​I just started a new job at a chip manufacturing factory. The entire job consists of one thing: picking up bags of chips and packing them into cardboard boxes, from 8 AM to 4 PM. 48 hours a week of absolute repetition.

​It has only been two days, and it feels like psychological torture. My brain is completely starved of any stimulation. To make things worse, management has a strict no headphones policy, so I am trapped in total silence with the deafening hum of the machinery and my own thoughts driving me insane.

​People keep telling me, "You'll get used to it," but honestly, the thought of getting "used" to this feels like accepting slow mental death.

​How do people survive this kind of mindless, repetitive labor without losing their minds? Any advice for getting through the first month or two while keeping my sanity intact?

That's it, I just can't think of a future where I can sustain myself without being forced to use the shitty tool that is AI. Everywhere you go it's there, everywhere it's all about efficiency for the sake of efficiency. And yes, we need money, but I'm tired about giving up our sould, resources and money to a tool that's destroying the world, taking our resources, making everything cost more and that's making lots of people lose their jobs

I have been at my job for 3 years now. My boss at the beginning was nice as most bosses try to be at the start but since then she’s been micro-managing… this year it got worse since I had a medical emergency at work. I thought she would lay off a little bit but she’s truly showing her true colors. No concerns about how the job might be part of what’s taking a toll on me while I deal with uncertainty about what’s happening to my body. I also have things at home that aren’t so great and the boss knows this and still chooses to make my life miserable. She’s got her “favorite” employee who seems to be the only one she thinks can do no wrong but I do my job and I don’t bother anyone but she seems to have it out for me. I don’t know what her issue is and honestly I just want to be able to do my job with little to no one giving me a hard time but she makes it basically impossible….

Hi. I just really need to get this off my chest and maybe hear some advice from people who have experienced something similar.

I’m 23F, graduated last year with Latin honors, and currently working in IT. I was originally hired as a UI/UX Designer, which is something I genuinely love doing. Ever since SHS, alam ko na talagang design yung gusto kong career path.

Everything was manageable naman before. I had my routine, I knew what I was doing, and kahit may stressful days, kinakaya ko.

But recently, our company dissolved our UI/UX team and transferred us to different departments. I ended up becoming a full-stack developer.

And honestly, I hate it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m willing to learn naman. I’m trying my best to understand C#, React, databases, APIs, debugging, etc. Pero sobrang overwhelming. Every day, I feel anxious going to work because I don’t know what kind of task they’ll give me. I feel so lost and incompetent, especially when I’m surrounded by developers who already know what they’re doing.

What’s worse is that I have so much going on outside work.

My older brother is currently battling Stage 4 cancer. He’s undergoing chemotherapy, and our family has been struggling emotionally, physically, and financially. I try my best to be there for them, especially since they rely on me for certain responsibilities.

I also have debts and bills to pay, so quitting without another job isn’t really an option.

And here’s the worst part. I have an employment bond.

Lately, I’ve been absent from work because I genuinely cannot bring myself to go anymore. Every morning, I wake up feeling anxious and exhausted. Sometimes I just lie in bed wishing I didn’t have to face another day at the office.

Even Sundays aren’t peaceful anymore.

I usually spend my weekends with my boyfriend, and honestly, those are the only moments when I feel genuinely happy. He takes care of me, and for a little while, I forget about everything that’s happening in my life.

But every Sunday night, I start feeling anxious again because I know I have to go back to work the next day.

Sometimes I just want to stay with him and forget that I have responsibilities waiting for me.
I know that sounds irresponsible, but I’m just so tired.

I’m tired of forcing myself to do something I don’t enjoy. I’m tired of pretending I’m okay at work. I’m tired of constantly worrying about my brother, money, and my future.

I used to be so excited about my career. I graduated with honors, had so many plans, and genuinely believed I was going to build a good future for myself.

Now I’m only 23, and I already feel so defeated.
I don’t even want a high-paying job anymore. I just want a stable WFH UI/UX job where I can do something I love, earn enough to pay my bills, and be close to my family while my brother is undergoing treatment.

If someone offered me that opportunity right now, I’d take it in a heartbeat.

I know I should be grateful that I have a job, especially in this economy. But is it really worth staying somewhere that’s affecting my mental health this badly?

I don’t want to be unemployed. I don’t want to abandon my responsibilities. I just want to stop feeling miserable every single day.

To anyone who’s experienced something similar:
How did you manage to get through it? Did you eventually resign? Was it worth it?

And for those who had employment bonds, how did you handle leaving your company?

I genuinely don’t know what to do anymore. I feel like I’m slowly losing the person I used to be.
I just want to be happy again.

Hello everyone,

I'm currently I'm in a job that I hate and I'm regularly finding it hard not to start randomly screaming at my desk.

It's a combination of intense boredom or intense stress, no screen privacy, constant monitoring, no opportunity for growth or movement and senior leadership with no ability to regulate their emotions. Oh, and bad pay.

I currently don't have the option to be jobless, but I've been applying to about 20 jobs a day for the last 4 months with no responses.

This has manifested in biting my nails and writing long rants into my phone notes to vent some frustration.

