I actually had a job shelving books as a teenager. It is to date the best job I ever had. No one bothered me. I just took books from the return slots at the library and put them back for a few hours after school. Sometimes I even dared to get a list of reservations to find and shelve elsewhere.
Always interesting how the world works I spent from 2007 - 2018 in shit jobs where baby boomers were in control of everything and I hated it… They’re arseholes
Now it’s 2026… I’m nearly 40 and insecure Gen X managers (actual psychopaths) are doing everything they can to destroy people my age and younger.
Now before anyone starts up telling me I’m the same. I work with a few Gen z people and I do everything I can to prop them up, I want to help them I don’t want any of them to fail… When I was starting in IT support I got shit on by baby boomers and 50% of Gen X (the other half helped me).
Life is too hard to be cruel to people just trying their best. Every time I see a young person struggling and I help them out makes me happier that baby boomers will all die soon and Gen X will all fuck off into retirement.
I can’t even explain now many entitled psychopaths I have to deal with are all Gen X… They were the generation of “Fuck the rules, fuck the police”
Now they’re all old and they’re “Fuck the rules, give me what I want and give me it now! I am more important than everyone and you need to treat me like I’m a king/queen”
Me at 46: I want to dismantle the machinery that makes trillionaires.
If you take away their right to break the law, how will you become the next trillionaire?! - Stupid right wing people
This is me at all ages I can remember. By extrapolation, I can only assume I spent my toddler years fighting for the rights of the proletariat.
The greatest gift of my career was getting old enough to not care.
I work in a hospital in a lab where I look at small pieces of the human body through a microscope in a quiet office where people apologize for interrupting me. It’s heaven
knockknockknock
Sorry to bother you…
You ever look at your dick and balls with that microscope?
No but I’ve seen many another man’s dick and balls at the cellular level lmao
Did this guy ever apologise?
Ahhh fuck, now I’m going to have to watch The Rock again. Thankyou for your service.
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Never wanted to climb the ladder, but it was the only way I could really get better pay.
The higher I go, the more I can’t stand the conversations. Being straightforward is a career killer. Competing with folks that talk big without knowledge, knowing I need to carefully balance working with them while making sure my ass is documented and covered for any blame when they screw up and want to throw someone under the bus.
I have generally still loved talking to the “grunts” and customers. People who have real problems and doing real stuff without so much office politic crap going on. Not people trying to write blog posts to try to sound smart without actually doing anything or actually knowing the material.
I actually started climbing the ladder and to be honest, I fucking hate it and am looking for a way out. I have never dealt with so many people that are willing to sacrifice their own dignity to be a sycophant for the sake of money.
Same. It fucking sucks but it’s the only way I’ve found to making enough money to do the shit I actually want to do. Which I’m still not making enough money for because inflation keeps up with half my pay raises…
So uh…we are all clearly unhappy, is any of us going to do anything about this? (I already stated I am, some community idea).
Get your library science degree now, there are only a few accredited programs. I thought about doing this earlier this year and was surprised at how complicated it actually was to become a librarian.
you need a masters for the most part. a covoluted booking system, dewey system(i was helping them in my HS years very confusing to put which books where. plus also internet research for the unitiated from reputable sources.) of course public libaries you have to deal with Homeless people/bums that would smell or try to do drugs(these libraries tend to have security too), or people watching PORN.
I never wanted the former, even as a kid.
All I’ve ever wanted is something that’s unstressful and fulfilling by doing good to others and gives me enough, both time and money, to be comfortable (and my view of comfortable in the money part is a lot less than the vast majority of people want).I think most of Genz doesn’t want it.
Don’t librarians in the US have to have masters degrees? I thought it was another underpaid very competitive career path where you had to wait for people to retire to find a job.
yea it is a requirement. its competitive because there are very few places that hire them, public libraries and universities libraries, and community colleges. i assume the university ones are more better paying but more competitive. the ones at my state uni had a master in a stem degree too.
the alternative is getting hired as a librarian assistant, but those tend to be part time and a student type of job.
the stress free jobs are often more on the lower side of pay, or certain niche degreed jobs. librarian isnt that stress free, because you are facing patrons and students all the time, and potential crazy people, or homeless people, or the porn addicts.
