I mean I don't want to work. Maybe if it was less traumatizing and hadn't already disabled me completely and wasn't forced on me under threat of starving in the street, I'd be more inclined.
I would love to do vet med again. But every place is profit over care, and over workers. And so many of our clients can't afford the care their pets need anymore. The needless suffering, i can't deal with anymore. I would work for free in a world where i had my needs and wants met.
@@cambriaofthevastoceans6721exactly and i think especially of all autistics, if we were accommodated we would be freely, and perhaps i think even easily transforming the world into a paradise
I genuinely think that that’s fine and not everyone needs to work for society to work. I’d be all for having a UBI big enough that nobody has to work if they don’t want to or can’t
Exactly. maybe if the resources needed to do the job we're available and every day wasn't a miserable trudge towards the grave with the only other option being homelessness more people would be up for it
I was a barista on and off for twenty five years. I mentioned that in conversation and a woman i didn't know laughed and said, "Wow, it almost sounded like you're proud of that." And I know she meant that to be condescending, but I *am* proud of that. I'm *good* at it, and I've forgotten more about coffee than that harpie will ever know. I loved every minute of it 😊 I'm now a fry/prep cook and I love it, mostly because there's zero customer service 😂 I'm too old and autistic to deal with that anymore
My best mate is a barista and we can't walk through town without getting stopped by regulars that love him! (He also had very bright hair and isn't easy to forget haha) Just because she can't see the good impact you've made, that doesn't mean it's not there!
i love being a dishwasher cus its dead simple and i get to immediately feel proud of hard work and then go about my day without having to solve the mind games of customer service
That sounds like a big accomplishment and like a really fun time. If I could survive off of work like that where I would, and wasn’t a night owl, I’d be applying to a coffee shop as my first choice job.
One of the most depressing things to me has been when I hear about people who want to teach, but quit to go take a job that will pay enough to support their families, or someone who just graduated with a degree in nursing who stays at her job she worked her way through college at the grocery store, because she would have to take a pay cut to get an entry level nursing position. If every job earned a decent living wage, people would do the position they were more passionate about, even if that position was farmer, or working at a composting facility, and society as a whole would be better because the average person woild be much healthier.
I've always thought Barista's have the coolest job ever, it's a unique skill where you get to be passionate about coffee and you get to sometimes talk with interesting people. Someday I would love to do that job. I did warehouse work for years until I hurt my knees, so I'd love a job where I'm on my feet and being friendly with most people.
It really is astonishing to me that so many people seem to think absolute desperation to ensure basic survival needs is good incentive to work and not just a guaranteed way to completely burn people out and run their motivation into the ground. Absolutely wild thinking. Totally unrelated, love the new name!
I agree. In fact, people are more likely to be creative, innovative, and inventive when they're not stressed to the gills and have enough free time to get enough rest and spend some off time thinking up new stuff and enjoying life. If life is a drugery, being inventive or creative is unlikely.
It also doesn't make logical sense. What does that say about wealthy people? There are people who make millions-billions of dollars that still work when they could otherwise just retire. To me it's always just an excuse to punch down at people who otherwise could benefit from the assistance, and exploit people for their labor.
Video game modding is my favorite example of why these narratives around work and motivation are nonsense. I have spent hours making patches, for free, for content other people spent hours making, for free, so that strangers I have never and probably will never meet can have a better time with this leisure activity we have in common. Why? Because I can, and helping people feels good, and participating in a community feels good. I am in several discords where hundreds of people have spent SO MUCH TIME just being available for "I'm new to this and I'm getting this error message and I have no idea what it means can anyone help me?" Most people, when we've got the time and expertise and aren't stressed about basic needs, are happy to help each other. And most tasks have better results when motivated intrinsically rather than extrinsically.
Thank you so much!! I am one of the people newer to modding 🤗❤ One of the few things I can do these days in my burnout. If I didn't have to work to live, I would do electronics repair because it fascinates me - I love learning how the technology works and making things operate again. But, I'm so exhausted all the time that I can't do it, even in my "free" time 😥
That's so cool! I appreciate all the wonderful game mods out there and all the hard work you put into making some of them to improve gaming experiences. ❤
@@biteofdog to be clear, I pretty much just patch mods and help people troubleshoot, which (imho) is usually a lot easier than making mods. Honestly the hardest part is the emotional labor when you're trying to help someone unbreak their game but they're frustrated and taking it out on you. PSA: always be kind to tech support, they're usually trying to help you as much as they can without losing their job. Usually how they can help is limited by their employer, especially if they work for a giant company, but you can always ask to speak to the next person above them while also making it clear that you're not going to complain about them and you appreciate what they tried to do.
My parter recently out of stress went nonverbal, and seeing her capacity to do things expand without the stress of being forced to verbalize was astounding. If she would be accommodated she’d be able to work. But most companies will not accommodate the spectrum of verbal needs especially if it is like “well she can talk some times”. She owes no one verbalization. Accommodations let us exist, and it feels like the world is telling my partner she should not exist
I’m sorry your partner isn’t being accommodated as much as they need and deserve to be. This world is truly messed up if they can’t accommodate something as simple as verbal needs.
Funny how it's all the rich people who spend their days hiding their parents' money in the Cayman Islands who tell us that we're lazy if we want to be able to feed our families without working 60 hours a week.
My uncle owns a hotel in the Cayman, my parents hide money there..millions. They DISOWNED me at 45!!! So I'm not seeing any of it. They turned out to be true psychopaths with second and third lives....dont' ask. I'm better off poor without them than rich with them.
@@StephenGangi I’m not a millionaire but I’m doing a high income. I could definitely sell it as getting IT jobs and being a good programmer, but the truth is that all my achievements are on the back of having had a privileged upbringing. It’s not even just the money. People treat you better when you give off privilege vibes. It’s a horrible system. Very few people truly make it on hard work, and I know because my father did it while I didn’t.
@@Sunspike_ks So, we roll back 150 years of progress in the workplace? We fought for 40 hours, and if anything should be calling for a shorter workweek. What next, saying that all worker health and safety regulations are "outdated" and just embrace a return to the Gilded Age? How outdated of us to act as if we should be concerned with everyone's wellbeing, including our own, instead of calling for mass human sacrifice on the altar of more profit for the already-rich.
The only thing that sucks about working a regular job is not the work itself, but the consistency of HAVING to do it even on the days where you just aren’t feeling right.
Yes! This is why I'm unemployed and can't see myself as a valuable employee to most businesses, even though I have a lot to offer. I have health issues that create an enormous amount of inconsistency in my life. I don't have consistent access to my own energy, so I can't promise I'll be consistent to an employer. I'm not a robot. I'm not AI. I'm a human with human strengths and weaknesses. Like chronic health conditions and inconsistent energy.
I once watched a documentary about "geniuses" and there was one guy, who scored super high on iq tests, and he was audhd. Tried so many jobs, always changed them. People expected some Stephen Hawking lvl shit from him. And in the end he was just the jack of all trades person at his wifes dental practice. He filled up chocolates in the waiting room, set up PCs, greeted people, swept the floor and whatever struck his fancy or was needed that day. It was so endearing to see :3
I was a senior developer up until 2015...now 54 i take whatever brainless jobs come my way even if i don't need the money. I discovered physical jobs that require no thinking are so easy. I barely realize I'm working. Its not really work, its just moving my body. Coding was stress nonstop for 30 years. I burned out. I coudl become a coffee a barrists in an hour if someone asked me without breaking a sweat..its like easy peasy cute and sweetie work.
I feel like this is one side of it, but the other side is a brilliant person who wants to be a doctor or an engineer (and they would be exceptionally good at it), and they can't access the resources and education needed to obtain that job. Who knows how many cures for diseases and innovative solutions to problems are currently living in city slums and rural dumps. It's so sad that the resources for innovation are limited to the upper echelons of society while simultaneously expecting people with high IQ's to work overtime in a job that just doesn't suit them.
It is so devastating having healthcare tied to employment in the US. We stay in jobs where we are undervalued and burnt out because if we don't, it's $700/month to continue coverage. I've been dealing with autistic burnout since October 2022 but finding another job won't make it better (if you can even find one) - it's just the same situation with different people 😥
This is such a good point. My life got drastically harder when I aged out of my mom’s insurance. She now hates her job and told us she won’t quit because “we have such good insurance”. It’s true-her insurance is incredible. I can’t go to the doctor anymore despite being chronically ill because the insurance I pay $500 per month for covers nothing.
@@Cocoanutty0 It really is true, it's the same for me. At all jobs prior to my current job, I paid a huge premium every month and couldn't use it. Now my employer covers my premiums, which is pretty unheard of here, and I am appreciative that they do that; however, it makes it that much harder to leave knowing the difference, even though it makes me literally feel the years drain from my life because of the stress. I've had to get three different medications because of the work.
Having healthcare tied to employment is a feature, not a bug, of American capitalism. Companies would save so much money with universal healthcare, but they’re well aware of how much the US healthcare system works in their favor.
@@Silvermoon424 Employment-based healthcare is evidence that the US is a exploitative plutocracy, not a democracy. It does everything it can to give corporations advantages over workers. Probably because of legalized bribery in the government.
Or they put up job listings without answering ANY inquiries to the position because they get Gov. benefits for "having positions open and looking for workers"
No one wants to be *forced* to work. Doing something because you want to and doing something because you *have to to survive* are two different things.
when i was a child i wanted to be a binman, i was very adamant about it and looked up to those guys like they were heroes. i always went up to them to tell them how cool they were and sometimes tried to give them a pound coin as a present. they were always shocked but happy, my mum encouraged me but other people looked down on me and my mum over it. turns out these men work really hard, have to study to do it and get paid well; even tho they have to get up super early and it's a dirty job. it and "specialist cleaner" is still one of my dream jobs.
I loved working in the library. Both for ordering the books into a logical order in a place that is quiet on purpose, and for the community work that the library did. Libraries are such a vital community! Unfortunately the pay and hours were very bad. Also everyone join a union!
Yes, same!! Best job I ever had was working in the music library in college (when I was still on my mom's insurance and didn't have to worry about that).
We are all unjustly dispossessed, and without income, we will be turned out. The coercion at the heart of capitalism. So we work, on someone else's terms the majority of the time, at the threat of destitution. Always.
I want to ask humanity why they have every choice on earth except various modes of exchange do not exist. If "money" did not exist, what would motivate people? What other species pays to live on Earth? Why do humans have subjective notions of "value" that everything else depends upon, oftentimes to detrimental outcomes? I see people throw away and waste so much, it's like everything is ultimately worthless after a time, unless SOMEONE with dumb ideas pays too much attention to it.
If I didn’t need money I would be working for myself. I’d be doing creative things instead. People don’t necessarily like working, they like having a purpose. Most jobs have no purpose, when you know you’re not doing something meaningful it’s soul destroying.
People also just dont need to be working as much as a full time job. People get paid to produce useless items, transport them, stock them, unstock them, throw them in the garbage, transport them to the dump, and process them. It's absurd. Capitalists expect endless growth, endlessly increasing productivity, endless profit. Everyone must be employed. Everyone must work 40-80 hours a week. No one even has time to enjoy the products of our labor, let alone the money, except for the increasingly exclusive owning class. No one has time to be creative or pursue their own interests that they arent being paid for. No one has time to flourish.
