Work (or, the 5 jobs I had before YouTube) | Philosophy Tube

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bob Black, “The Abolition of Work”
Andrew Carnegie, The Gospel of Wealth
Jean-Pierre Dupuy, The Mark of the Sacred
Durrenberger & Doukas, “Gospel of Wealth, Gospel of Work,” in American Anthropologist
The Financial Times, “Reasons To Fear the March of the Zombie Companies”
Freidrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England
David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs
Human Rights Watch, “Prop 22 Strips Gig Workers of Minimum Wage”
Harry Frankfurt, “On Bullshit”
Timothy Kerswell, “A Conceptual History of the Labour Aristocracy: A Critical Review,” in Socialism & Democracy
Vladimir Lenin, Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism
Bertrand Russell, “In Praise of Idleness”
Arlie Russell Hochschild, The Managed Heart
Jeff Shullenberger, “The Rise of the Voluntariat,” in Jacobin
Intan Suwandi, Value Chains
E. P. Thompson, “Time, Work, Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism,” in Past and Present
Slavoj Zizek, “The Revolt of the Salaried Bourgeoisie,” in London Review of Books
#Work #Jobs

[@PhilosophyTube]

Shout out to the Javiers of the world

[@hreskerms]

Heads up, I think you've posted the video for all patrons

[@vitormelomedeiros]

@@paratirisis true !

[@bogdantrifoi1860]

Oh boy I cannot wait to listen to this one in the shower!

[@haeymzmdlcccc]

I can't wait for this

[@diegosanchez894]

the "ha-vee-ehr" or the "jay-vier"?

[@castinamartillo]

When she said "I will return in 2021 with a new look" she meant it

[@13gudadod]

Facts

[@ChonosTack]

That's why she's half vanishing in this video.

[@SpeedOfTheEarth]

Funny how I only now watched it first, in this exact context - nice★

[@user-ou6bm6ur8v]

@@ChonosTack the ghost of abigail past

[@cadence6676]

This comment I came back to find this comment

[@tsuwundere]

"There's a lot of pretending that goes into making this show" I get it now

[@jgr_lilli_]

Dun dun duuun

[@13gudadod]

@@jgr_lilli_ what

[@scouttyra]

@Tazerfish *she

[@kuroame16]

@Tazerfish a trans man is a he. Abigail uses she/her pronouns. so *she* came out.

[@notaninstrument7707]

The little smile she did feels like it must have been so future viewers looking back would go ohhhhhhhhh I get it now

[@Solid--Snake]

rewatching her recent videos feels like watching a movie for the second time after you know the plot twist and getting the clues. there's a lot of abigail here in this performance that i couldn't realize before.

[@MrNeosantana]

Yeah, the speech here is much more Abby as opposed to older videos

[@fenixmeaney6170]

I had seen only one video before the coming out one The gender video, of course And when she said "I'm a cis male" I thought "give it 5 years" That's how good of an actress she is She conveyed that information PERFECTLY

[@usermcskull4713]

I don't know why but when I watch her pre transition videos, I don't see a man talking. I feel like I'm watching a woman, it's amazing

[@fenixmeaney6170]

@@usermcskull4713 the singular part she is bad at is playing a cis man

[@usermcskull4713]

@@fenixmeaney6170 As a trans woman, I too have difficulty playing as a cis man

[@cherrycardoza405]

Who is this dashing vampire and why is she threatening my country with war?

[@RyuKyu.77]

How the hell was she a handsome man AND A STUNNING LADY RN, THIS IS NOT FAIR!

[@cheesebiscuits3586]

Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime, Thats why I make soup, On company time.

[@ernststravoblofeld]

Microwave fish soup?

[@lightlysaltedcalmingvlogsa7286]

If only he made 10x you made it's more like 350x on average and if it's bezos around 2000x

[@phelanyoung6770]

But what about when your job is to make soup?

[@d4v0r_x]

microwaving fish soup in office workspace now classified as a terrorist act

[@Robstafarian]

@Filthy acts at a reasonable price Ableism lawsuit?! Oh, to live in a place where the disabled can afford legal redress!

[@TransSappho]

“Let teachers be heroes” is so fucking threatening and dystopian

[@Rozilla]

I'm a teaching assistant and my almost all of my immediate family works in education, so when I read that headline all I could think was "You first dickhead. You go into classrooms full of kids who don't follow basic hygiene, let alone social distancing."

