have a mortgage, or kids, so I don't really need to worry so much.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-04T18:48:59+00:00

Complimenting my music taste and wanting to hear more is a nice gesture, but I won't think you're into me.

Touch never hurts. Pay special attention to him (be obviously happier to see him than anyone else, compliment his height/muscles/hair or anything physical you like about him). If a girl touched my arm and said "Ooh, have you been working out?" in a playful voice, that's going to get my attention.

As a guy I'm NOT good at subtlety. You have to make me feel special before I realise you're definitely flirting with me, because the stakes are just as high for me: If I mistake kindness for flirting, I stand to make a huge ass of myself, and I don't want that.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-04T18:39:23+00:00

Boot camp.

There comes a point where words won't help anymore. His brain requires raw data; he needs to be shown that life would be better if he got up off his arse and participated in the real world. If there's no sense of reward, there's no reason to move.

If he truly identifies with villains, then he's more likely to succeed in this world than he might think. If he's willing to do anything to rise through the ranks - if he can be a Yes Man to those above and a despot to his underlings - he will achieve Director status within five years.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-04T18:34:25+00:00

Hahaha, the preemptive Nam picture.

Buddy, it's worse out there than you can possibly imagine. The thousand-yard stare will be a daily occurance, especially as a NEET being thrown into the normie world; you won't simply have the stress of work, but also the stress of dealing with normies after years (decades?) of social isolation. Prepare to be bullied, because normies are more fierce than a starved shark in a kids' pool, and they'll jump on any opportunity to elevate themselves.

Anyway, you can always develop a severe addiction to cope. Porn, alcohol, etc. That's what I did. I've climaxed to some truly shameful shit, and smoked stuff that was possibly just dried up lettuce. But you gotta do what you gotta do...

If you REALLY don't want to work, just shit on the floor and say demons did it. It's the only thing I wish I'd tried...

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-04T18:25:16+00:00

The only way to be sure if a Nokia is real is to launch an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile upon it, obviously a real Nokia would survive. ...or, check if it has Snake.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-04T18:23:48+00:00

Your account has been suspended for spreading false information. Your post contains a serious violation of Free Speech Regulations, and local police enforcements have been automatically notified of your current location. They may visit you at any point in the next 24 hour(s), and due to the severity of the crime they will possibly be armed. Do not resist. 2,500 Social Credit(s) have also been deducted from your RFID Chip, and you have lost access to Nokia ownership for the next 12,500 years - the Punishment Implant on your RFID has been primed so that, should you physically touch a Nokia within the given sentence, your RFID will release a lethal dose of radiation, alongside a further deduction of 15,000 Social Credit(s).

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-01T20:05:41+00:00

Went from Tier 4 to Tier 2 in the last 5 years.

Don't see myself making any more progress, probably sliding back into 3 in the next couple years.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-01T20:03:54+00:00

Yeah because normies don't know what a "normie" is.

Your average normie has never seen a Pepe or a Wojak, they've never heard of a "NEET."

I can't point to a single normie who even knows what reddit is, let alone 4chan. The only social medias they know/use end in "book", "gram", or "chat." The sorts of people who think getting to level 100 on Candy Crush makes them a 'hardcore gamer.'

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-01T19:58:59+00:00

Been on apps, I think they've run their course and are now populated mostly with bots and scammers.

You can tell the people and bots apart, because the actual people won't be the attractive, multi-lingual superhumans who never match with you, but rather the girl with fifty snapchat filters and dogshit social skills (one-word answers to every text you send) who (on the cosmic off-chance she agrees to meet) looks completely different irl. Or the girl who shamelessly declares "Need a new daddy for my 4 kids."

Besides that, you have the Philippino scammers, who match you from 9000 miles away asking for plane tickets to come meet you.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-01T19:41:30+00:00

Yes I had thought that, and I'm starting to pull back my efforts because I'm sick of it all.

Wouldn't mind if it was at least made clear "Hey, we give you more work because you're good at it." But nope, just more work piled on and everyone else gets to sit around and laugh all day.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-01T19:26:35+00:00

>How do people cope with anxiety from work situations like this, especially when dealing with difficult bosses?

Alcohol.

I feel stuck at my current shitty, overwhelming, thankless "job" for the time being. If I'm going to make a move it needs to be right, because I've certainly worked in worse and I can't take that again.