Great video! I want to add that the abuse, disrespect, and lack of security people deal with in service jobs can also make us more susceptible to mistreatment in "better" jobs. I've talked to several co-workers about how we thought our current (office) job was great - at first - simply because our boss didn't call us names and no one tried to assault us. Keeping the bar for decency that low helps unscrupulous employers everywhere, in every field.
I'm too disabled to work any current job, but I wish so desperately I could work I'm so fucking bored half of the time (due to barely even being able to do my hobbies) and I wish I could do any kind of work
@@estellesweet6703 first of all, no I can't, my SSI would get taken away second of all, no I physically and mentally cannot like..if I could, then why wouldn't I work a normal job???? what volunteer work have you been doing exhausted, and in moderate to severe pain, and unable to focus, and with a memory impairment, and many many other issues. please do tell
When just being a cashier turns into: shelf staff, cleaning personel, cashier, social worker, mediator, speedrunner, marketting and idea supply and some other private stuff you gotta do for your boss, people tend to be a lot less motivated, especially when we get less money compared to years ago, often not even enough to survive. I am not surprised.
I have to disagree strictly because as an autistic person I find people often decide I'm being disrespectful over the most random shit. Would love nothing more than a clear list on the door.
^^ upper two comments. I've worked in food service before and had customers be unnecessarily rude. I've also been a customer and been denied service because I didn't hold eye contact and so I "looked shady" to the clerk. Allowing people to deny service over how one person perceives another person will always be a double-edged sword.
@@Rey-it3sg Not holding eye contact isn't a sign of disrespect, though. Not holding eye contact shouldn't be enough of a threshold for someone to deny service for disrespect. And the employee has to be there. It doesn't make sense to demand that someone who HAS to be there MUST face treatment that any other human being wouldn't be forced to tolerate. The fact that employees HAVE TO be present has to be considered when considering what kind of treatment they should be forced to be subjected to. They don't have a realistic choice to leave.
Its absolute madness because I thought capitalism claimed you pay everyone enough, they will do anything. So why is their motivation supposed to be starvation instead of money? The answer seems to be a lot to do with calvinism.
Prosperity gospel definitely made many people more willing to accept exploitation. But capitalism just does this as a natural byproduct. You can't expect exponentially rising profits every year for eternity, without it leading to gross exploitation and inequities. Prices must go up, production must go up, and costs must go down. Eventually so much of the wealth gets transferred to the top that those under them lose the spending power that keeps the whole system running. Thats why we came up with credit cards, but we're at the point where that isn't even enough to keep it all afloat anymore.
@witherschat the way i see it, they can either implement the kind of reforms we saw with the new deal, which was seen as a way to save capitalism from the anger of those it had exploited. Or they will continue to squeeze the diminishing results of their collapsing system. I don't think they have another way to juice the economy like they did with credit. I see gradual decline punctuated by intense unrest in our future.
And the shitty treatment. No amount of pay could help me though the jobs where I was crying almost every day & nauseated every morning from the anxiety of it. I'm currently waiting on a disability decision which is also anxiety producing but not to the degree every job produced anxiety
I used to work in a warehouse. There were things that make me never want to go back-- long shifts spent entirely on your feet, penalties for slowing down including for bathroom breaks, no ability to listen to music or podcasts or anything to break up the drudgery. But honestly, if I was given better pay, a stool to help rest my feet a bit, flexibility for bathroom breaks, and permission to use headphones, I’d go back instantly. The work was fun when I wasn't going insane from my mind's absolute inability to shut up or being pressured to work faster and faster.
this is a huge part of it for me too. there's so much about these jobs that's just paternalistic work ethic imposed upon us. if i can't even sit down when my pain is flaring up i will be miserable all day, but if you let me sit and have some water i'll be a LOT more productive, AND happier to do it
The biggest problem for me is that it's really a sword of Damocles being held over all our heads at all times. To be allowed to live with dignity, you must do work that will make someone a profit, and you must do it for however much you're lucky to be given. A lot of disabled people really can't do a job, and they shouldn't have to. They were born, they're human beings, and they deserve to live. We all do. None of us chose to be born.
As an autistic person, no one hires me. I blamed myself for years, but I eventually accepted that I don't think I'll ever work. I could do the tasks of working, but the process of hiring and the social energy of maintaining the farce is something beyond me. Employment is in dire need of reform, along with paying people a reasonable salary in general.
@Rose-wr3ji I think we need a right to a job. Millions of people are physically capable of working, yet can't because of this hiring process. There should be help given to those who slip through the cracks. Universal basic income would help. It would give people a safety net, and would reduce the anxiety of gaining income solely from a job which could be taken away from you at any time for any random reason. Further unionisation would help. Unions give rights, protections and improve wages for their workers, which forces even non-unionised companies to offer similar benefits to compete. Outsourcing needs to be stopped. People's jobs need to be considered valuable, and people's jobs shouldn't be shipped over to Asia to exploit the people there for dirt wages. Requirements and qualifications for work should be reduced to make hiring as accessible and easy as possible. And in my opinion, if school is considered so important, if not a soft requirement in today's job market, college should be free, just as public school is. I don't know if any of these will ever come to fruition, but I think a lot of problems the world is facing now can be solved if changes are made.
That's kind of the point though. The most important part of most jobs is not ability but obedience and conformity. Especially important in places with a big emphasis on the chain of command. Hiring processes are standardised tests to know how well you do at this kind of things. They're the kind of things that the ruling class don't want to tinker with, because if they do, that lets too many people who will potentially rock the boat in, and that may lead to people asking for more compromises. Look at how the bosses hated how COVID showed that work from home can increase productivity while slashing down office costs, yes, that's potentially good for the bottom line, but anything that can compromise their power over their employees can be dangerous long term.
Working in America as an Autistic Person is a nightmare. I cam still remember my boss, telling me with open glee, that if I didnt like counter (where I recieved transphobic abuse that the company was well aware of, and which gave me panic and ptsd breakdowns) I should go find another job. That despite the mental and emotional anguish, he was more than happy to force me to quit using suffering. The guy after him told me, flat out, that despite my skill and speed at doing things in the back, including doing dishes at a rate nobody else could match, the only place I was useful was counter. I was told to stop havong panic and ptsd episodes, got called 'weak' for wanting to delete myself, was expected to handle two near constant jobs that dont quit, and was still expected to handle extra work, or be refused the ability to clock out without being fired. I found music in my ear helped me to destress between rushes, and then was told to take my headphone out because I couldnt hear my boss in the back, yelling at me about tiny things. They made it as horrible as they could. I was even refused the ability to even correct customers on my gender, with my manager stating 'they came here for food, they dont care, stop correcting them.' Because it was 'making them uncomfortable'. I'd sue the company, but they didnt allow cellphone usage on the clock, so recoding was off the table.
I am supported by my family but feel terror daily about losing my security, as I have no autonomy and am trapped living in a toxic environment. I’m trying to finish my masters thesis so I can get a job in my chosen field, after having taken two years off from extreme burnout, both regular and autistic, and having applied to hundreds of jobs with zero interviews during that time. My mom thinks I’m lazy for playing games and that I do nothing else all day. Sometimes, that’s true. Because I’m so burnt out on trying to survive that I’ve just given up on everything. Friends, school, job hunting, moving out and getting healthy. I’ve had jobs before and never lasted more than a few months. Granted, most were customer facing and minimum wage awful jobs, but I still have this shame about being too lazy to work, that I’m a quitter. But I’m disabled. And yet no one, including myself, is willing to see how hard that makes things for me.
I know what it's like to have unsupportive parents, the pressure to meet certain expectations can be very stressful onto itself. I don't know where I've heard this from, but there is something to be said about how being disabled itself isn't an impediment, rather it's how society disables neurodivergent people and physically handicapped people.
As someone who has worked “unskilled” jobs my whole life, thank you for putting this together. It was really heartening to see that there are others out there who enjoy the work that we do, and it’s true that essential workers should be treated with respect and dignity by customers and managers alike. Great work, Ember!
In many cases I handled the customer fine until the manager decided it wasn't "good enough." Call centers especially...they want you be to faster & my brain can't produce quality customer service when being pressured to go fast.
All the part-time work I have done has ended up with me being miserable, not because the job itself was bad, but because the people and politics of the job were too damn much. And that's not to count the number of times at my 2 1/2 year cafe job where I was nearly fired for managing parts and aspects of my disability. There is only one time I believe I could've been rightfully fired from that job, and thankfully - or perhaps not - I was kept on. I suppose part of that was because the turnover was so bad, and the fact that they could get away with abusing me meant I was valuable enough. My problem at this point isn't that I don't want to work. I love working at my art. I love stocking shelves. I love making coffee. I even like serving customers sometimes. What I *don't* want is to be mistreated at a job. And I have yet to have found a job where I am treated with the dignity I deserve and the accommodation that I need.
Here b/c another TH-camr recommended this. I’m disabled (Crohns Disease) so needing work I can get bathroom access to/not stand in one spot for more than 5 minutes is hard. I love working. I’ve been out of work for a year. It sucks.
I have had a “job” since age 11. I was raising my infant sister at 10, and the next year started babysitting for other army families on base. That continued until I entered the workforce at 16. I am now 53, was diagnosed ASD at age 50…I haven’t worked a FT job since an auto accident in 2014, but now I haven’t had any income for a year! I hate it. I simply cannot find anything I can manage! 😓 The idea that people would stop working if we had UBI comes from the rich. GDP economy is calculated with 80% being “Consumer Spending”! What kind of economy is that when it’s MOSTLY dependent upon all of US buying shit??? Money hasn’t been based off the Gold Standard for a long time; if that’s actually the case how do we even HAVE money? It’s a fiction and we can stop playing pretend at any point; just have to decide to! While we’re it, let’s stop believing humanity is any kind of superior species! Our handling of this planet is ample evidence to the contrary.
The biggest barrier to employment i routinely have is the dang personality tests on the application. I understand Neuroticism sounds bad, but it is sometimes useful. The only time ive gotten a job with the personality tests in the app is because of nepotism.
I have autism and have never worked, i dont think i'd be able to, firstly i dont have the qualifications to work but mostly i wouldnt be able to handle it mentally, its hard enough to do everyday tasks like hygiene and lookinb after mu environment. To go anywhere i need a full day to prepare myslef and a day to decompress after. Plus after being diagnosed with a chronic illness some days i have extreme back pain. The fact that the government sees me as lazy and want to take away the benefits that allow me to survive is terrifying. Im so scared of the future
@@mangadudunfortunately, in the UK, the current labour party is just as bad as the conservatives. They’ve shifted heavily to the right in the last few years under Starmer.
@@SarastistheSerpentStarmer and his ghouls are just as bad I feel utter despair especially Rachel Reeves with her poor economic literacy and bringing back austerity which was so successful killing off disabled people under the Tories
@@csblakeley, I know exactly how you feel. I want to work. The biggest problem is …. Looking for work. Lately, I’ve been trying to volunteer. I filled in their web form, and waited... Then, I emailed, and waited… Next, I left a voice mail, and waited…. So at the moment, I can’t even give my time away for free. And “they” say “no one wants to work”.
I have one of the easiest jobs I've ever had, and I know I certainly don't want to work. Capitalism doesn't exactly give us any other option, though. I'll be working until I die, probably still living in a rental.