Any recommended coping mechanisms? Weirder the better. Thaaanks 💖

I had a job that I genuinely loved last year. I worked for a small nonprofit, for a cause that I cared about, with a team that thought I was fantastic and loved giving me opportunities for training and growth, and they paid enough that I never minded the downsides. The commute sucked, and there wasn't a ton of room to move up in my department, but I felt like I mattered there.

And then budget cuts came down from the government, and four rounds of layoffs later, I was finally out the door.

I knew it was coming, and I made the best of it. I used it as a chance to do some short-term temp work that was more directly in my field for experience, then to get in at a bigger company with a bigger team and (in theory) more opportunities at promotions. It was a $10,000 pay cut, but that's the job market for you. I was lucky; I wasn't out of a job for more than a week.

But this job is slowly chipping away at me and i don't know how long I can keep this up.

It's not an issue of pressure, at least not in the usual way. It's that there's no pressure. No responsibility, no learning, nothing but redirecting calls and mindlessly scanning files into an out-of-date system. My boss somehow expects this task to eventually be finished, as if a stack or even a box of new ones don't show up at my desk every other week. I'm the only person in my department with no work-from-home days, no standing desk, no freedom to go get coffee or go for a walk to the next building to get water. I have exactly one meeting every other week. No one even bothers to pretend that my job is important; i found out from a coworker that my boss didn't even want to fill the position and only hired me under duress.

They said when I was hired that I would get experience in this position so I could move up. What exactly am I getting experience in, the sensation of my brain dribbling out my ears? There's theoretically an opening for a promotion coming up, but it's only available because my boss fired someone on their first day back from medical leave and I'm not even sure she's allowed to do that!!

I wish I could leave without my resume being full of short-term employment. I promised myself that I'd stay until at least April, but I don't know if i can do it anymore.

i’ll try to make this quick

i (23f) started a new job about 2 months ago now, with the job i get to earn my cert 4 in business and just overall gain more skills.

i was super excited at first, like i said more skills! i’ve been doing the exact same task for those two months, ive asked numerous times for the last week multiple times a day for something new; my coworkers say they’ll come to me and teach me something new but they never do. i’ve brought it up to both of my bosses but they say they the same thing “it’s busy, we’ll teach you when we can”.

i’ve been having days off recently (health issues), and every time i come back to work one of my bosses is super dismissive of me. every time i try to ask for a task or anything she just tells me to sit down and she’ll come and give me something.

they’re both complaining that im not working hard enough or not doing enough. i dont know what to do, i just know i need the job.

help, please :’)

I'm a 3rd year in college and I work at my school as a Resident Advisor, or RA. Basically the person you go too if there's an issue on the floor or with your roommate and stuff. It's a very social job and I'm not a social person, I hate being this viable to everyone and try to save as much peace for me as I can. But recently that's been getting me in trouble and I can't take it anymore. Basically my manager was saying that residents have been emailing saying that they don't know who I am and that's gotten around to the leadership committee and now i have an initial warning on their punishment system, which is the second step in their 6-ish part punishment system and it ends with you getting fired. I'm not trying to deliberately avoid people, but I need my space, and this semester I'm bombarded with everything going on and to keep getting in trouble and getting this upset over a job I don't even want is hitting me hard. The only reason I have this job is because I need the money. It covers costs for room and board plus a meal plan for my college and I go to a fairly expensive college (even tho nowadays they all are). But yeah, I'm only doing it for the money but I've started to realize it's just not worth it anymore. The amount of stress and anxiety I'm experiencing is just too much.

I've thought about quitting and I did the research and I can't. My college can't guarantee hosing if I give up my current RA room so I'm stuck. I've talked to my manager about how I feel and he seems to understand that I know what's going on and we worked out a plan to try. Today I cried in his office and I've never felt more stupid in my life, he kept asking about why I'm stressed and I mentioned my mom and how she doesn't believe in me and when I tried to tell her all this she got mad and kept saying I'm being a baby and the year will end before I know it and it's not that bad and bullshit like that. And she's always made it clear she doesn't believe in me, she thinks my major (animation) is stupid and has basically said "I'm only letting you go to this school because my father has an engineering degree and he wasn't able to find stable jobs" and she's also basically said that the only reason I can go to this school is because I agreed to be an RA. And no matter how miserable I tell her I am, she doesn't care, she had it worse, I need to suck it up and push through.

I cried today in front of my boss.

It's far past the point of "pushing through". But I can't quit. I can't find housing elsewhere because it's too big a gamble to give it up, and even if I could quit my mother would kill me and never let me hear the end of it. She would literally be the most pissed off I've ever seen, and she would hang it over my head for the rest of my life as an example of why I'm not good enough.

I don't know what to do. I hate everything about this situation, but I'm genuinely stuck, there is nothing I can do.

What do I do?

​I just started a new job at a chip manufacturing factory. The entire job consists of one thing: picking up bags of chips and packing them into cardboard boxes, from 8 AM to 4 PM. 48 hours a week of absolute repetition.

​It has only been two days, and it feels like psychological torture. My brain is completely starved of any stimulation. To make things worse, management has a strict no headphones policy, so I am trapped in total silence with the deafening hum of the machinery and my own thoughts driving me insane.

​People keep telling me, "You'll get used to it," but honestly, the thought of getting "used" to this feels like accepting slow mental death.

​How do people survive this kind of mindless, repetitive labor without losing their minds? Any advice for getting through the first month or two while keeping my sanity intact?