[@katherinemorelle7115]

It’s certainly the most disturbing thing I’ve read this week. That’s just... I have no words for how pernicious and evil it is. Well, except for the two I just used, I guess, but they don’t quite cover the horror of it.

[@CriticalHitRoll]

pushing teachers into "martyrdom".... its very much disturbing. they dont deserve to have their lives at threat just for the perceived glory of heroism.

[@odysseas_kratsas]

+

[@DeoMachina]

The newspapers have only gotten worse and more aggressive since then, teachers didn't want to be "heroes" so now the columnists are simply telling them to die.

[@hungrymoose7627]

The stuff about "hero jobs" really struck a chord with me. I'm a long haul trucker and during the pandemic I really was treated like a hero. I'd be making casual chit-chat with clerks and servers and they would legitimately thank me for what I do. People really understood that the things they need come by truck, there were banners saying "thank you truckers" strung up on bridges all over North America. But then in 2021 when the supply chain started crumbling, now we're public enemy number one. Now theres a shortage of truckers, now theres not enough people getting into the industry, now we should be buckling down and running harder, despite the fact that all of that goodwill, all of those thank yous are gone. Businesses are no longer offering us places to park, theres no more free meals for truckers, hell, a lot of truck stops have permanently shut down their restaurants (Looking at you TA/Petro and Husky). It was nice while it lasted, but reality came back and now I just gotta settle back into 70+ hour weeks, bad diet, bad sleep, bad social life. All so that I can drive 45,000lbs of paper rolls 1500 miles so they can be turned into newspapers that no one will read.

[@janinewetzler5037]

We still appreciate the toilet paper deliveries, thank you!!

[@Silver77cyn]

😨

[@morisan42]

The thing is with the word "hero" is it implies an element of self sacrifice, and then people come to expect that sacrifice when really the most important jobs should be those that are paid the most!

[@meanghoul]

I hope now, in 2023, you're getting the recognition you deserve again. I've worked in food service since I was 14, and I've never once taken the truck drivers and the guys who unpack crate upon crate of food that they will never get to eat for granted. You're totally a hero.

[@LiLComeInClutch]

"That's the American dream baby you just need to have a better attitude! You lazy young people just don't know nothin' about elbow grease and integrity!"

[@guavagecko]

yeah I got a STEM degree and work the most bullshit job of all: corporate data science. it's basically capitalism distilled into its purest form: abstractify customer behavior into numbers and try to squeeze out as much profit out of them as possible. i feel like death and the only thing that keeps me going are the small hours here and there working on my passion projects.

[@Anonymous-54545]

Data scientist here-- for christ's sake, why? God knows we make enough money to have the savings to look for a meaningful data science job. I require that of myself and so should you.

[@guavagecko]

@@Anonymous-54545you're right, I was young and I didn't know much about the field beyond the job I was in. I work in medical sciences now and much happier

[@Michaelalovespandas]

emotional labor is also most common in stereotypically female jobs.

[@apoorvajain]

Emotional regulation to convenience others is just a part of living life a woman tbh. fucking sucks

[@Kiki-cs8xv]

The worst part is that it's often expected in a role where it's not required, just because the employee is female. Female employees are frequently told to be friendly and "nice" when male employees aren't, and all because it makes others uncomfortable when females DON'T do that emotional labor.

[@Michaelalovespandas]

@@apoorvajain and @Kiki those are both good points

[@DianaAmericaRivero]

And sometimes in stereotypically male jobs performed by women. As an attorney, I've had to manage - and am expected to manage - my clients' emotions when, I'm almost certain that NONE of my male colleagues have had to do the same.

[@badsoup8857]

That could be a result of men's toxic masculinity causing them to be uncomfortable when women are assertive. Also, the straight white man being seen as the default causes anyone who deviates to feel like they should be glad to be there, because they're somehow inherently strange, or extra (to a lesser degree, that mentality is inherent to all workers, who are told to feel grateful to the capitalist for graciously giving them a job) Women and minorities tend to feel an obligation to tone police themselves in nearly all situations (to avoid feeling bad/being chastised/negative consequences for "being a stereotype, making [insert mimority] look bad") , resulting in that muted mode of behaviour being expected of them, and lowering the standards for "being a stereotype" to just being a normal fucking human being. Also, blah blah blah, capitalism, alienation, intersectionality.

[@BlueGangsta1958]

"A female customer sexually assaulted me and he told her off on my behalf, that was cool of him" is so low a bar for being cool I wanna cry.