The annoying thing for me personally is that it feels as if it's getting increasingly more pointless to work in the first place, at least locally where I live. Like a others I know locally, I was the first in my family to go off to uni and properly pursue a more formal education, I've gone and trained further after that too. The thing is, I've put myself through all of this and again, like others in my age range am in a much worse social situation than my parents or their parents. Add on all of the extra crap you end up going through when you're neurospicy and I just find the whole thing pretty soul crushing to be brutally honest - it's an utter kick in the teeth to know that my only prospect for where I live is to either stay living with my parents or rent and not be putting my money towards something I will eventually own which would give me a massive sense of security. I don't think the issue is a lack of desire to work or put in effort into work. That said, maybe there's less desire within the ND community but I'd argue that's moreso due to how inaccessible working can be for some people in the first place. The issue as I see it is that the effort poured into work is getting people less and less. Obviously this affects NTs too but I feel that it's a much greater issue for ND people who are much more likely to be prone to things like burnout and inuring additional hidden costs throughout their lives. Sure, there are jobs I've done which I could tolerate and one which I absolutely loved doing so far - ultimately though, none have paid enough for me to make me feel like all the effort I've put in to get to where I am was worth it. I find it hard to feel like I've ever had a 'sustainable' job yet and I think it's just fuelling a increasing sense of dread towards working in general
I have a problem with "dream" anything. Dream jobs, dream life, dream partner, etc. I think people can be content with what they have and that’s okay. I’ve never dreamt of wealth, of money, of success and recognition. I’ve always dreamt of a peaceful loving boring life, I dreamt of being a good person. Because a stable, safe life is what I desired the most. People try to make me feel bad for not being more "ambitious" but why is that their issue? So what if I find happiness is the most mundane things? How is that affecting others? Why should it matter how I achieve my happiness? So I’ve always had a problem with people who always push the narrative that you can do better. Who decides what’s that "better"?
I have the same problem. I always say I just want to hang out with my friends and play games but everyone acts like I’m wasting my talents because I don’t want to study or work in the field they think I should.
I really enjoyed working as a landscape gardener. The pay was shit, the hours were longer than I would have liked, the boss was one of the worst people I've ever met, my co-workers were right-wing and vocal about it, and I have *thoughts* about the fetishisation of non-native plants and the need to curate our own immaculate gardens like the landed gentry of yore. But I still really, unironically liked that job. I was fit and full of endorphins. I spent my days outside during the Irish summer (people joke about Irish weather but when it's good I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I'm not built for anything hotter.) There was banter, and I could feel myself learning to get better at the banter in real time (politics gets to be banter when you're also a cishet able-bodied white guy. I'm aware that's a privileged position.) I'm a software developer now. I'm lucky enough work for a small local company rather than one of the big soulless multinationals we have here and I couldn't ask for better coworkers. I enjoy how challenging the work can be. Despite all that, there are still some grass-is-always-greener feelings (pardon the pun) when it's 4:30pm and my brain is fried and I just want to call it a day because I know I'm going to be staring at the monitor for the next hour getting nothing done anyway. I don't know what I'm getting at, other than to say in a post-capitalist world I'd still pitch in. Even if, with society built around meeting needs rather than maximising profits, Ireland didn't need quite so many software developers. Put me outside. Hand me a shovel. I'll be grand.
The irony of this is that the very rich who often do very little to benefit people that everyone else who is in the workforce let alone those who have difficulty having and keeping work based on hostile work environments. Those same rich people are projecting and unfortunately many people seem to buy the garbage projections... I still remember having read the "letting the cat out of the bag" poem from 1937... I thought it was something from an auto workers union publication, but the issue highlighted there is exponentially exasperated now. "so he's paying you $6/day to sit and tell him to hurry"
Yeah, when you consider things like rich people making money from buying property, investing, and not paying tax, I really don't think the people barely getting by on benefits are the issue here
I almost certainly have ADHD and highly suspect autism as well. I used to work in a children’s swim school and grew to hate it; it was loud, crowded, and overstimulating. I once nearly started crying during a work training just because I got so overwhelmed by everything happening around me. Currently, I work in a small furniture showroom. I love my job. It’s fairly quiet most days, and I rarely feel overwhelmed. A lot of tasks, like checking up on open orders or items received in inbound orders, really tickle the part of my brain that likes data analysis and numbers. Learning about product features is fun for me since I love studying and school. Work keeps me busy and I would be bored out of my mind without it.
23 job descriptions, starting at 9 years old. Blown out shoulder and ear. Been through every humiliation ritual there is. I still work on stuff. but the idea that i NEED some HOURS of focus at some mindless task to justify my own existence....
Having worked in customer service for 3 and a half years, I get it. I didn't know I was autistic at the time but I was the best server. It was exhausting, utterly hollowing.
Also the racism part about the south island of New Zealand is so true. My friend went down there with her Samoan husband (we all live in Auckland, you know the world's largest pasifika population) and WOW. They weren't even trying to be subtle...
I actually love customer service work, I love making people feel looked after, being that one bit of sanity in their day when they're lost, making sure all their questions are answered just like I'd want. Unfortunately, I've soaked up so much abuse from customers and the sadists who run companies that require customer service that the lights are out behind my eyes and I'd love nothing more than to just not work any more.
I have ADHD, OCD, social anxiety and worked retail. The only thing i hated was the customers and lack of air conditioning. If people weren’t so horrible and it wasnt close to 100 degrees in summer i could have kept doing it.
I got fired from 3 different nursery jobs, bc I couldn't sell plants... but I LOVE plants! Also, my exGF would not let me work at one, even though we needed money, bc she thought she would never see me again LOL
I've never had a paid job, I've done volunteering for a few years before the pandemic hit, it was OK at first, then it felt like it was getting worse and worse, to the point I wanted to quit, started getting unpleasant people. When the pandemic came and closed down, I never went back to the library to volunteer, did find out I like making 3D art models in Blender, on my PC. When it comes to other software I find it's to hard.
I actually enjoy 'working' for free. It's just that all my skills are in the artistic sector. But I used to give guitar lessons for free, and I'm volunteering as an artist for community events somewhat regularly. I love giving people joy through the art I do. Once my health allows it, I would love to give art classes to local children. ... I am also autistic, unemployed, chronically ill, and poor. Having a form of UBI would really help, not least with my mental health, actually allowing me to give back to my community *more*, in whatever ways I am able to.
thank you for expanding in this topic, i myself think of this often lately. my self-esteem was lowered significantly when i realised i am autistic and thus disabled. i thought if i cant work i am a burden and useless. then i realised a Have worked successfully, i know my skills and my strong sides. I just cant torture myself for money and let others degrade me. it's not a me problem
I'm disabled, and now that I'm on disability the government doesn't expect me to be able work ever again. And I don't think I'll ever be able to work enough to pay the bills, but that doesn't mean I don't desire to be useful! Heck, a few months of sanctioned "just do nothing" was enough to ever cure me of that. People need *something* to do. So now I volunteer at the library! It's only about 7 hours a week since, you know, the disability hasn't gone away and that is the maximum of what I can consistently do even with accommodations. But still! I can be helpful!
I liked working at a game store (board games), but mostly for the free coffee and the off-chance that I'd be asked to sort and file an enormous pile of papers. On the note of facial expressions at work: I was actually sent home once for having a 'bad attitude'. They asked if I wanted to go home, but I made them send me so that I'd be paid the 3 hour minimum I would then be entitled to. If I'd known I was autistic back then, things might've been different.
Lol. "Nobody wants to work" should be changed to "companies don't want to hire". They say now that half of the job postings on the internet are FAKE, POSTED SIMPLY SO EMPLOYEES OF A CERTAIN COMPANY WHEN THEY HAVE NO INTENTION OF HIRING ANYONE.
I have chronic fatigue and a lot of mental health issues (I also suspect I'm autistic) and I've never been able to work. I volunteered at the library once a week for a few years though and even though I found it stressful, there was a lot of aspects of it that I loved. I loved adding the new books to the system and putting books back on the shelves, this video made me hopeful that I'll be well enough to do it again soon, it really is a great environment for autistic people! Really enjoy your insights into things like this
7:55 conversely, i hear stories about people being miserable in software developer jobs, the pinnacle of career success having the same problems as the stereotype of career failure.
If we had all the base needs for life as a given, free of charge just for existing, I believe people would still work. I like to work and feel usefull, and I'm not special. But one thing would disappear, bad bosses, control freaks that have joy in other's suffering. Those would disappear, because it doesn't matter how much I like the job, if I feel bad there I would rather not do it. This is one of, if not the main reason people quit their jobs, and this without those securities I talked about. Now imagine if you didn't have to do anything to survive, would you really tolerate those people and places?
I was thinking about this exact topic recently (I'm only a few minutes into the video at time of writing) and I've come to the conclusion that a big reason why rich people seem to push the idea that 'if people aren't struggling, they won't work'. Comes at least in part from the idea that successful people are successful because they worked hard to get there, and not because of nepotism, luck, and pushing others down. If the people who say things like that were honest, they'd have to be honest with themselves and acknowledge what they did to get in those positions. (Obviously I'm talking about multi-millionaires, not just a regular Joe with a few space thousands laying around)
This might be strange for some, but I actually prefer if a barista (or alike) looks annoyed, bored or any other human trait, than fake happiness. I prefer to talk to humans, with human emotions.
Rich people look to their own lazy kids and think that's what the rest of us would be like if we didn't have to choose starvation or wage labor. Like, indolence and apathy are the results of idle wealth, not lack of forced wage work.
A major part of the discourse around work, employment, and more importanlty, unemployment, revolves around a surface level capitalist "analysis": we have people who are unemployed, and we have free jobs (objecityfying language is intentional). And the main answer proposed in this kind of discourse? Society needs to force people into jobs, because people are "lazy" and don't want to work, but numbers need to go up. So instead of acknowledging the fact, that people CAN'T find and/or do jobs because of reasons, society ignores this and just tries to force them anyway, which in my understanding is just plain old literal torture. This means capitalist ideology runs into a 10m thick titanium wall of the reality of people, but instead of shattering; society under the capitalist ideology runs against the wall over and over again trying to break through. A better discourse would be about the conditions of the so called "job market", and how jobs and society as a whole should change so people are enabled to be more productive. (and also, it is ok to not be able to work, capitalist society or not, but this is especially true in the context of the feverdream shitshow of late stage capitalism) And I guess your Video is pretty much about that, the conditions at the workplace. So thanks for adding something meaningful to the discourse.
Workers are more productive than ever, yet instead of being allowed to work less time, or be paid better, the benefits go to the top of those companies, to the shareholders that do nothing to desearve those benefits.
People would refuse exploitation, rather than refuse work, if there were a universal basic income. And that’s a problem for all those whose income relies on exploitation of people and planet.
If money wasn't an object, I'd like to do something more tangible - Assembling furniture, pulling beer in a pub, painting buildings, making objects, and so on. My dream job would probably have me sorting small objects. Hell, I might even do my current tech support job, if I was able to just... work on fixing issues for clients without having to worry about whether I'd done too much work, whether what I'd done was chargeable, and so on. You're absolutely right - people like doing things. They just like the things they do to be tangible, something they can do without destroying themselves, something they can take a break from when they need to, and something that people don't actively disrespect them for doing.
I really appreciate this video, I recently got a job as a cashier/shelf stalker and I really enjoy it, just listen to some music and stalk shelves and checking customers out is like a game!
American service workers (the same ones who rely on tips) are very unlikely to also get insurance through their jobs because companies are only required to offer insurance if youre full time, so a lot of companies removed full time positions. full time positions in the service industry were still pretty rare before this requirement even went into law.