The job you are looking for at 38 is Page but like every job within the library system. It pays worse than teaching for the no-exceptions required-education
I applied for Page like 3 times at my local library, but my resume reads as disillusioned tech bro so I don’t think I have much of a chance. t_t
You should legally change your name to Page, that should put you way above everyone else
They mostly hire high school, college age students. Sorry :(
Have a colleague who went from over $300k/year to like a $50k/year job. Basically something to vaguely keep the lights on while his savings took care of itself. Way too young to retire, but he figures he can be ok with his savings and bonuses he had over his high paying career.
I dunno I thought I wanted this and took a job at a datacenter
Some days I don’t even interact with another human
5 years into this and it’s completely killed my social skills and therefore social life, im thinking about moving on for this reason actually
If it pays ok, why not volunteer?
You get to socialise, you get to feel a part of your community, you get to feel like you’re making a difference, etc.
I don’t know why but the hermit nature of the job leaks into my real life and I tend to not want to socialize outside of work either
It’s all been a slow burn in this way
I found that forcing myself to go out when I was invited to things fixed this for me. Now I actually look forward to doing things with my friends again. I am fortunate enough to have some really good friends now though. That hasn’t always been the case.
Im in the same boat. Perpetual screen time is fine if you have colleagues next to you that you can shoot the shit with. Without them? Brain becomes a spongey moss
It’s not just screen time in my case. Alone in the datacenter at night is like some liminal space and it feels like there is something inherently unhealthy standing amongst the whirring server racks. Even with hearing protection it just drives a guy mad in a way
Probably because it’s a toxic, hostile environment solely designed for machines…
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Wut
I’ll second the volunteering, though I never really feel comfortable socializing among the volunteers, it still feels good actually doing something I think matters, but at the same time know I’m utterly replacable and no one would specifically need me to do any of it.
Off topic but out of curiosity, how many people actually work in a data center? I’ve always wanted to work in one but got the impression that there are only a small number of people, maybe a dozen or so, dedicated to keeping the hardware running.
But hearing how it’s affected you makes me think it might not be the best choice for me. I worked from home for about 5 years up to and during COVID, and honestly can relate to feeling less comfortable in social situations after a while. I think the first year or so I was fine and then started to notice the decline of actually wanting to interact with other people.
I work in a very small datacenter and there are around 100 people overall. But majority of people usually work from home. I am one of 3 people on site who rotates shifts to have someone onsite at all times. But everyone comes to the datacenter for various things at some point
There are times where there are lots of people onsite and I do socialize but due to my position I am usually completely alone on the evening shifts
During my first “job,” I was too young to be legally employed, so I volunteered at a library with my mom. Initially I worked in one of the back rooms, hidden from the public, helping to scan and sort books put in the return bins. (I discovered several great books by seeing them come back; among them were Dogsbody, Lovely Bones, and Me Talk Pretty One Day. Those are listed alphabetically by title and that wasn’t even by design!)
After I volunteered long enough, I was deemed sufficiently experienced to put books on the shelves in the stacks. I was titled a “page” and proudly announced that while attending a LAN party. One of the other attendees of said party said “and if you do that long enough maybe you’ll become a full book!” I laughed quite heartily.
If you’ve never read anything else I wrote here, the post above will probably tell you everything you could possibly want to know about me.
Man, my first real job was at the library as a student page. That job fucking rocked so much and I wish I could have stayed there forever.
I got to shelve books, play with microfilm and microfiche, and listen to my CDs all day. It was the best job ever.
So have you made it to a chapter of your own? :3
Ha!
Or: is there a job… where I can just live my life? Like, spend time with friends and doing hobbies and still getting paid?
You mean… you want to live your life and not add value to someone else’s wallet?
I for one love to work for soulless schmucks who profit from my labor and make the tough decisions like not giving raises this year.
“3/5 - Meets Expectations”
Trust fund kid.
Do what you love except hold a camera in your offhand and shout “bro bro honestly like actually what just happened!? Like and subscribe!” Every 30 seconds.
Get independently wealthy. Can you marry someone rich?
Hey wait a minute! I did not said i wanted to meet a woman
Wealthy investor.
That’s just called “being rich.” Work duties do include disenfranchizing the poor, with quarterly reviews by peers in the Illuminati though.
So not quite as chill as you might hope from “having no logical fears or needs”.