[@WouldntULikeToKnow.]

Right? For starters, she should have been reported for assult of she laid even a finger on him or for harassment. Then kicked out and permanently banned. It's the employers job to protect their employees!

[@nooneinparticular9837]

Ja mei, da Pumukl is a mit dabei xD

[@crackbandicoot2254]

He sets the bar that low because he doesn't seem to stand up for himself, ever. So when he sees someone stand up for someone else, he sees a level of virtue 2 places higher than he's ever been able to demonstrate on his own.

[@M-CH_]

@@crackbandicoot2254 Wash it first.

[@BlueGangsta1958]

@@nooneinparticular9837 Hurra, hurra, der Kobold mit dem roten Haar, hurra, hurra, der Pumuckl ist da

[@chainveil]

Junior doctor here. Not in the UK, but in retrospect, I got so fed up of the "hero job" mentality. It was supposed to boost our morale, but in reality it was just a way to send us to the front with the illusion of support. As soon as the lockdowns got lifted here, the government and the people in general, just completely forgot about us. They gave us a tiny raise and a one-time bonus, but it was nowhere near enough. Since the beginning of the year, 6 junior doctors have killed themselves in my country. But it's OK, we're heroes, we can take it.

[@misslenorelee6322]

As an aussie nurse while they called us heros the NSW goverment froze my wage and gave themselves a 10% payrise. And the public didnt care! Sure they will come in and vaugley mutter some platitude about us being "worth more money" but then go home and do nothing to actually effect that change. Its really soured my ability to relate to people

[@sameerdodger]

This is an old comment but I wanted to chime in - I never did the "clap for carers" thing in the UK (where people stood on their porch clapping at some arbitrary time of day), my parents were all like "i thought you cared about the working class, in reality you can't even get up to clap". I'm a socialist that's been to a multiple of demos and strikes to show support, whenever anyone asks me my political beliefs i simply state: "working class, above all else". It was morbidly hilarious to me how people acted like they suddenly cared about anyone in the medical field. I honestly saw clapping for them as an insult. I knew it was shallow and empty handed, that as soon as the pandemic was over everybody would go back to doing whatever they used to without a care in the world, as if nothing ever happened. Low and behold that's exactly what happened.

[@nobbynoris]

So right. So true. I hear what you're saying. I never clapped along because I could see it for the patronising bullshit it was.

[@catty_5656]

My mum used to be a nurse and she hates the idea of healthcare workers being depicted as heroes and angels. It was so common during the pandemic. She says it paints doctors and nurses as "inhuman", therefore causing everyone to see them as capable of more than a human can reasonably handle. She was also traumatised by the system and now works to help people with chronic exhaustive conditions brought on by stress - many of which are nurses! It's interesting but very sad

[@coldbrewserotonin1872]

When she said "when they should be doing STEM"... I study engineering and people here love that. I get praised, I get invited to events to inspire kids to get into tech, and I am appreciated and well paid in the company where I do apprenticeships. Even though I know nothing about anything yet, really. Friends of mine who study stuff like social work and nursing already have to face so much more bullshit than I ever will, probably. But I feel like there is a lot of bullshittery among engineers, too. Some seem a bit detatched from reality. Because you are praised by everyone for doing "something useful" and get paid a lot, and because bigger tech companies can usually afford good HR and training and stuff, it's easy to feel like you're already a genius and don't really need to do anything to keep your status and salary. Yeah, math is hard and stuff, but I feel like a dumb baby when whining about the problems I face professionally and the problems others face, like traumatizing situations, interact with people, deal with real, actual, acute and long-term problems that real people have. I think it's great that people who love tech have such amazing opportunities, but the hype seems a bit fabricated. And probably profit-oriented.