Before watching. I don't want want to work if im not doing something ill enjoy doing. And i feel like people not wanting to work would create innovations to limit the necessity of doing the thing. And if people are passionate about their occupation then they are likely to do their best. And without major profit incentives i feel like we wouldn't feel the need to maintain customers so quality would go up.(removing incentives to make things meant to be replaced regularly)
I dunno if you noticed, but the first sentence of your paragraph summarized all human inventions related to labor lol. It's not a feeling, that's a fact of history.
@@mekannatarry1929 your point? I said "I feel" because I don't have the data to confirm my claims. With the current system often attempts at innovation get squashed because of policy or budget reasons. I could have an idea for how to make the machines we are working with better but that doesn't matter because I'm just a grunt with no financial backing and it's easier and cheaper to tell me to work harder or I'm fired than it is to find the time for me to make my thoughts known. And I don't have an engineering degree so who would listen anyway. And if I had a degree they would scoff at my predicament of being under them... I personally couldn't have any degree I please if I had the motivation and the stability to make it through college I've done well on essentially every test I've ever taken and absorb information like a sponge despite often struggling to properly display that knowledge... and I don't study. I deplore the idea of repeating an idea just before a test because that says very little about what I actually learned and says more about my ability to remember something that happened recently (not my strongsuit) I'm ranting at this point...
I loved restocking the coolers at a gas station. I was homeless, and living in Savannah, GA. The crisp 39° chill of the coolers were a godsend on a July day in Georgia. It was physically demanding and it made me feel good slinging the 60lbs rack of cans and bottles. It almost empowered me, and my arm muscles! It was simple, I could spend my shift thinking about how I was going to get out of homelessness. Haha. I also found lots of things in the parking lot that other people dropped. I walked to work, I got to listen to all the metal I wanted on my headphones. Those coolers had never been so clean, organized, and full. It was a good gig. It helped me to save enough money to get some new clothes that fit, a pair of athletic shoes, and enough money to get an ID and eventually a plane ticket out of there and to a place....to live!
I'm 30, autistic, and never had a job because anxiety and I know no one will hire me so why even try? It looks like I'm going to spend my entire life just slowing down until I just fall asleep one day and never wake up
"NoBodY wAnTs To WoRk" meanwhile I'm giving hours to open-source projects for no pay because calitalistic society wants what we produce for free rather than a fair price
I for one have no desire to work (engage in wage labor, that is…) because I’m not in control of the means of production - as a wage laborer, I am nothing but a cog in a machine that must keep pace with quotas set by some guy in an office far away from me that I never met and have no way to hold accountable. I would rather play my RPGs, hone my skills in marksmanship or pump irons than waste my time at a job…
One of my favriote jobs was being a teachers assitnce for a 3 year old age group, yes i wiped buts, washed the flours, did the dishes and surve the kids breakfast and lunch, but i also played with the kids, talked to them , calm them down when they were having a hard time, i love taking care of people but i cant see my self living with the wages you get payed and the conditions that they ask you to work. Its ashame since you would want the oeople who are taking car of people that you love to be well off and even be smart people so they can take better care of the people you love.
I have lupus and audhd and I really want to work, but the concept of money stresses me out SO much. I'm so worried about whether or not I will be able to be independent as an adult because Im too disabled to work full time at most jobs.
I got so overwhelmed knowing that I had no autonomy in any job I had, so I started a cleaning business. I live in a downtown city center, so I don't drive. I have a rolly cart! It's so much better for my brain and body, I've Bee happy for the first time. I can actually help people and make my own money. But when I tell people I'm autistic and a business owner, they frequently belittle me and treat me like I simply couldn't manage by myself! Then I tell them all the things and they're like "hm you're too much :) go scrub toilets" like??? That's not bad work lmfao, it's just YOUR toilet what are you afraid of? My clients are fantastic and I'm allowed to say no to unsafe work without fear of losing everything. I highly recommend if you find something you enjoy, to take a list of what you like about these jobs
I don’t mind working; I’d probably choose to work 20 hours a week. What’s hard is I have to work full-time to keep ahead financially, as a widowed mother of two kids. 😬 I saw in studies of UBI that two groups of people worked significantly less with UBI; young men (who focused on education instead) and mothers of preschool aged children (who focused on their children instead). Horrors! 😱
I've been working in the hospitality industry for years as a neuro-spicy person. It's hard, but I enjoy it. I love making coffee, making food, serving, and welcoming new people and my regulars, even though I get masking fatigue at the end of the day! I love all the maintenance and health and safety aspects. I love making sure my colleagues feel safe and comfortable. I love my current job and workplace, and it's not that I don't want to work, it's that I am CRUSHED beneath capitalism where my income means I am barely living paycheck to paycheck. And I completely agree with the fact that the richer people are the more nasty and entitled treating you like utter sh*t. I worked in a VERY posh town and was miserable because it was incessant abuse from customers. Now I work for a charity with a zero tolerance policy for abuse and can tell people to gtfo.
I make pizza. If I just had the money to support myself, I would probably still enjoy going in and helping to make pizza. I listen to music and have interesting conversation with one or two other people (pretty much the maximum amount I'm comfortable with at one time), and we make pizza dough together. I genuinely enjoy it. I come away tired, because there's heavy lifting and it is in fact hard physical work. But it's a good kind of tired. I don't really exercise, but this helps make up for that.
My job requires answering phones. I had a customer escalate a complaint to management because she didn't like my tone. I was fairly straightforward and neutral, and did what she asked as quickly as I could. But apparently I wasn't happy enough to be speaking to her and shouldn't be doing the job if i can't maintain that level of professionalism. Never mind the fact that every time i'm answering the phone i'm being interrupted from a task that requires concentration. Never mind the fact i'd answered 15 calls in about 90 minutes while trying to get something done before a deadline. No, the fact that i wasn't all sunshine and rainbows was grounds to complain because i'm "Bad at my job". I realise I'm ranting, but the bit about people not needing to smile all the time made me feel seen. I wish people would remember they're talking to people when they pick up the phone.
I really enjoy my work. I just enjoy the tasks. It's better than sitting at home for months, doing nothing outside of my hobbies. What I don't enjoy is doing it 5 days a week, 8 hours each day, having to get up at 3 am for morning shift, and having to sleep during the day for night shifts, having to deal with co-workers that have no chill, having to sit for an hour because all the work is done, and being in a state of constant stress over rising production even though we don't have enough space, tools or people to be dealing with it. It doesn't help that the wages stagnate and you can't exactly feed a family on them.
This was one of the more intelligent job discussions I’ve ever heard. Kudos. I find satisfaction in being a homemaker and all the grossness that entails. It’s peaceful and at times challenging. When I’m not well I can adjust my schedule. Peaceful
There was a baker. I had my own key and opened the store. I worked alone being able to work with my hands . No interaction with customers. I liked working as a team member. No customers. I’m an American.
I loved my job as a teacher, but it made me very tired and left me with little to no energy to do anything else. Not only that, but the pay was not enough to even move out of my parents' house. When I quit teaching, I legitimately became someone who didn't want to work anymore. Not because I don't value work or didn't like working, but because I just felt like work was all I had. I worked hard and couldn't afford to do anything else with my life. I couldn't even get my own housing. And even if I could, I was often too tired to really enjoy the other things I was doing. I felt like I could not work and have equally as much of nothing, and that absolutely killed my motivation to go back to work. When the expectation is that you will work yourself to the bone and be grateful for literal scraps that wouldn't even satisfy a starving dog, it becomes really easy to not want to work.
What boggles the mind about destitution is how the threat of it is much greater for people who have been estranged by their families. We are lucky to live in a time where humanity is beginning to address many issues that we didn’t talk about much in previous decades, such as disability and autism. So I really don't understand why the failure of the concept of family isn't talked about more. I truly wish it was. Lack of family is at the core of so many other issues. Like, why on earth should I be on the verge of destitution (and considered scum by the government and society) for my parents utter inability to raise a child??!
This is such an amazing and calming video. Thank you for putting a very human face on a very inhuman seeming subject. I hope to teach in the university someday. Hearing you talk about work like this makes me have hope that I can and will enjoy working more than I do now. Thank you.
There are literally things like writer fellowship awards, money given to writers so that they can spend more time writing and less time working outside jobs. I really enjoyed my library jobs. My favorite was working in dead stacks, the uncirculated books in storage places not accessible by the public.
I used to sell beer at hockey games up and down the stands. Best job I ever had. Everyone was alway happy to see me. I got to see all the games. Never missed a shift, not because of the money, but because It was fun and would hate to lose that job.
Interestingly, I am autistic too and I hated working at a grocery story having to fill shelves all day. Currently I work at a university medical center typing in study data into an online portal - all day. It’s boring af. My dream job would be to be an author. Something my parents always dismiss as „not real work“ or work that wouldn’t guarantee success and money.
I mean I don't want to work. Maybe if it was less traumatizing and hadn't already disabled me completely and wasn't forced on me under threat of starving in the street, I'd be more inclined.
I would love to do vet med again. But every place is profit over care, and over workers. And so many of our clients can't afford the care their pets need anymore. The needless suffering, i can't deal with anymore.
I would work for free in a world where i had my needs and wants met.
@@cambriaofthevastoceans6721exactly and i think especially of all autistics, if we were accommodated we would be freely, and perhaps i think even easily transforming the world into a paradise
Thank you so much for your comment because it is exactly how I feel but I would have had to do so much work to express it. ❤😊
I genuinely think that that’s fine and not everyone needs to work for society to work. I’d be all for having a UBI big enough that nobody has to work if they don’t want to or can’t
Exactly. maybe if the resources needed to do the job we're available and every day wasn't a miserable trudge towards the grave with the only other option being homelessness more people would be up for it
I was a barista on and off for twenty five years. I mentioned that in conversation and a woman i didn't know laughed and said, "Wow, it almost sounded like you're proud of that." And I know she meant that to be condescending, but I *am* proud of that. I'm *good* at it, and I've forgotten more about coffee than that harpie will ever know. I loved every minute of it 😊 I'm now a fry/prep cook and I love it, mostly because there's zero customer service 😂 I'm too old and autistic to deal with that anymore
My best mate is a barista and we can't walk through town without getting stopped by regulars that love him! (He also had very bright hair and isn't easy to forget haha) Just because she can't see the good impact you've made, that doesn't mean it's not there!
i love being a dishwasher cus its dead simple and i get to immediately feel proud of hard work and then go about my day without having to solve the mind games of customer service
That sounds like a big accomplishment and like a really fun time. If I could survive off of work like that where I would, and wasn’t a night owl, I’d be applying to a coffee shop as my first choice job.
One of the most depressing things to me has been when I hear about people who want to teach, but quit to go take a job that will pay enough to support their families, or someone who just graduated with a degree in nursing who stays at her job she worked her way through college at the grocery store, because she would have to take a pay cut to get an entry level nursing position. If every job earned a decent living wage, people would do the position they were more passionate about, even if that position was farmer, or working at a composting facility, and society as a whole would be better because the average person woild be much healthier.
I've always thought Barista's have the coolest job ever, it's a unique skill where you get to be passionate about coffee and you get to sometimes talk with interesting people. Someday I would love to do that job. I did warehouse work for years until I hurt my knees, so I'd love a job where I'm on my feet and being friendly with most people.
It really is astonishing to me that so many people seem to think absolute desperation to ensure basic survival needs is good incentive to work and not just a guaranteed way to completely burn people out and run their motivation into the ground. Absolutely wild thinking.
