Mininmum wage labour: A cheese grater to your very soul

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I've been working minimum wage jobs on and off for a few years now. I am currently sober, recovering from a severe polysubstance addiction. The very essence of these jobs is the endurance of frustration - every shift, a harsh journey through an endless jungle of repitition and annoyance.

When I was on drugs, I prided myself on being "the best damn worker, I could be." Now that I'm sober, I don't give two s**ts. I half ass my work on a good day. I live in a manufacturing town, and there are a lot of factory jobs - 40 hrs a week, continental shifts/rotating, whatever, f*****g brute force labour. I couldn't do that work, I have a beautiful girlfriend who I see every weekend and she means the universe to me and more. The type of work takes so much from me mentally, physically, and spiritually, and it interferes with my ability to be the best boyfriend I can be.

To tell you the truth, I can't do that work period. Girlfriend or not. I get so tired all the time, from having my creativity stifled.

I just landed a job at food basics, I'm also sick with a nasty cold, and I am absolutely dreading coming into work tomorrow. I'll probably be better by tomorrow, but time just goes so slow at these jobs.

I did a shift at basics last week, at 10:30, I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

I envy the everyman - the noble grunt. Their ability to just turn off, and do grunt work. Why can't I do that? There are also a lot of creative people in minimum wage jobs. How do they cope?

any suggestions?

It's all about getting that paycheck at a minimum wage job, however meager the pay may be. They say to themselves "this job sucks, but I get paid for it so I can survive another week, so suck it up and get that money!"

If your girlfriend's willing to you should move to a city.

No suggestions. Just sympathy. And envy- for having a girlfriend. I live in a remote village, and with that and the aspergers I expect to stay single forever.

But on the job thing I completely understand. I work in the post office, so it's slightly better than menial work, but like most low paid jobs (not much above minimum wage) we're treated like cogs in a machine. I cope by making computer games in the evenings, but every day I'm counting the hours and resenting the counter-productive rules (e.g. mistakes that mean we never get our full pay, and pressure to force customers to buy things they don't want). I don't do a half assed job - I pride myself in working harder than anyone else - but I feel like such an idiot for doing it, as the harder you work the less you get paid, but that's another story.

Yeah. Sucky jobs suck.

I'm sensing a pattern here...

... and some mis-placed priorities ...

We suck it up, go to work, get the job done without whining, collect our paychecks, and go home at the end of the day.

Yes. You are not a commodity-in-demand; you are an unskilled laborer. Learn some skills that will give you an edge over the others. Lift truck operator is a good start. First-aid classes are also useful. Learn how to use a spreadsheet ("Excel") and a drafting program ("Visio"). Ask your HR managers what skills are most in demand, and learn them.

Other than that, you're on your own.

I see your point, fnord. But how do I stop myself from whining?

I'm going to school in the fall for Electro MEchanical Engineering Technology Automation and Robotics. I guess I just have to tell myself that, it's only gonna be for a few more months. No more minimum wage work after that!

Every week that I go to pick up my paycheque, I always feel like I'm being ripped off.

I guess I should have been a little more specific in my request, and say...

give me some other advice besides "just suck it up".

If I could just "suck it up (which i've tried several times to do unsuccessfully)" I wouldn't be asking you guys for suggestions. I figured that'd be the first thing people would write (I used say the same s**t to other people, I thought were "lazy). I'm not mad or offended, "buck up" is the common response.

Now...the tables have turned and I'm the lazy one.

And yes...I am whining, I won't deny that.

The more work I have to do, the more my behaviour suffers. My last somewhat real job (other than temp stuff) was a General Labourer/Custodian for Synnex Canada. I made flat minimum, worked 40 hours a week, and by about 2-3 incomplete weeks (I called in sick a couple times) into working, I spent 80% of the shift, sitting in the executive board room, on the nice leather chairs, eating, and surfing the net on my cellphone.

Why am I like this? I don't do it on purpose. I just hate work! I try so hard to be a good worker, but I get so tired. soooooooooo tired.

yeah...99.3% of this is just ranting.

