Within the past six weeks, a third of my co-workers have left their job (Edit: Maybe a quarter. I don't know. I suck at math.). Some formally quit, most just stopped showing up for work. I can't blame them. In fact. I'm genuinely happy for them. I actually had a co-worker show up about an hour late the other week and when they came in I pulled them aside and said, jokingly but seriously, "I'm not disappointed you're late. I'm disappointed you showed up." I was kind of hoping they said "screw it" and left too. Found out later, that person is job hunting. Found out later than that, about another third all have half a foot out the door and as soon as something comes up, they're gone.

With the exception of a couple who left for greener pastures and better pay though, they're all leaving because they'd rather deal with financial uncertainty than continue to work in that pocket of hell. These are people without formal work education, college degrees, marriages to support them, etc. They are literally ghosting my employer, during a pandemic, during a recession, where every day is full of unknowns and for each job opening they're competing with tons of other people. The fact that they're so fed up that they're willing to risk the rain and the flood of the wilds instead of staying at their job? I mean, that speaks volumes about how just absolute garbage that place is, toxic work environment and all. I'm so happy for all of them. They know the game is a joke and they're not gonna play it. They have balls I don't.

Me? I'm still there. I hate that place so much. It just fills me with anger and resentment and frustration and I don't know what else. Like I think about that place and all the absolute garbage that goes on and I just have this negative energy, makes me feel like getting in a fist fight with a grizzly bear seems like some rational thing to do. You ever get that mad? You think of a grizzly bear and you have this energy and you think "Yeah. I'm about to make this dude regret waking up this morning."

We can't keep living in a world where we make each other feel like this and convince ourselves that the problem is gonna go away if we just wait it out, wait for someone else to come along and fix it.

I mean, here's you and me and veen and who ever else might come along talking about compassion and yeah, that's important, but more than compassion I'm just looking for some sense of humanity in all of this and you see it in shelters and foodbanks and charities and that's wonderful and all, but we shouldn't have to live in a world where these organizations play a prominent, central role.

This is hell.