Totally unrelated, love the new name!
thanks friend :)
I agree. In fact, people are more likely to be creative, innovative, and inventive when they're not stressed to the gills and have enough free time to get enough rest and spend some off time thinking up new stuff and enjoying life. If life is a drugery, being inventive or creative is unlikely.
It also doesn't make logical sense. What does that say about wealthy people?
There are people who make millions-billions of dollars that still work when they could otherwise just retire.
To me it's always just an excuse to punch down at people who otherwise could benefit from the assistance, and exploit people for their labor.
@@SleepyMatt-zzz this perpetuates the(false) narrative that wealthy people are wealthy because they are naturally hard working and morally superior.
I liked the old name better, don't like change (surprise, I'm autistic ;) ). But to each their own :)
Video game modding is my favorite example of why these narratives around work and motivation are nonsense. I have spent hours making patches, for free, for content other people spent hours making, for free, so that strangers I have never and probably will never meet can have a better time with this leisure activity we have in common. Why? Because I can, and helping people feels good, and participating in a community feels good. I am in several discords where hundreds of people have spent SO MUCH TIME just being available for "I'm new to this and I'm getting this error message and I have no idea what it means can anyone help me?"
Most people, when we've got the time and expertise and aren't stressed about basic needs, are happy to help each other. And most tasks have better results when motivated intrinsically rather than extrinsically.
Thank you so much!! I am one of the people newer to modding 🤗❤ One of the few things I can do these days in my burnout. If I didn't have to work to live, I would do electronics repair because it fascinates me - I love learning how the technology works and making things operate again. But, I'm so exhausted all the time that I can't do it, even in my "free" time 😥
I play mmos a lot, and i love to collect nice gear and plans and just give them to people. I grind because i enjoy being able to make people happy.
That's so cool! I appreciate all the wonderful game mods out there and all the hard work you put into making some of them to improve gaming experiences. ❤
Same for fan translation! That's what I've spent a truly obscene amount of time doing.
@@biteofdog to be clear, I pretty much just patch mods and help people troubleshoot, which (imho) is usually a lot easier than making mods. Honestly the hardest part is the emotional labor when you're trying to help someone unbreak their game but they're frustrated and taking it out on you.
PSA: always be kind to tech support, they're usually trying to help you as much as they can without losing their job. Usually how they can help is limited by their employer, especially if they work for a giant company, but you can always ask to speak to the next person above them while also making it clear that you're not going to complain about them and you appreciate what they tried to do.
My parter recently out of stress went nonverbal, and seeing her capacity to do things expand without the stress of being forced to verbalize was astounding. If she would be accommodated she’d be able to work. But most companies will not accommodate the spectrum of verbal needs especially if it is like “well she can talk some times”. She owes no one verbalization. Accommodations let us exist, and it feels like the world is telling my partner she should not exist
I’m sorry your partner isn’t being accommodated as much as they need and deserve to be. This world is truly messed up if they can’t accommodate something as simple as verbal needs.
If they can offer jobs to deaf people, why can’t she get a job without speaking? Just Call her problem something different, and ser❤
@Rose-wr3ji I live in a tiny town where there are already not any jobs. She already got fired for no reason at the only job she could find.
Funny how it's all the rich people who spend their days hiding their parents' money in the Cayman Islands who tell us that we're lazy if we want to be able to feed our families without working 60 hours a week.
"I don't work but I could outwork you any time if I wanted to." -Nepobaby probaby
My uncle owns a hotel in the Cayman, my parents hide money there..millions. They DISOWNED me at 45!!! So I'm not seeing any of it. They turned out to be true psychopaths with second and third lives....dont' ask. I'm better off poor without them than rich with them.
@@daysofend Yeah. All those "self made" geniuses and supermen who STARTED with a stupid amount of their dad's money.
@@StephenGangi I’m not a millionaire but I’m doing a high income. I could definitely sell it as getting IT jobs and being a good programmer, but the truth is that all my achievements are on the back of having had a privileged upbringing. It’s not even just the money. People treat you better when you give off privilege vibes. It’s a horrible system.
Very few people truly make it on hard work, and I know because my father did it while I didn’t.
@@Sunspike_ks So, we roll back 150 years of progress in the workplace? We fought for 40 hours, and if anything should be calling for a shorter workweek. What next, saying that all worker health and safety regulations are "outdated" and just embrace a return to the Gilded Age? How outdated of us to act as if we should be concerned with everyone's wellbeing, including our own, instead of calling for mass human sacrifice on the altar of more profit for the already-rich.
The only thing that sucks about working a regular job is not the work itself, but the consistency of HAVING to do it even on the days where you just aren’t feeling right.
Yes! This is why I'm unemployed and can't see myself as a valuable employee to most businesses, even though I have a lot to offer.
I have health issues that create an enormous amount of inconsistency in my life. I don't have consistent access to my own energy, so I can't promise I'll be consistent to an employer.
I'm not a robot. I'm not AI.
I'm a human with human strengths and weaknesses. Like chronic health conditions and inconsistent energy.
I once watched a documentary about "geniuses" and there was one guy, who scored super high on iq tests, and he was audhd. Tried so many jobs, always changed them. People expected some Stephen Hawking lvl shit from him. And in the end he was just the jack of all trades person at his wifes dental practice. He filled up chocolates in the waiting room, set up PCs, greeted people, swept the floor and whatever struck his fancy or was needed that day. It was so endearing to see :3
I was a senior developer up until 2015...now 54 i take whatever brainless jobs come my way even if i don't need the money. I discovered physical jobs that require no thinking are so easy. I barely realize I'm working. Its not really work, its just moving my body. Coding was stress nonstop for 30 years. I burned out. I coudl become a coffee a barrists in an hour if someone asked me without breaking a sweat..its like easy peasy cute and sweetie work.
He filled up chocolates at his wife’s dental practice? That’s pretty genius right there.
I feel like this is one side of it, but the other side is a brilliant person who wants to be a doctor or an engineer (and they would be exceptionally good at it), and they can't access the resources and education needed to obtain that job. Who knows how many cures for diseases and innovative solutions to problems are currently living in city slums and rural dumps. It's so sad that the resources for innovation are limited to the upper echelons of society while simultaneously expecting people with high IQ's to work overtime in a job that just doesn't suit them.
The documentary sounds interesting, do you remember the name?
@@kiliya89 It was in german, but I can still try to look it up for you! :)
It is so devastating having healthcare tied to employment in the US. We stay in jobs where we are undervalued and burnt out because if we don't, it's $700/month to continue coverage. I've been dealing with autistic burnout since October 2022 but finding another job won't make it better (if you can even find one) - it's just the same situation with different people 😥
This is such a good point. My life got drastically harder when I aged out of my mom’s insurance. She now hates her job and told us she won’t quit because “we have such good insurance”. It’s true-her insurance is incredible. I can’t go to the doctor anymore despite being chronically ill because the insurance I pay $500 per month for covers nothing.
@@Cocoanutty0 It really is true, it's the same for me. At all jobs prior to my current job, I paid a huge premium every month and couldn't use it. Now my employer covers my premiums, which is pretty unheard of here, and I am appreciative that they do that; however, it makes it that much harder to leave knowing the difference, even though it makes me literally feel the years drain from my life because of the stress. I've had to get three different medications because of the work.
Having healthcare tied to employment is a feature, not a bug, of American capitalism. Companies would save so much money with universal healthcare, but they’re well aware of how much the US healthcare system works in their favor.
@@Silvermoon424 Absolutely. Keep us sick and broke so that we don't have the energy or time to try to change our messed up systems.
@@Silvermoon424 Employment-based healthcare is evidence that the US is a exploitative plutocracy, not a democracy. It does everything it can to give corporations advantages over workers. Probably because of legalized bribery in the government.
employers be like "nobody wants to work!" and then are offering $20 per hour asking for 10 years experience on an entry level job
Employers are full of bs
Or they put up job listings without answering ANY inquiries to the position because they get Gov. benefits for "having positions open and looking for workers"
More like $16 an hour lmao this shit is so bad
i hate that even $20 an hour seems good compared to the listings i see today
I'd fight a man for $20/hour starting wage T-T
No one wants to be *forced* to work.
Doing something because you want to and doing something because you *have to to survive* are two different things.
Doing a job you don't want to do is slavery
@Rose-wr3ji do we "have to work" though? Modern capitalism relies on a certain amount of unemployment so some people don't have to work
@Rose-wr3ji why not? They paid tax and pay tax
@Rose-wr3ji whatever
@Rose-wr3ji give it a rest ffs
when i was a child i wanted to be a binman, i was very adamant about it and looked up to those guys like they were heroes. i always went up to them to tell them how cool they were and sometimes tried to give them a pound coin as a present. they were always shocked but happy, my mum encouraged me but other people looked down on me and my mum over it. turns out these men work really hard, have to study to do it and get paid well; even tho they have to get up super early and it's a dirty job.
it and "specialist cleaner" is still one of my dream jobs.
I loved working in the library. Both for ordering the books into a logical order in a place that is quiet on purpose, and for the community work that the library did. Libraries are such a vital community! Unfortunately the pay and hours were very bad.
Also everyone join a union!
Yes, same!! Best job I ever had was working in the music library in college (when I was still on my mom's insurance and didn't have to worry about that).
I would like to work in a library but I need a master's degree in Library services for some reason and that is 100% not worth it in my opinion.
We are all unjustly dispossessed, and without income, we will be turned out. The coercion at the heart of capitalism. So we work, on someone else's terms the majority of the time, at the threat of destitution. Always.
I want to ask humanity why they have every choice on earth except various modes of exchange do not exist. If "money" did not exist, what would motivate people? What other species pays to live on Earth? Why do humans have subjective notions of "value" that everything else depends upon, oftentimes to detrimental outcomes? I see people throw away and waste so much, it's like everything is ultimately worthless after a time, unless SOMEONE with dumb ideas pays too much attention to it.
If I didn’t need money I would be working for myself. I’d be doing creative things instead. People don’t necessarily like working, they like having a purpose. Most jobs have no purpose, when you know you’re not doing something meaningful it’s soul destroying.
People also just dont need to be working as much as a full time job. People get paid to produce useless items, transport them, stock them, unstock them, throw them in the garbage, transport them to the dump, and process them. It's absurd. Capitalists expect endless growth, endlessly increasing productivity, endless profit. Everyone must be employed. Everyone must work 40-80 hours a week. No one even has time to enjoy the products of our labor, let alone the money, except for the increasingly exclusive owning class. No one has time to be creative or pursue their own interests that they arent being paid for. No one has time to flourish.
Great video! I want to add that the abuse, disrespect, and lack of security people deal with in service jobs can also make us more susceptible to mistreatment in "better" jobs. I've talked to several co-workers about how we thought our current (office) job was great - at first - simply because our boss didn't call us names and no one tried to assault us. Keeping the bar for decency that low helps unscrupulous employers everywhere, in every field.
Nobody wants to be exploited.
That is what the liars don't want to admit.
I'm too disabled to work any current job, but I wish so desperately I could work
I'm so fucking bored half of the time (due to barely even being able to do my hobbies) and I wish I could do any kind of work
You can do volunteer work.
