I think the predictable income is the biggest perk of "regular" jobs, but pretty much everything else is a negative, lol. Re: keeping work drama at bay, yeah ...I am fairly convinced I'm one of those people on the autism spectrum who didn't get diagnosed as a kid. Learning about it explains a LOT about my life and relationships. One of the things that is common among autistic people, is those who have regular jobs (85% are unemployed, which says a lot to me about those negatives... ), tend to job hop. I was one of those when I had regular jobs. My longest jobs were a couple of years maybe.
You start off good and getting praised for your work ethic, but somewhere along the way something turns and suddenly it feels like everyone hates you and you can't do anything right. Even though you are working like you always did, you are the outcast - you don't fit in, you don't participate in whatever social drama is happening, you miss it completely. By the end of most jobs, I was crying in the bathroom on a regular basis. That work drama seems to be mandatory to the majority, and I hate it. Either you're participating, or you're a target.
Anyway. I am now in that 85% with my health issues, so no office drama for me.
I'm sorry to hear that you experienced those feelings when you were employed. It could not have been pleasant to feel that way working anywhere.
We had a debate in my Managerial Studies class about the importance/relevance of cliques in the workplace (I see it forming on Hive as well). I am, and will always be anti-clique. I have too strong a mind of my own, for anyone to try to influence my actions or anyone that I relate to.
I have good work ethic and can hold my ground and fight for myself if the need arises. I know when to get my claws out and somehow I always land on my feet. So, I just do my thing and remain the lone wolf or tiger or whatever anyone wants to regard me as.
I'm happy that you're no longer subjected to any of those things.🤗
That's good that you can fight for yourself!
The only job where I ever snapped and quit and walked out the door without any notice, was when I was working at the health food store. Originally, I worked at this tiny little store and it was great there; the staff were too few for there to be cliques, we all interacted with each other. But then they closed that little store and we could either lose our jobs or move to one of the bigger stores. I chose to do the latter, and that was a mistake.
At the small store, I was a cashier, but I regularly helped out other departments. So like, if I had no customers, I'd go straighten shelves and check expiration dates and things like that. At the new store, I would do that, and my fellow cashiers reported me to management for not being at my register. I was like ...we had no customers, and there were three of us, so I went to straighten shelves. Manager: but you need to stay at your register. Clean that when you have no customers. Me: I did clean that already. It doesn't take long. Manager: you can't leave your register. Me: so I'm just supposed to stand here and look pretty? Manager: yes.
I had never gotten in trouble for working too hard before. My guess is they didn't want to be expected to do the same instead of standing around chatting, so they reported me for leaving my register, even though I was close enough they could have just said "Hey" and I would have heard them. At least one of the workers in the other department who was happy I was helping him clean his shelves said he was sorry I had gotten in trouble for helping him, but it wasn't his fault.
That wasn't the incident that made me snap, but those cashiers and that manager definitely were. I had never walked out on a job before, and I actually felt so good after the initial upset wore off, that I was skipping and dancing on my way home, even though I had just made myself unemployed. It was a bad place.
I think you did the right thing there.
It's difficult to understand why people would have a negative stance on an employee being proactive and taking initiative, but I guess some people have an obsessive-compulsive need to have order in a certain way, whether it makes sense or not.
I knew a colleague who went to lunch and never returned to work, I think that's another level of bravery and risk-taking. She later got a job with a popular airline company, so I guess she was able to explain her past employment record convincingly😆