[@kagitsune]

Right here with you. It's... Weird how little engineering that engineers actually do. It's a lot of paper pushing and digging for poorly documented changes and waiting for someone to stop postposting the meeting you need for your project. 🙃

[@phoebepalmer5327]

As a young amateur computer programmer considering it as a career, I really felt this. Adults get all excited about how much money I could make and how trendy and respectable it is. They don't really consider: 1) Computer programmers still do lots of non-programming things - especially as you go up the inevitable hierarchy, there's a lot of management - and they're the high earners I get told about. 2) Programmers get bored sometimes. There's lots of debugging and documentation and also plenty of meetings. 3) The amount of optimism around tech seems ridiculous to me. Not to be a killjoy, but nobody is changing the world by developing a skydiving app aimed at new mothers, or whatever niche is trending. I'm really excited about the programming concepts I learn and the projects I create, I genuinely like working with code (mostly) and I dream of making fun games or apps that might actually be of use to somebody, but the reality of working in tech is not all sunshine and rainbows. Meanwhile, I regularly hear people who don't really want to do tech and have real interest in humanities get steered into it regardless because 'you can't make any money doing that', or even 'it's a waste of potential'. You can't make much money nursing, teaching or stacking shelves, but I've always thought those jobs were much more productive than investment banking, for example. This video echoed a lot of things I've been thinking for a long time.

[@Huntracony]

Me: "You're actually gonna give a capitalist perspective? Olly: Vampire teeth. Me: "Accurate."

[@GQ2593]

Kinda lame tho, usually he's more creative

[@DubbleM900]

@@GQ2593 The capitalist vampire was established back in the video games industry video. Entirely apt still.

[@wangledteb5671]

@@DubbleM900 I was just gonna say I love how every time he dresses as a capitalist he's a literal vampire lol cuz honestly true

[@greatmightypanda]

It's also a subtle Marxism reference since one of the metaphors used for capital by Marx is the vampire

[@postmorton2493]

Also, the idea of needing to invite the vampire into your house equates to inviting the capitalists into your country.

[@mareiketimm5835]

As a student who's never had a job: I'm terrified

[@D9992.]

+1

[@someonesomeone25]

Avoid work. Its not worth it. Stay in education until youre basically forced out, then coast.

[@FakeSchrodingersCat]

It's both far worse and not as bad as you imagine. The main things to remember are your employers are not doing you a favor by employing you, you are doing them a favor by doing their work for them. And if you really hate your job, find another and keep doing that until you find one you can live with if not actually enjoy. But never make the mistake of putting up with shit solely out of a misplaced sense of loyalty to the company, they are profiting more out of your labor then you are receiving in compensation.

[@Miraihi]

Looking for a job after the university (About 5 years ago) gave me a crippling depression. I only got better after I began doing freelancing outside the field of my education, using the skill I've learned in the spare time during university. Job search now is a major phobia for me. The most horrible thing is - I knew that this would happen.

[@Leftistattheparty]

Try to find a cooperative to work at and or unionize the work you find. It's the only way we can fight this.

[@belagrolaub8746]

I am a comic artist, but I need to work a retail job. Before the pandemic, I was ok with, I felt like I kinda made my peace with having to do this job until I could make a living as an artist. But after spending 3 months in lockdown, I basically got to experience what my life would be like with universal basic income. It was perfect. I was heaven. I could spend 8 hours working on my art every day. Now I am back at my day job, which, yeah, brings more money, but I started hating every second of it *again*.

[@janeyannachicken9053]

And then you have people who say that Unconditional Basic Income will make people just sit at home and twiddle their thumbs. Humans crave meaningful occupation, and not having to do meaningless shit because you need the money but instead be able to do something that has meaning to you... That'd be paradise.

[@katrinam6795]

To be fair I would probably read famfiction, hang out with my boyfriend, learn how to carpent and help my mother grow potatoes. Sounds good

[@doctorwholover1012]

God, if we had UBI, how many more tradesmen (of all genders) would we have? How many artisans? How many people dedicated to historical restoration and upkeep, how many people keeping traditional ways alive like celebrations and cultural practises etc? How many people would garden and refurbish their spaces, both personal and public? How many people would show up for things like jury duty, volunteering for events etc, political activism like marches? How many people would be more caring parents and partners, how many teens would be able to stay in school bc they don't need to babysit their siblings or work an extra job to help out? How many people could escape abusive relationships, adults and teens alike? How much better would the world be if we weren't all scrambling to survive at all times?

[@janeyannachicken9053]

@@doctorwholover1012 Exactly!

[@eugenielegrand8590]

I'd probably still do my current job with UBI. But at least I'd spend less of it worrying about if my contract is going to be renewed, or more accurately, what I'll do next when it isn't and trying to get funding to be able to do my job. Academia is err interesting.

[@terry9238]

Just don’t get tricked into approving the kind of “UBI” that would mostly replace existing social services, rather than stacking with them. Which would leave those with low or no income even worse off than they are now.