I understand the feeling very well. I try and be a steady eddie. I get there constantly 5 to 8 minutes early. I look for things that need doing and do them without being asked. I live my department better than I find it. Etc. Etc. And it doesn't translate. The managers neither seem to notice nor care. I seem to be more engaged in the job than they are!

I am a believer in entrepreneurship, but please understand 80% of new businesses fail. Those are the facts of the matter. So, if there was a business one could try inexpensively, test the water as it were, basically run it out of my car or home, or an Internet business. That might make for some good supplemental income, although I also understand that it typically takes longer to build up a clientele than a person expects (all kinds of exceptions to this of course).

I've had some success joting notes for stories I'm working on during work hours. It's only words or phrases so if someone sees it, it's not embarrassed. That has sometimes brokened up the boredom and tedium.

You just stop, that's all. The one thing that holds people back just as much as not having marketable skills is their attitude - nobody likes a whiner.

Complaining about anything will drive people away, and eventually your employer will hear of it. As a manager myself, I'd much rather retain and promote someone who does their job and provides solutions - if some slacker complains about what they have to do to earn their pay, then it is likely that they will never be satisfied and they will eventually leave. Thus, there is no reason for me to even try to keep such a person on, because sooner or later they will look somewhere else for a job.

... or maybe get the snot beat out of them by their co-workers.

rise up comrades! the working man will never be free while the elite exploit our wage-labour. the time has come - seize the means of production for the common man!! binge on kropotkin & marx then shout something like that over the PA system

parhaps you 'whine' because you know your being exploited. because your on the sharp end of a system that 'values goods as more important than people and consumption as more important than creative activity'. (its likely you think this subconsiosly even if youve never directly thought about it) So i dont necessarily see this as unhealthy; if everyone just passively accepted their lot we'd be screwed as a species.

If you can find the energy you can try to develop a marketable skill in the off time (at work or at home). Computer programming is one such thing that is fairly free (computer + internet) and has promise of better paying jobs... many of which still suck to be honest but they pay better and can lead to better positions. Google "Java tutorial" or "CSharp tutorial" or "html tutorial" and go to town. Once you have learned a few basics look for entry level jobs (junior programmer, software quality assurance) and start applying.

Also, some of these jobs can be done via telecommute so if you do not live in a major metropolitan area you can still find something.

In 1998-2000, I took programming classes post-bac status at a 4 year university. I decided to pick a horse and I picked C++. Then, "when it was time to get a job" (and that's a problem as I'll explain below), the hiring was overwhelmingly done by nontechnical human resource people and honest to gosh it seemed like the only thing they looked at, and I mean the only thing, was years of corporate experience. So, when I showed up at a job fair with printouts of a nice skewed bell-shaped curve I had done in a probability problem, I'm putting them on the spot and potentially embarrassing them. For they are nontechnical people, there's nothing wrong with being a nontechnical person and that's just what they are. (I actually have more problem with the entrepreneurs and the programmers turning their business over to the bureaucrats.)

Okay, so why is "when it was time to get a job" a problem? Because it's clunky all-at-once, and it's not smooth ping-ponging back and forth. There are few guarantees in life and a corporate job is not one of them. So, it's this big investment as if A leads to B, as if A automatically leads to B. When in fact, A only sometimes leads to B. I wish someone had been coaching me, to be talking to people, okay, what jobs are out there, what are they looking for, how big a problem is HR (laughs), okay, how does one artfully get around them (send them a resume so when you get an actual hiring manager on the phone, "I've already sent a copy of my resume to HR. May I send you a copy also?"<--that's the money statement! and notice by asking that way you are not asking him or her to undercut HR. So, this is one excellent way to do it and I bet there are other excellent ways as well.) And maybe even a job that first summer, some kind of internship. Or, a person can see first-hard how hard, easy, or medium it is to get an internship. And yeah, a field like computers it needs to be a paid internship.