@@estellesweet6703 first of all, no I can't, my SSI would get taken away
second of all, no I physically and mentally cannot
like..if I could, then why wouldn't I work a normal job????
what volunteer work have you been doing exhausted, and in moderate to severe pain, and unable to focus, and with a memory impairment, and many many other issues. please do tell
When just being a cashier turns into: shelf staff, cleaning personel, cashier, social worker, mediator, speedrunner, marketting and idea supply and some other private stuff you gotta do for your boss, people tend to be a lot less motivated, especially when we get less money compared to years ago, often not even enough to survive.
I am not surprised.
I 100% agree that any service worker should be able to refuse service to any potential customer who'd disrespectful, absolutely.
Makes me think of that comment that you often hear online. That everyone should work in retail at least once in their life.
I have to disagree strictly because as an autistic person I find people often decide I'm being disrespectful over the most random shit. Would love nothing more than a clear list on the door.
...until you remember what some people consider disrespect. And then suddenly it sounds like a very bad idea.
^^ upper two comments. I've worked in food service before and had customers be unnecessarily rude. I've also been a customer and been denied service because I didn't hold eye contact and so I "looked shady" to the clerk.
Allowing people to deny service over how one person perceives another person will always be a double-edged sword.
@@Rey-it3sg Not holding eye contact isn't a sign of disrespect, though. Not holding eye contact shouldn't be enough of a threshold for someone to deny service for disrespect.
And the employee has to be there. It doesn't make sense to demand that someone who HAS to be there MUST face treatment that any other human being wouldn't be forced to tolerate. The fact that employees HAVE TO be present has to be considered when considering what kind of treatment they should be forced to be subjected to. They don't have a realistic choice to leave.
Its absolute madness because I thought capitalism claimed you pay everyone enough, they will do anything. So why is their motivation supposed to be starvation instead of money? The answer seems to be a lot to do with calvinism.
Prosperity gospel definitely made many people more willing to accept exploitation. But capitalism just does this as a natural byproduct.
You can't expect exponentially rising profits every year for eternity, without it leading to gross exploitation and inequities.
Prices must go up, production must go up, and costs must go down.
Eventually so much of the wealth gets transferred to the top that those under them lose the spending power that keeps the whole system running.
Thats why we came up with credit cards, but we're at the point where that isn't even enough to keep it all afloat anymore.
@@cambriaofthevastoceans6721 capitalism is a s***ide cult of an economic system.
@@cambriaofthevastoceans6721 I wonder what the next step will be...
@witherschat the way i see it, they can either implement the kind of reforms we saw with the new deal, which was seen as a way to save capitalism from the anger of those it had exploited. Or they will continue to squeeze the diminishing results of their collapsing system. I don't think they have another way to juice the economy like they did with credit.
I see gradual decline punctuated by intense unrest in our future.
@@cambriaofthevastoceans6721 there is a third path.
Revolution.
*Soviet style...*
“Nobody wants to work” is half a sentence.
The other half is “for the shitty pay we’re offering.”
And the shitty treatment. No amount of pay could help me though the jobs where I was crying almost every day & nauseated every morning from the anxiety of it. I'm currently waiting on a disability decision which is also anxiety producing but not to the degree every job produced anxiety
I used to work in a warehouse. There were things that make me never want to go back-- long shifts spent entirely on your feet, penalties for slowing down including for bathroom breaks, no ability to listen to music or podcasts or anything to break up the drudgery. But honestly, if I was given better pay, a stool to help rest my feet a bit, flexibility for bathroom breaks, and permission to use headphones, I’d go back instantly. The work was fun when I wasn't going insane from my mind's absolute inability to shut up or being pressured to work faster and faster.
this is a huge part of it for me too. there's so much about these jobs that's just paternalistic work ethic imposed upon us. if i can't even sit down when my pain is flaring up i will be miserable all day, but if you let me sit and have some water i'll be a LOT more productive, AND happier to do it
The biggest problem for me is that it's really a sword of Damocles being held over all our heads at all times. To be allowed to live with dignity, you must do work that will make someone a profit, and you must do it for however much you're lucky to be given. A lot of disabled people really can't do a job, and they shouldn't have to. They were born, they're human beings, and they deserve to live. We all do. None of us chose to be born.
As an autistic person, no one hires me. I blamed myself for years, but I eventually accepted that I don't think I'll ever work. I could do the tasks of working, but the process of hiring and the social energy of maintaining the farce is something beyond me. Employment is in dire need of reform, along with paying people a reasonable salary in general.
@Rose-wr3ji I think we need a right to a job. Millions of people are physically capable of working, yet can't because of this hiring process. There should be help given to those who slip through the cracks. Universal basic income would help. It would give people a safety net, and would reduce the anxiety of gaining income solely from a job which could be taken away from you at any time for any random reason. Further unionisation would help. Unions give rights, protections and improve wages for their workers, which forces even non-unionised companies to offer similar benefits to compete. Outsourcing needs to be stopped. People's jobs need to be considered valuable, and people's jobs shouldn't be shipped over to Asia to exploit the people there for dirt wages. Requirements and qualifications for work should be reduced to make hiring as accessible and easy as possible. And in my opinion, if school is considered so important, if not a soft requirement in today's job market, college should be free, just as public school is.
I don't know if any of these will ever come to fruition, but I think a lot of problems the world is facing now can be solved if changes are made.
That's kind of the point though. The most important part of most jobs is not ability but obedience and conformity. Especially important in places with a big emphasis on the chain of command. Hiring processes are standardised tests to know how well you do at this kind of things. They're the kind of things that the ruling class don't want to tinker with, because if they do, that lets too many people who will potentially rock the boat in, and that may lead to people asking for more compromises. Look at how the bosses hated how COVID showed that work from home can increase productivity while slashing down office costs, yes, that's potentially good for the bottom line, but anything that can compromise their power over their employees can be dangerous long term.
@@mooreanonumbers This is exactly what is preventing reform.
Working in America as an Autistic Person is a nightmare. I cam still remember my boss, telling me with open glee, that if I didnt like counter (where I recieved transphobic abuse that the company was well aware of, and which gave me panic and ptsd breakdowns) I should go find another job. That despite the mental and emotional anguish, he was more than happy to force me to quit using suffering. The guy after him told me, flat out, that despite my skill and speed at doing things in the back, including doing dishes at a rate nobody else could match, the only place I was useful was counter.
I was told to stop havong panic and ptsd episodes, got called 'weak' for wanting to delete myself, was expected to handle two near constant jobs that dont quit, and was still expected to handle extra work, or be refused the ability to clock out without being fired.
I found music in my ear helped me to destress between rushes, and then was told to take my headphone out because I couldnt hear my boss in the back, yelling at me about tiny things. They made it as horrible as they could. I was even refused the ability to even correct customers on my gender, with my manager stating 'they came here for food, they dont care, stop correcting them.' Because it was 'making them uncomfortable'.
I'd sue the company, but they didnt allow cellphone usage on the clock, so recoding was off the table.
I am supported by my family but feel terror daily about losing my security, as I have no autonomy and am trapped living in a toxic environment. I’m trying to finish my masters thesis so I can get a job in my chosen field, after having taken two years off from extreme burnout, both regular and autistic, and having applied to hundreds of jobs with zero interviews during that time. My mom thinks I’m lazy for playing games and that I do nothing else all day. Sometimes, that’s true. Because I’m so burnt out on trying to survive that I’ve just given up on everything. Friends, school, job hunting, moving out and getting healthy. I’ve had jobs before and never lasted more than a few months. Granted, most were customer facing and minimum wage awful jobs, but I still have this shame about being too lazy to work, that I’m a quitter.
But I’m disabled. And yet no one, including myself, is willing to see how hard that makes things for me.
I know what it's like to have unsupportive parents, the pressure to meet certain expectations can be very stressful onto itself.
I don't know where I've heard this from, but there is something to be said about how being disabled itself isn't an impediment, rather it's how society disables neurodivergent people and physically handicapped people.
As someone who has worked “unskilled” jobs my whole life, thank you for putting this together. It was really heartening to see that there are others out there who enjoy the work that we do, and it’s true that essential workers should be treated with respect and dignity by customers and managers alike. Great work, Ember!
"i don't think customer service should require such emotional labor" real and true
I definitely agree with your assessment
In many cases I handled the customer fine until the manager decided it wasn't "good enough." Call centers especially...they want you be to faster & my brain can't produce quality customer service when being pressured to go fast.
And for the record, my customers even gave me positive reviews, which the manager could see. All he cared about what my numbers
All the part-time work I have done has ended up with me being miserable, not because the job itself was bad, but because the people and politics of the job were too damn much. And that's not to count the number of times at my 2 1/2 year cafe job where I was nearly fired for managing parts and aspects of my disability. There is only one time I believe I could've been rightfully fired from that job, and thankfully - or perhaps not - I was kept on. I suppose part of that was because the turnover was so bad, and the fact that they could get away with abusing me meant I was valuable enough.
My problem at this point isn't that I don't want to work. I love working at my art. I love stocking shelves. I love making coffee. I even like serving customers sometimes. What I *don't* want is to be mistreated at a job. And I have yet to have found a job where I am treated with the dignity I deserve and the accommodation that I need.
Here b/c another TH-camr recommended this.
I’m disabled (Crohns Disease) so needing work I can get bathroom access to/not stand in one spot for more than 5 minutes is hard.
I love working. I’ve been out of work for a year. It sucks.
I have had a “job” since age 11. I was raising my infant sister at 10, and the next year started babysitting for other army families on base. That continued until I entered the workforce at 16. I am now 53, was diagnosed ASD at age 50…I haven’t worked a FT job since an auto accident in 2014, but now I haven’t had any income for a year! I hate it. I simply cannot find anything I can manage! 😓 The idea that people would stop working if we had UBI comes from the rich. GDP economy is calculated with 80% being “Consumer Spending”! What kind of economy is that when it’s MOSTLY dependent upon all of US buying shit??? Money hasn’t been based off the Gold Standard for a long time; if that’s actually the case how do we even HAVE money? It’s a fiction and we can stop playing pretend at any point; just have to decide to! While we’re it, let’s stop believing humanity is any kind of superior species! Our handling of this planet is ample evidence to the contrary.
Wow. Do we have quite a bit in common.
Sending you love, encouragement and solidarity.
The biggest barrier to employment i routinely have is the dang personality tests on the application. I understand Neuroticism sounds bad, but it is sometimes useful. The only time ive gotten a job with the personality tests in the app is because of nepotism.
Don’t get me started on those things 😤
I have autism and have never worked, i dont think i'd be able to, firstly i dont have the qualifications to work but mostly i wouldnt be able to handle it mentally, its hard enough to do everyday tasks like hygiene and lookinb after mu environment. To go anywhere i need a full day to prepare myslef and a day to decompress after. Plus after being diagnosed with a chronic illness some days i have extreme back pain. The fact that the government sees me as lazy and want to take away the benefits that allow me to survive is terrifying. Im so scared of the future
Do you live in the UK? I have hope they will be voted out! I'm sure.
@@mangadud yes, I'm in the UK , I really hope that they are voted out in the next election, it's so scary that people in power are so out of touch.
@@mangadudunfortunately, in the UK, the current labour party is just as bad as the conservatives. They’ve shifted heavily to the right in the last few years under Starmer.
@@SarastistheSerpentStarmer and his ghouls are just as bad I feel utter despair especially Rachel Reeves with her poor economic literacy and bringing back austerity which was so successful killing off disabled people under the Tories
Yeah. I don’t think I'll ever be able to work more than a 40% part time job (16h/week instead of 40) because I burn out in a few weeks otherwise.
Woooh I sure *wanted* to work for a year of constant rejection letters, not so sure anymore.
