How's work been?

Congrats! And I would do nothing as gauche as asking for your old job in a post!

Timeline of events up to present moment:

>Covid quarantine degrades my physical and mental health to the point where I gave enough blood to feed a vampire village, done all kinds of tests, had to have surgery on an old hernia, got another hernia that needs surgery, I am 20+lbs overweight and can't get rid of it, have trouble resuming martial arts training, my mood is prone to anxiety and depression ever more than before, and my stomach keeps destabilizing. At one point I was addicted to benzos for months

>I drag out my work's WFH until HR basically threatens me through our "medical leave proxy company" to come back to 3-day-per-week RTO

>I negotiate with HR via the medical leave company, using my doctor, so that my spot in the nightmare "open office" is in a corner and not next to a vent, OR they install partitions around me to simulate a cubicle

>I move to the town with my job to shorten commute because my health doesn't handle long commutes anymore

>HR has 2 months to fix my desk placement, they do nothing. When I arrive to the office, we've all just been moved to a new building, and my desk is next to a corridor, with foot traffic to 2 conference rooms directly behind me, and a cold vent above me that triggers my sneeze reflex constantly. It's the worst spot on my team.

>Manager claims to be on my side, I push HR and Facilities for weeks, they eventually tell me that they can install cubicle partitions around me as requested, but first I HAVE TO CHOOSE WHICH OF MY TEAMS COWORKERS TO MOVE TO MY sh*tTY SPOT AND TAKE THEIR GOOD SPOT

>In a bit of an emotional breakdown I wrote Facilities/HR a letter where I said they gave me a choice that is something out of "Devil's Advocate" and that I learned not to let companies change my nature in this insidious way, I'm not going to do it

>"Nobody liked that". HR and Facilities got upset. Manager unloaded on me angrily. I apologized to the HR person in person, said I have been under a lot of pressure, and also that I have high functioning autism which gives me social blindness (which is also true)

>HR resumes communicating with me and it turns out that putting cubicle walls around me was NEVER POSSIBLE, they just found that out, and instead, they decided to install privacy barriers ON MY DESK, which is a joke and doesn't improve my situation at all

>Above happened after I submitted my 6-month self-evaluation thing which decides promotions. Now my manager angrily and with a kind of pity in his demeanor, notifies me that he pushed me for the small upgrade in rank that I needed (one that basically makes one considered a human in this company, and one which I should've gotten probably 2-3 years ago when I was organizing and executing massive architectural changes), but that HR saw the upgrade request and they said that they can't upgrade someone with such bad interpersonal/teamwork skills because they were upset at me

>Basically I remain at my previous rank as the company is starting to chop off people of my rank to save costs and replace them with, I guess, eager college students? I gave this company a lot, I innovated and found both problems and solutions, created whole systems that didn't exist when we were only 1/10th our current size, I really cared about my job for the first time in my life. Now I am being queued to be thrown aside like garbage because HR got upset at the emotional breakdown which would not have happened if they followed their side of the agreement. My manager JUST axed the first person

There's a distinct feeling of fear and anger after this meeting with my manager. He also said that he's being soft on me and that the next manager who will take his place at some point, will give me real trouble, apparently for the lack of my interpersonal skills (??)

I also noticed condescension from him every time he pulled me (and I refused) to some out-of-work team-building exercise like "escape rooms", which are stressful social events for me, especially considering my stomach instability.

I am starting to look for jobs in my area, preferably fully remote. I made that decision last night so I can actually breathe a little and not come in to work today feeling like an intimidated slave.

That's a really strange system of HR and management. It's abusive, in my mind. Never heard of the like, and yes, I've worked for a company with deliberately abusive management style.

Taking forever to replace old bankrupt work with new financially stable work. "CDL licenses are your license to a recession safe job" my flaming butt hole.

If someone said "a recession safe job" to me with a straight face it would be difficult to not punch them.

The trucking school, the labor department, other truck drivers all said this to me. Thankfully 85% of my CDL training was paid for by the state because- you guessed it- it was considered a recession-proof job and would keep me off unemployment ledger. Although I've been on unemployment for 2 months, hopefully it will end soon.

I think true recession proof jobs are bartenders ad prostitutes, and since I burned all of my bras in 1994 and I don't like bars, well.. yeah!

But like social work, you'd better be dedicated and resiliant.

Inspired by this story from Farley3K and this follow-up...

Fun story.

When I was hired in May I was given the option to have $2 deducted from each paycheck for the "Employee Fund." What I was told was that there would be BBQs, parties, tailgates, pizza, and other celebrations.

Fast forward to now. I have seen none of that. And asking around, no one has for a very long time. So now my question is: where is my $24?

Also pizza topic from the D&D picture thread last week

Does anybody have input on the cost of health care at their jobs? I started one this week, and insurance isn't available for 90 days. My trainer is eligible in November and he showed me the plans, and it looks like for a family of 3 the cost per week for health/dental/vision is $550. That seems incredibly high, and when he showed me I was like "Holy sh*t, is this real or is there a misprint?" After paying taxes that seems like a ridiculously high percentage of a weekly paycheck to pay for insurance, or am I just not aware of the cost..

I remember when that .gif was for people getting a PS5. This is far worse.

$2200/mo for an employee plus beneficiaries is in the range of what my friends who buy on the open market are looking at. Maybe that's a bit lower than what is coming up this year (am seeing big increases in premiums). And, of course, depends on location, because capitalism.

For context, a few years ago, school bus drivers and school cooks in my state were being charged $1500/mo for health insurance (on jobs that pay less than $40k/yr). Fortunately, the state took action and began covering these employees. Teachers had to start paying a modest amount $25-$75/mo (instead of, in some cases, $0/mo) but 300k more people were able to get affordable coverage.

f*cking socialism.

Mine is $225 I think biweekly for my wife and I, plus since my wife is able to get insurance through her employer(mine is a little better) I have to pay an additional $45 per paycheck for having her on my insurance. Vision and dental are separate.

I'm in those ranges. Government run health care cannot come soon enough. Or at least single-payer with gov't negotiated prices.

If my wife worked and had employer provided insurance, I believe I would be required to go on hers and ditch the marketplace coverage I currently have.