Comments | pmb: Work. But not mine. I don't think.

pmb

Work. But not mine. I don't think.

May 07, 2006 13:44

So, a while back, a friend said that she was having a tough time at work, and I responded:I'm pretty sure that most people's relationship to work is an abusive one. Things like "work doesn't like it if I go out, so I can't be friends with you any more" and "work was bad for a long time, but yesterday it was good, so I think it's changed and we've ( Read more... )

society, theories, abuse, work, economics

Comments 32

kuddliphish May 7 2006, 23:54:35 UTC

While the examples you give are indicative of an abusive relationship, they aren't the cause of abuse. I think (given what I observed in my parent's abusive relationship) that abuse comes from a power imbalance. If your SO doesn't like your friends, and would rather have you stay home with them, that alone isn't abuse (it'll be a problem in the relationship, most likely, but you can have problems without having abuse) If for whatever reason you think you have to do what your SO wants, that their desires/opinions/feelings are more important than your own, then you are looking at a power imbalance and a situation that is ripe for abuse ( ... )

mycrust May 8 2006, 00:36:43 UTC

Graduate school is, of course, a particularly insidious form of job because it manages to masquerade as something else.

olstad May 8 2006, 01:55:04 UTC

I think that none of my jobs (excepting teaching) had these characteristics. Teaching doesn't have the whole boss/power imbalance (my principal is if anything too absent/undemanding), but my first several years I felt hostage to all those great teachers I'd had and/or read about, who either were much better than me at their jobs, had absolutely no lives outside of school, and/or posessed time machines.

The biggest difference in my job satisfaction has come from having a kid, and telling my job to stuff it at the end of (most of) the days(s).

roninspoon May 8 2006, 04:46:49 UTC

I don't let that bitch push me around. She and I hang out because she gives me money to spend time with her. She's a means to an end.

moropus May 8 2006, 11:07:31 UTC

Me too. I'm a ho, but I have standards.

esmesquall May 8 2006, 05:40:37 UTC

Dude this is the exact analogy I used when ranting about my lousy newspaper job a year and a half ago: http://esmesquall.livejournal.com/27421.html. OMG GMTA BBQ

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE ARE SLOW TO BECOME INTERNET FRIENDS. pmb May 8 2006, 05:58:55 UTC

I steal all your ideas without EVEN KNOWING IT.

I'm also glad that great minds and ours think alike.

chocolatesmudge May 8 2006, 06:35:55 UTC

I gotta ask...is the asshole boss in that post my uncle? Because I could totally see him being the asshole boss...

esmesquall May 9 2006, 00:19:42 UTC

Indeed, that was he. I don't really resent him as a person, though, in retrospect. I think the parent company hired him to manage downsizing, and expected him to continue to put out the same caliber of paper he had put out before, with half the resources. And that can make a person nastier than they normally would be. That said, I'm still VERY glad I am not working for that paper anymore.