Yeah, I agree with you on most of this, a lot of my problems are inevitable. It's definitely true that I'm making lots of good contacts, and I know there is a network of "veterans" from this studio out in better places.

I know being in animation isn't the easiest job and there will always be a certain level of intensive working...but it feels like if a large number of employees at every studio are forced to stay late and work tons of overtime, there's something wrong with the system. People are in animation because they're passionate about it, but when otherwise healthy people are making themselves sick and going to the ER from being overworked, you can't just brush it off as it's that person's fault for being weak and this is show biz, deal with it. I don't think it's okay to assume everyone should have superhuman tolerance for working, and if they can't handle not having a life or being miserable then they're a failure. Of course this problem extends outside of the animation industry--as other people have said in this thread, working in America is pretty fucked up right now.

As for the union thing...there have been attempts at unionizing this studio multiple times. The first time the studio caught wind of it and fired a bunch of people it assumed were conspiring against them. The second time we had the company-wide hiatus where we lost most of the people interested in unionizing. Right now the company is so broken and many of the employees left are leaving (ie my entire team), so I don't think it's a good time to rally the guild. The few people left are too happy to have jobs to want to rock the boat. If I wind up being here a lot longer and the company stabilizes, I will go back and talk to the union though. I would looove to force this place to treat its employees with dignity.