After several years of looking for work and _continuing_ to be rejected or ghosted... yeah. "Keep trying!" I mean... how? What gumption is left?
@@csblakeley, I know exactly how you feel.
I want to work. The biggest problem is …. Looking for work.
Lately, I’ve been trying to volunteer. I filled in their web form, and waited... Then, I emailed, and waited… Next, I left a voice mail, and waited….
So at the moment, I can’t even give my time away for free. And “they” say “no one wants to work”.
And then interviewers have the audacity to ask why there is a gap on a resume.
I have one of the easiest jobs I've ever had, and I know I certainly don't want to work. Capitalism doesn't exactly give us any other option, though. I'll be working until I die, probably still living in a rental.
Same here. This game they have us all playing is stupid.
i believe that miracles will be normal and easy for you💐 congratulations on being honest with urself about what you want.
The annoying thing for me personally is that it feels as if it's getting increasingly more pointless to work in the first place, at least locally where I live. Like a others I know locally, I was the first in my family to go off to uni and properly pursue a more formal education, I've gone and trained further after that too. The thing is, I've put myself through all of this and again, like others in my age range am in a much worse social situation than my parents or their parents. Add on all of the extra crap you end up going through when you're neurospicy and I just find the whole thing pretty soul crushing to be brutally honest - it's an utter kick in the teeth to know that my only prospect for where I live is to either stay living with my parents or rent and not be putting my money towards something I will eventually own which would give me a massive sense of security.
I don't think the issue is a lack of desire to work or put in effort into work. That said, maybe there's less desire within the ND community but I'd argue that's moreso due to how inaccessible working can be for some people in the first place. The issue as I see it is that the effort poured into work is getting people less and less. Obviously this affects NTs too but I feel that it's a much greater issue for ND people who are much more likely to be prone to things like burnout and inuring additional hidden costs throughout their lives. Sure, there are jobs I've done which I could tolerate and one which I absolutely loved doing so far - ultimately though, none have paid enough for me to make me feel like all the effort I've put in to get to where I am was worth it. I find it hard to feel like I've ever had a 'sustainable' job yet and I think it's just fuelling a increasing sense of dread towards working in general
I have a problem with "dream" anything. Dream jobs, dream life, dream partner, etc. I think people can be content with what they have and that’s okay. I’ve never dreamt of wealth, of money, of success and recognition. I’ve always dreamt of a peaceful loving boring life, I dreamt of being a good person. Because a stable, safe life is what I desired the most. People try to make me feel bad for not being more "ambitious" but why is that their issue? So what if I find happiness is the most mundane things? How is that affecting others? Why should it matter how I achieve my happiness? So I’ve always had a problem with people who always push the narrative that you can do better. Who decides what’s that "better"?
I have the same problem. I always say I just want to hang out with my friends and play games but everyone acts like I’m wasting my talents because I don’t want to study or work in the field they think I should.
I really enjoyed working as a landscape gardener.
The pay was shit, the hours were longer than I would have liked, the boss was one of the worst people I've ever met, my co-workers were right-wing and vocal about it, and I have *thoughts* about the fetishisation of non-native plants and the need to curate our own immaculate gardens like the landed gentry of yore. But I still really, unironically liked that job.
I was fit and full of endorphins. I spent my days outside during the Irish summer (people joke about Irish weather but when it's good I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I'm not built for anything hotter.) There was banter, and I could feel myself learning to get better at the banter in real time (politics gets to be banter when you're also a cishet able-bodied white guy. I'm aware that's a privileged position.)
I'm a software developer now. I'm lucky enough work for a small local company rather than one of the big soulless multinationals we have here and I couldn't ask for better coworkers. I enjoy how challenging the work can be. Despite all that, there are still some grass-is-always-greener feelings (pardon the pun) when it's 4:30pm and my brain is fried and I just want to call it a day because I know I'm going to be staring at the monitor for the next hour getting nothing done anyway.
I don't know what I'm getting at, other than to say in a post-capitalist world I'd still pitch in. Even if, with society built around meeting needs rather than maximising profits, Ireland didn't need quite so many software developers. Put me outside. Hand me a shovel. I'll be grand.
The irony of this is that the very rich who often do very little to benefit people that everyone else who is in the workforce let alone those who have difficulty having and keeping work based on hostile work environments. Those same rich people are projecting and unfortunately many people seem to buy the garbage projections...
I still remember having read the "letting the cat out of the bag" poem from 1937... I thought it was something from an auto workers union publication, but the issue highlighted there is exponentially exasperated now. "so he's paying you $6/day to sit and tell him to hurry"
Yeah, when you consider things like rich people making money from buying property, investing, and not paying tax, I really don't think the people barely getting by on benefits are the issue here
Whenever someone complains that "Nobody wants to work," you should add the words "for me" to the end of that statement.
My thought is always: if you are afraid that nobody will work in a certain position, maybe, idk... *pay those workers better*??!
I almost certainly have ADHD and highly suspect autism as well. I used to work in a children’s swim school and grew to hate it; it was loud, crowded, and overstimulating. I once nearly started crying during a work training just because I got so overwhelmed by everything happening around me.
Currently, I work in a small furniture showroom. I love my job. It’s fairly quiet most days, and I rarely feel overwhelmed. A lot of tasks, like checking up on open orders or items received in inbound orders, really tickle the part of my brain that likes data analysis and numbers. Learning about product features is fun for me since I love studying and school. Work keeps me busy and I would be bored out of my mind without it.
I am a 40 year old man who grew up as a child in the early nineties with autism and didn’t have many friends
23 job descriptions, starting at 9 years old. Blown out shoulder and ear. Been through every humiliation ritual there is. I still work on stuff. but the idea that i NEED some HOURS of focus at some mindless task to justify my own existence....
Having worked in customer service for 3 and a half years, I get it. I didn't know I was autistic at the time but I was the best server. It was exhausting, utterly hollowing.
Also the racism part about the south island of New Zealand is so true. My friend went down there with her Samoan husband (we all live in Auckland, you know the world's largest pasifika population) and WOW. They weren't even trying to be subtle...
I stg work from home arrangements are the only reason I’m employed as an autistic person
I actually love customer service work, I love making people feel looked after, being that one bit of sanity in their day when they're lost, making sure all their questions are answered just like I'd want. Unfortunately, I've soaked up so much abuse from customers and the sadists who run companies that require customer service that the lights are out behind my eyes and I'd love nothing more than to just not work any more.
I have ADHD, OCD, social anxiety and worked retail. The only thing i hated was the customers and lack of air conditioning. If people weren’t so horrible and it wasnt close to 100 degrees in summer i could have kept doing it.
I got fired from 3 different nursery jobs, bc I couldn't sell plants... but I LOVE plants!
Also, my exGF would not let me work at one, even though we needed money, bc she thought she would never see me again LOL
lol, reminds me of my first jobs in computer shops where I was expected to sell people a bunch of stuff they didn't need
I'm at home Depot and often I wanna tell ppl the goodwill across the street has what they're looking for for wayyyy cheaper @@cloudycolacorp
I've never had a paid job, I've done volunteering for a few years before the pandemic hit, it was OK at first, then it felt like it was getting worse and worse, to the point I wanted to quit, started getting unpleasant people. When the pandemic came and closed down, I never went back to the library to volunteer, did find out I like making 3D art models in Blender, on my PC. When it comes to other software I find it's to hard.
Thank you Ember for the work put into this video and the advocacy!
Congrats to the new channel name!
I actually enjoy 'working' for free. It's just that all my skills are in the artistic sector. But I used to give guitar lessons for free, and I'm volunteering as an artist for community events somewhat regularly. I love giving people joy through the art I do. Once my health allows it, I would love to give art classes to local children. ... I am also autistic, unemployed, chronically ill, and poor. Having a form of UBI would really help, not least with my mental health, actually allowing me to give back to my community *more*, in whatever ways I am able to.
thank you for expanding in this topic, i myself think of this often lately. my self-esteem was lowered significantly when i realised i am autistic and thus disabled. i thought if i cant work i am a burden and useless. then i realised a Have worked successfully, i know my skills and my strong sides. I just cant torture myself for money and let others degrade me. it's not a me problem
I'm disabled, and now that I'm on disability the government doesn't expect me to be able work ever again. And I don't think I'll ever be able to work enough to pay the bills, but that doesn't mean I don't desire to be useful! Heck, a few months of sanctioned "just do nothing" was enough to ever cure me of that. People need *something* to do.
So now I volunteer at the library! It's only about 7 hours a week since, you know, the disability hasn't gone away and that is the maximum of what I can consistently do even with accommodations. But still! I can be helpful!
I liked working at a game store (board games), but mostly for the free coffee and the off-chance that I'd be asked to sort and file an enormous pile of papers.
On the note of facial expressions at work: I was actually sent home once for having a 'bad attitude'. They asked if I wanted to go home, but I made them send me so that I'd be paid the 3 hour minimum I would then be entitled to. If I'd known I was autistic back then, things might've been different.
Lol. "Nobody wants to work" should be changed to "companies don't want to hire". They say now that half of the job postings on the internet are FAKE, POSTED SIMPLY SO EMPLOYEES OF A CERTAIN COMPANY WHEN THEY HAVE NO INTENTION OF HIRING ANYONE.
I have chronic fatigue and a lot of mental health issues (I also suspect I'm autistic) and I've never been able to work. I volunteered at the library once a week for a few years though and even though I found it stressful, there was a lot of aspects of it that I loved. I loved adding the new books to the system and putting books back on the shelves, this video made me hopeful that I'll be well enough to do it again soon, it really is a great environment for autistic people! Really enjoy your insights into things like this
7:55 conversely, i hear stories about people being miserable in software developer jobs, the pinnacle of career success having the same problems as the stereotype of career failure.
If we had all the base needs for life as a given, free of charge just for existing, I believe people would still work. I like to work and feel usefull, and I'm not special. But one thing would disappear, bad bosses, control freaks that have joy in other's suffering. Those would disappear, because it doesn't matter how much I like the job, if I feel bad there I would rather not do it. This is one of, if not the main reason people quit their jobs, and this without those securities I talked about. Now imagine if you didn't have to do anything to survive, would you really tolerate those people and places?
I was thinking about this exact topic recently (I'm only a few minutes into the video at time of writing) and I've come to the conclusion that a big reason why rich people seem to push the idea that 'if people aren't struggling, they won't work'. Comes at least in part from the idea that successful people are successful because they worked hard to get there, and not because of nepotism, luck, and pushing others down.
If the people who say things like that were honest, they'd have to be honest with themselves and acknowledge what they did to get in those positions. (Obviously I'm talking about multi-millionaires, not just a regular Joe with a few space thousands laying around)
This might be strange for some, but I actually prefer if a barista (or alike) looks annoyed, bored or any other human trait, than fake happiness. I prefer to talk to humans, with human emotions.
Rich people look to their own lazy kids and think that's what the rest of us would be like if we didn't have to choose starvation or wage labor.
Like, indolence and apathy are the results of idle wealth, not lack of forced wage work.
A major part of the discourse around work, employment, and more importanlty, unemployment, revolves around a surface level capitalist "analysis": we have people who are unemployed, and we have free jobs (objecityfying language is intentional). And the main answer proposed in this kind of discourse? Society needs to force people into jobs, because people are "lazy" and don't want to work, but numbers need to go up. So instead of acknowledging the fact, that people CAN'T find and/or do jobs because of reasons, society ignores this and just tries to force them anyway, which in my understanding is just plain old literal torture. This means capitalist ideology runs into a 10m thick titanium wall of the reality of people, but instead of shattering; society under the capitalist ideology runs against the wall over and over again trying to break through.