[@raphaelmorgan2307]

"there's quite a lot of pretending that goes into this show" means more to us now that we know all the pretending she had to do lol

[@bobthabuilda1525]

For sure! I know this may sound weird since I don't actually know her personally, but I'm so proud of her.

[@hella_cool1312]

“Philosophy Tube will return in early 2021... with a new look” 👀

[@hornylink]

right!??! Glad she's around though, love this channel

[@demetrisloukas8586]

666'th like hell yeah

[@polarys79]

I'm going through old videos noticing these little things! The hints were everywhere!

[@vanahayworth1151]

I became a full fledged socialist when my minimum wage job didnt pay me enough to eat for 3 days while my boss was on a 3 week European vacation. Customers walked in and had to help me buy food because I was about to pass out from hunger. Anyone who thinks trickle down economics works is kidding themselves.

[@rachelgray6790]

@@ANPC-pi9vu With proper distribution, we have more than enough wealth to provide everybody with their basic needs. I used to be a reformist like you, but the longer you watch the wealth divide widen, the more you will come to understand that it is never getting better. Especially in the US, neither party represents the will of the people and we haven’t seen significant reforms in the way you describe. Inequality is an inherent part of the capitalist system and can never be legislated away.

[@ldm8393]

@@rachelgray6790 Do you have any source that socialism would represent the will of the people better than what currently wins elections?(Edit: i mean the will for socialism to be implemented) Aren't most people not way too conservative for socialism to be popular and for it to be the will of the "people" ?

[@ldm8393]

@@rachelgray6790 Furthermore our current system lifts a record number of people out of extreme hunger and poverty and gives them a chance of getting education. (Look at ourworldindata and gapminder for confirmation) So if your goal is for everyones basic needs to be met neoliberal capitalism is your best bet lol

[@pressxtojason]

@@ldm8393 I'm sure there's an argument to be made that feudalism pulled so much more people out of poverty than hunter gather economies did. We can do better than neoliberal capitalism.

[@stoyanb.1668]

lol this comrade thinks hes gona eat when the glorious revolution comes.

[@Pepperannechan]

I'm currently homeless and live out of my car. I barely make enough at my full time job to put what shitty food I can into it. And this video helped me realize what the empty sadness I feel every day is, I long for control over my own life. Living out of my car isn't as bad as I thought but I do wish I had the basics just to do something more with myself. To have more meaning. To read more. To write more even if I never want to sell a book or anything. Just for me. I wonder at times what the point of even trying is when I'm no one and mean less then dirt ( unless I go to prison then I have a price on my head lol ). But I'm trying to see life as meaning whatever I give it meaning to mean. I just want to be free, ironically...in the land of the free....

[@EB240]

keep fighting the good fight, if you can, move! change your perspective, even better move country. poverty is expensive and the land of the free is, well, not so free.

[@disappointedmess209]

@@EB240 lmao "move country" did you not read the comment or are you that privileged that you dont realize that isnt much of an option

[@kagitsune]

I hope that you were eventually able to wrest some control over your life, friend. ❤ You deserve to live a comfortable, decent life. You working full time and being stuck homeless isn't your fault. It's the fault of your employer that refuses to pay you a living wage, because they can get away with it.

[@DEANMURPHY]

How are you doing?

[@cactopodes6315]

i just plopped down to rewatch this video after a particularly awful day of work (i’m a part time truck loader at ups; it’s not that bad, usually) and nearly burst into tears when abby got to the part about resting. just, resting. i want that to be my life. i do not want to work for the rest of my life like this. i can’t. i won’t. it’s fucking inhuman

[@noahraab2429]

Eyes open and attention up soldier! If it's that shit doing something else is a good start. Surf the wave.

[@finlockhart4572]

"Should've done STEM instead of inventing all those extra GENDERS" - my upbringing in a nutshell 😆

[@daniellaird8428]

I got my degree in physics, and my jobs post college were working at a TV station and processing unemployment paperwork. Having a STEM degree is not a sign you get a STEM job.

[@Waywardpaladin]

Did STEM, did some research, then the sequester hit and all the labs were just strapped for funds and couldn't pay. So I ended up teaching and making more than anyone I know that was still in research.

[@Matt__B]

They're not mutually exclusive. Studying STEM taught me that biological sex wasn't strictly binary, for one thing.

