Unpaid Emotional Labor
So I don't post much anymore. Never seems to be enough time and most of the time I don't think what's going on in my life is that interesting to anybody else. Sometimes I used to post a list of chores I needed to do but that was mostly to motivate myself and for a laugh if I looked back at it years later. Yep, took me three years to finish that chore.
I do need to post links to story updates to AO3, but that's not what I'm doing right now in this post.
No, I was reading about some meta on unpaid emotional labor, and the meta is interesting but the comments to it are gold. They are unsettling, and insightful, and one of those things that makes you go - Yes, so there's a name for all that shit that I do and I'm not alone in feeling resentful sometimes that it's mostly dumped in my lap.
Meta and comments, (lots of them) on Unpaid Emotional Labor
The original post is linked at the beginning of the comment post, which was on another site. I found it fascinating to read the comments (I admit freely I didn't read all of them, it was too exhausting).
And I'm feeling pissed off because tonight and tomorrow I will be performing exactly what this article talks about, but it's work related.
I spent time this evening going to the store to buy ingredients for our quarterly Employee Appreciation Lunch. I then did the prep work to make nachos tomorrow in our office kitchen. Tomorrow, on our unpaid lunch hour, I will cook. I will clean. My fellow employees are all doing the same thing, everybody will bring a dish to share.
Why am I bitching about this, you might ask? Because, this is something we've been told to participate in, it's an Employee Appreciation Lunch and the employees are doing all the work for it and paying for it and somehow the appreciation part just seems to not really exist. Whoever's anniversary date of employment is in this quarter will probably be given a pen and a photocopied, "Yay, look how long you've been working here" certificate. Jesus Fucking Christ, buy us some pizzas instead, Employers, or give us a fucking cost of living raise. Then I'd feel appreciated.
So, since I'm feeling angry and like a ninja, I'm going to be all passive-aggressive and I'm going to count my time and money spent on groceries and the lunch hour tomorrow as paid time. Since I keep track of my hours I can squeeze it in.
Now, we do have birthday celebrations and a Thanksgiving dinner, but that comes from us peons. I'm okay with that. I can opt out of that if I want but I won't. I actually do like cooking and getting together for a little break. But don't tell me I'm appreciated as an employee and then make me give myself the present.
Laurie
I do need to post links to story updates to AO3, but that's not what I'm doing right now in this post.
No, I was reading about some meta on unpaid emotional labor, and the meta is interesting but the comments to it are gold. They are unsettling, and insightful, and one of those things that makes you go - Yes, so there's a name for all that shit that I do and I'm not alone in feeling resentful sometimes that it's mostly dumped in my lap.
Meta and comments, (lots of them) on Unpaid Emotional Labor
The original post is linked at the beginning of the comment post, which was on another site. I found it fascinating to read the comments (I admit freely I didn't read all of them, it was too exhausting).
And I'm feeling pissed off because tonight and tomorrow I will be performing exactly what this article talks about, but it's work related.
I spent time this evening going to the store to buy ingredients for our quarterly Employee Appreciation Lunch. I then did the prep work to make nachos tomorrow in our office kitchen. Tomorrow, on our unpaid lunch hour, I will cook. I will clean. My fellow employees are all doing the same thing, everybody will bring a dish to share.
Why am I bitching about this, you might ask? Because, this is something we've been told to participate in, it's an Employee Appreciation Lunch and the employees are doing all the work for it and paying for it and somehow the appreciation part just seems to not really exist. Whoever's anniversary date of employment is in this quarter will probably be given a pen and a photocopied, "Yay, look how long you've been working here" certificate. Jesus Fucking Christ, buy us some pizzas instead, Employers, or give us a fucking cost of living raise. Then I'd feel appreciated.
So, since I'm feeling angry and like a ninja, I'm going to be all passive-aggressive and I'm going to count my time and money spent on groceries and the lunch hour tomorrow as paid time. Since I keep track of my hours I can squeeze it in.
Now, we do have birthday celebrations and a Thanksgiving dinner, but that comes from us peons. I'm okay with that. I can opt out of that if I want but I won't. I actually do like cooking and getting together for a little break. But don't tell me I'm appreciated as an employee and then make me give myself the present.
Laurie