A better discourse would be about the conditions of the so called "job market", and how jobs and society as a whole should change so people are enabled to be more productive. (and also, it is ok to not be able to work, capitalist society or not, but this is especially true in the context of the feverdream shitshow of late stage capitalism)
And I guess your Video is pretty much about that, the conditions at the workplace. So thanks for adding something meaningful to the discourse.
Great Video. Always a pleasure to watch your content
Videos like these make me feel so much more sane
Workers are more productive than ever, yet instead of being allowed to work less time, or be paid better, the benefits go to the top of those companies, to the shareholders that do nothing to desearve those benefits.
People would refuse exploitation, rather than refuse work, if there were a universal basic income. And that’s a problem for all those whose income relies on exploitation of people and planet.
If money wasn't an object, I'd like to do something more tangible - Assembling furniture, pulling beer in a pub, painting buildings, making objects, and so on. My dream job would probably have me sorting small objects. Hell, I might even do my current tech support job, if I was able to just... work on fixing issues for clients without having to worry about whether I'd done too much work, whether what I'd done was chargeable, and so on.
You're absolutely right - people like doing things. They just like the things they do to be tangible, something they can do without destroying themselves, something they can take a break from when they need to, and something that people don't actively disrespect them for doing.
The fact that UBI is consistently used for essentials is just damning evidence for the way everyone is essentially living in poverty without...
She reminds me a lot of Ponderful!
👀👀
Yeah! You're right. That's fishy😂
What makes u say that?🙃
I really appreciate this video, I recently got a job as a cashier/shelf stalker and I really enjoy it, just listen to some music and stalk shelves and checking customers out is like a game!
American service workers (the same ones who rely on tips) are very unlikely to also get insurance through their jobs because companies are only required to offer insurance if youre full time, so a lot of companies removed full time positions. full time positions in the service industry were still pretty rare before this requirement even went into law.
Before watching. I don't want want to work if im not doing something ill enjoy doing.
And i feel like people not wanting to work would create innovations to limit the necessity of doing the thing. And if people are passionate about their occupation then they are likely to do their best. And without major profit incentives i feel like we wouldn't feel the need to maintain customers so quality would go up.(removing incentives to make things meant to be replaced regularly)
I dunno if you noticed, but the first sentence of your paragraph summarized all human inventions related to labor lol. It's not a feeling, that's a fact of history.
@@mekannatarry1929 your point? I said "I feel" because I don't have the data to confirm my claims. With the current system often attempts at innovation get squashed because of policy or budget reasons. I could have an idea for how to make the machines we are working with better but that doesn't matter because I'm just a grunt with no financial backing and it's easier and cheaper to tell me to work harder or I'm fired than it is to find the time for me to make my thoughts known. And I don't have an engineering degree so who would listen anyway. And if I had a degree they would scoff at my predicament of being under them...
I personally couldn't have any degree I please if I had the motivation and the stability to make it through college I've done well on essentially every test I've ever taken and absorb information like a sponge despite often struggling to properly display that knowledge... and I don't study. I deplore the idea of repeating an idea just before a test because that says very little about what I actually learned and says more about my ability to remember something that happened recently (not my strongsuit)
I'm ranting at this point...
I loved restocking the coolers at a gas station. I was homeless, and living in Savannah, GA. The crisp 39° chill of the coolers were a godsend on a July day in Georgia. It was physically demanding and it made me feel good slinging the 60lbs rack of cans and bottles. It almost empowered me, and my arm muscles! It was simple, I could spend my shift thinking about how I was going to get out of homelessness. Haha. I also found lots of things in the parking lot that other people dropped. I walked to work, I got to listen to all the metal I wanted on my headphones. Those coolers had never been so clean, organized, and full.
It was a good gig. It helped me to save enough money to get some new clothes that fit, a pair of athletic shoes, and enough money to get an ID and eventually a plane ticket out of there and to a place....to live!
I'm 30, autistic, and never had a job because anxiety and I know no one will hire me so why even try? It looks like I'm going to spend my entire life just slowing down until I just fall asleep one day and never wake up
Inb4 "Adults shouldn't need handholding!"
"NoBodY wAnTs To WoRk" meanwhile I'm giving hours to open-source projects for no pay because calitalistic society wants what we produce for free rather than a fair price
I for one have no desire to work (engage in wage labor, that is…) because I’m not in control of the means of production - as a wage laborer, I am nothing but a cog in a machine that must keep pace with quotas set by some guy in an office far away from me that I never met and have no way to hold accountable.
I would rather play my RPGs, hone my skills in marksmanship or pump irons than waste my time at a job…
One of my favriote jobs was being a teachers assitnce for a 3 year old age group, yes i wiped buts, washed the flours, did the dishes and surve the kids breakfast and lunch, but i also played with the kids, talked to them , calm them down when they were having a hard time, i love taking care of people but i cant see my self living with the wages you get payed and the conditions that they ask you to work. Its ashame since you would want the oeople who are taking car of people that you love to be well off and even be smart people so they can take better care of the people you love.
I have lupus and audhd and I really want to work, but the concept of money stresses me out SO much. I'm so worried about whether or not I will be able to be independent as an adult because Im too disabled to work full time at most jobs.
I got so overwhelmed knowing that I had no autonomy in any job I had, so I started a cleaning business. I live in a downtown city center, so I don't drive. I have a rolly cart! It's so much better for my brain and body, I've Bee happy for the first time. I can actually help people and make my own money. But when I tell people I'm autistic and a business owner, they frequently belittle me and treat me like I simply couldn't manage by myself!
Then I tell them all the things and they're like "hm you're too much :) go scrub toilets" like??? That's not bad work lmfao, it's just YOUR toilet what are you afraid of?
My clients are fantastic and I'm allowed to say no to unsafe work without fear of losing everything. I highly recommend if you find something you enjoy, to take a list of what you like about these jobs
I don’t mind working; I’d probably choose to work 20 hours a week. What’s hard is I have to work full-time to keep ahead financially, as a widowed mother of two kids. 😬 I saw in studies of UBI that two groups of people worked significantly less with UBI; young men (who focused on education instead) and mothers of preschool aged children (who focused on their children instead). Horrors! 😱
I've been working in the hospitality industry for years as a neuro-spicy person. It's hard, but I enjoy it. I love making coffee, making food, serving, and welcoming new people and my regulars, even though I get masking fatigue at the end of the day! I love all the maintenance and health and safety aspects. I love making sure my colleagues feel safe and comfortable. I love my current job and workplace, and it's not that I don't want to work, it's that I am CRUSHED beneath capitalism where my income means I am barely living paycheck to paycheck.
And I completely agree with the fact that the richer people are the more nasty and entitled treating you like utter sh*t. I worked in a VERY posh town and was miserable because it was incessant abuse from customers. Now I work for a charity with a zero tolerance policy for abuse and can tell people to gtfo.
Really interesting video! Thank you!
ufff-- "work is recognized as essential but the worker is disposable." So well articulated point
20:27 this reminds me so much of Elyse Myers' "I do not receive that." TH-cam short, which I strongly suggest if you have to deal with the public.
She's so great! And she's been going through a lot recently.
I make pizza. If I just had the money to support myself, I would probably still enjoy going in and helping to make pizza. I listen to music and have interesting conversation with one or two other people (pretty much the maximum amount I'm comfortable with at one time), and we make pizza dough together. I genuinely enjoy it. I come away tired, because there's heavy lifting and it is in fact hard physical work. But it's a good kind of tired. I don't really exercise, but this helps make up for that.
My job requires answering phones. I had a customer escalate a complaint to management because she didn't like my tone. I was fairly straightforward and neutral, and did what she asked as quickly as I could. But apparently I wasn't happy enough to be speaking to her and shouldn't be doing the job if i can't maintain that level of professionalism. Never mind the fact that every time i'm answering the phone i'm being interrupted from a task that requires concentration. Never mind the fact i'd answered 15 calls in about 90 minutes while trying to get something done before a deadline. No, the fact that i wasn't all sunshine and rainbows was grounds to complain because i'm "Bad at my job".
I realise I'm ranting, but the bit about people not needing to smile all the time made me feel seen.
I wish people would remember they're talking to people when they pick up the phone.
When they start paying people fair wages, at least 15 pounds an hour, then people will want to work.
I really enjoy my work. I just enjoy the tasks. It's better than sitting at home for months, doing nothing outside of my hobbies.
What I don't enjoy is doing it 5 days a week, 8 hours each day, having to get up at 3 am for morning shift, and having to sleep during the day for night shifts, having to deal with co-workers that have no chill, having to sit for an hour because all the work is done, and being in a state of constant stress over rising production even though we don't have enough space, tools or people to be dealing with it. It doesn't help that the wages stagnate and you can't exactly feed a family on them.
This was one of the more intelligent job discussions I’ve ever heard. Kudos. I find satisfaction in being a homemaker and all the grossness that entails. It’s peaceful and at times challenging. When I’m not well I can adjust my schedule. Peaceful
There was a baker. I had my own key and opened the store. I worked alone being able to work with my hands . No interaction with customers. I liked working as a team member. No customers. I’m an American.
I loved my job as a teacher, but it made me very tired and left me with little to no energy to do anything else. Not only that, but the pay was not enough to even move out of my parents' house. When I quit teaching, I legitimately became someone who didn't want to work anymore. Not because I don't value work or didn't like working, but because I just felt like work was all I had. I worked hard and couldn't afford to do anything else with my life. I couldn't even get my own housing. And even if I could, I was often too tired to really enjoy the other things I was doing. I felt like I could not work and have equally as much of nothing, and that absolutely killed my motivation to go back to work. When the expectation is that you will work yourself to the bone and be grateful for literal scraps that wouldn't even satisfy a starving dog, it becomes really easy to not want to work.
What boggles the mind about destitution is how the threat of it is much greater for people who have been estranged by their families. We are lucky to live in a time where humanity is beginning to address many issues that we didn’t talk about much in previous decades, such as disability and autism. So I really don't understand why the failure of the concept of family isn't talked about more. I truly wish it was. Lack of family is at the core of so many other issues. Like, why on earth should I be on the verge of destitution (and considered scum by the government and society) for my parents utter inability to raise a child??!
This is such an amazing and calming video. Thank you for putting a very human face on a very inhuman seeming subject.
I hope to teach in the university someday. Hearing you talk about work like this makes me have hope that I can and will enjoy working more than I do now.
Thank you.
'Money is not a motivator to work, but I put effort into this video because I want there to be UBI money'. Genius argument.
There are literally things like writer fellowship awards, money given to writers so that they can spend more time writing and less time working outside jobs.
I really enjoyed my library jobs. My favorite was working in dead stacks, the uncirculated books in storage places not accessible by the public.
I used to sell beer at hockey games up and down the stands. Best job I ever had. Everyone was alway happy to see me. I got to see all the games.
Never missed a shift, not because of the money, but because It was fun and would hate to lose that job.
Interestingly, I am autistic too and I hated working at a grocery story having to fill shelves all day.
Currently I work at a university medical center typing in study data into an online portal - all day. It’s boring af.
My dream job would be to be an author. Something my parents always dismiss as „not real work“ or work that wouldn’t guarantee success and money.