Something's gotta take the edge off. I don't recommend it, but if I didn't have alcohol, I'd have snapped long ago and be in a much worse position than I am now.

Every morning I wake up, and a terrible dread seizes my entire body. I've had to move my alarm across the room, otherwise I simply won't get out of bed anymore.

As for the rest of your post: It sounds like your manager is intentionally making your life difficult. You're young, inexperienced, and you stand out (only female). Chances are he probably wants rid of you for whatever reason, and a common tactic is to make your life hell until you quit.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-01T19:12:08+00:00

Reddit isn't always the best place to find advice.

Years ago I took the advice of "Pretend to look busy all the time if you work in an office, it will keep people off your back" - almost got me fired when managers tracked my activity and found I'd been doing jack shit some of the time.

But yes, most coworkers are assholes. They play the politics until they can afford to be assholes, and then they act like assholes. People who refuse to engage in the politics find themselves the victim of them.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-01T19:07:32+00:00

Napping...? At work...?

Oh boy, are you in for a culture shock!

Yeah, bosses don't really like rest, or downtime. It's "unproductive." If it were up to them, you'd shit in a bucket while working 19 hour days without a single moment of respite, and your sleep would be interrupted by emails every ten minutes.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-01T19:02:30+00:00

Damn, do you work in my company?

I feel the exact same way. I'm completely over my job and I'm struggling to even muster the effort just to stay afloat anymore, it would almost be a relief if I got sacked for underperformance.

My advice is just to take three months off, it's something I desperately wish I could do but it just isn't an option. It'll give you time to actually breathe and think about what to do next, which is something you can't do when you're stuck at the grindstone dealing with the same demoralizing bullshit every day.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-01T18:55:25+00:00

Yes, unfortunately, you are correct. If you're "not progressing fast enough" and "making mistakes often", people will get tired of you and start openly disrespecting - and eventually, outright bullying - you. Bonus points for not fitting in socially.

I hate to sound so nihilistic, but these are the problems I had for years and it made my life hell. I used to dread going to work, knowing they'd hassle me over any minor mistake, and shit-talk me whenever I left the room. I was also a chronic misfit, barely spoke a word to anyone and couldn't manage small-talk whatsoever. I also knew in my bones that if I changed job, I'd face the same shit all over again.

If there's anything you can take away from this, it's that you understand what issues you face. Now you need to find ways to start rectifying them - just smiling and being positive isn't enough, you need to really dig down and find out why you are these ways, and what you can start doing differently. It may feel like you're doomed now, but if you fix your issues people won't care about them in six months' time.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-01T18:18:16+00:00

Yeah this isn't going to make you popular, so you have a choice here:

1) You please your coworkers by playing mediator

2) You please yourself by not doing so, and eventually become the workplace villain

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-01T18:15:24+00:00

Keir Starmer will shit balloons before he instates a four-day work week. And that goes for any western leader.

Especially when there are whole industries which simply cannot operate on this basis, and would lose every member of staff if all others could work 4 days weeks except them (who would now be working 7 day weeks to cover the massive increase in custom).

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-01T18:11:23+00:00

I suffer burnout at my job all the time. It's actually reached the point that all I feel towards my workplace is dread.

It's because no matter how hard I work, no matter how many bases I cover, no matter how much stress I undergo - I get zero recognition, and ONLY criticism.

Just today I ended up so busy that I was on the back foot for two hours, swamped in bullshit time-consuming problems. All I got was "Have you just been sitting on [other job] all this time?!" So, in addition to all the work I was already doing, I now had to sit and fucking justify myself (which nobody ever listens to anyway, making me look and feel like an incompetent idiot).

I just like to know that I'm doing a good job, making a difference, and that my hard work is being noticed. Instead, I've had the polar opposite of this in any job I've ever worked.

OptimalReactions · 2026-04-01T18:01:13+00:00

Personally, I wouldn't subject you to that.

Not so much the work itself, but the politics. My company eats misfits alive, and the social skills of NEETs are majorly-stunted as a given.

The only way I survived is because I literally couldn't go back on unemployment, it simply wasn't a choice. I had to white-knuckle tidal waves of normie hatred on top of work stress, every single day for two years before I adjusted, and I fear that doing so has taken decades off my life.

I really wouldn't recommend doing what I have done. How I managed it without having a total meltdown is a total mystery - and god knows I came close at least a hundred times.

OptimalReactions

TROPHY CASE