[@tjp1806]

Why not both? Lol

[@pinkyfull]

I did stem. And couldn't find a job with it. In fact, my job, from studying a professional degree in chemistry, was the most pointless one I've ever done. People have invented robots to do the job i did. And yet it was technically a STEM job. I did was society told me would be productive, and it was the least productive, most pointless job i've ever had. The infatuation with making people work when they don't have to is the most corrupt and ruinous thing that has happened in the last 100 years in western society.

[@nonpareil7951]

“Sometimes I do data entry on the weekends!” Me, a teacher, copying tables of grades from one website to another every weekend because the district didn’t pay for the version that copies automatically: 🙃

[@hyrumforcoasters]

And it's very likely your school didn't pay for that because schools are incredibly underfunded. God, so many systems are broken

[@WeiYinChan]

Can you diy one with a web scraper and a browser automation extension (e.g. UI vision)? If they are on a website you may be able to do that using free chrome extensions.

[@margo3c541]

@@WeiYinChan not all teachers have the time or tech knowledge to do that bro 😞

[@sissymarie2912]

@@hyrumforcoasters yeah, our system doesn't care about reinforcing critical infrastructure unless it's profitable. Social need is apparently not important.

[@twincitiestara]

Suggestion: Assign a clever comp-sci student to write a script that does it for you. I'd say offer extra credit, but you'll want this done by the kid who is probably getting an A in comp-sci anyway. But maybe you can offer something like free lab time. I know when I was a teenager I or several of my friends would leap at a chance like that.

[@RuinaLux]

5:00-5:15 hits different in 2021. The fact that she specifically called out that a lot of pretending goes into the show AND she's an actor -- as in, the acting she does on the show is NOT the pretending she's doing for the show. Clever girl. Edit: And rethinking the coming out video, the whole analogy she used was having a crappy job. These are literally two parts of one message. Fecking incredible.

[@tylerbeaumont]

My role at Amazon was a bullshit job, and it was also a difficult one. It only existed because the British middle class couldn’t be arsed to drive 5 minutes to the shop, and their mediocre laziness meant that I had to wake up at 6pm every day, missing out on all the social fun of life, to get a tram to a warehouse and haul their boxes and bags from a conveyor belt onto a shelf, or from that shelf into a bag, where another person would take that bad into a van, and another person would drive that van to the customer’s house. It was miserable, and made even worse by them playing painfully dull radio pop the entire way through the shift. I couldn’t even think over the music and I couldn’t sit down, and yet the entire job was mostly pointless. If only other people weren’t so lazy, maybe I could’ve had a better job. It was ruining my life. I’ve got a fucking bachelor’s degree for Christ’s sake, and this was the best job I could get. I hated it so much, and quitting it was the best day of that year. The system needs changing, or else we’re gonna all die wasting our time

[@neogb8995]

What's your degree? I'm sure you can do better mate

[@dmmoctober]

Beats being unemployed buddy believe me. Just.

[@EB240]

Fight the power! keep doing your best!

[@tylerbeaumont]

@@dmmoctober it wasn’t for me at the time. I had my university loans to survive (not that I could actually survive for very long on them), so leaving was actually much better for me than staying. If I were in a different position though, I probably wouldn’t have survived a fortnight without having to use benefits or seek help from family. Most people who worked there weren’t as fortunate as my, many weren’t even eligible for benefits if they did leave, and I honestly couldn’t imagine how bad it would’ve gotten if I were in their shoes and couldn’t afford to leave.

[@dmmoctober]

@@tylerbeaumont As an employee, though, didn't you have access to applying for - and being preferred for - roles that might better leverage your degree? Curious ...

[@bajes328]

He unfades from being a ghost to becoming alive when he discusses the type of work that doesn't kill him, but makes him feel alive. Pottery.

[@kreskova1]

I laughed way too much at this joke. Thank you, sir.

[@fruitygarlic3601]

Pottery in motion.

[@DavidCDrake]

(Psst! It's spelled "poetry"!) Gotta love autocorrect, eh? 🤣 Setting that aside, I'm glad you pointed this out and I wholeheartedly agree.

[@bajes328]

@@DavidCDrake Pottery is a meme referencing George Lucas' use of the word Poetry.

[@DavidCDrake]

@@bajes328 Ah, thanks! Apparently my meme knowledge is a bit lacking. :) Cheers!

[@SnoFitzroy]

I thought of doctors and firefighters firstwhen you said "hero jobs" - police didn't even cross my mind ROFLMAO

[@BlindErephon]

The difference is that by and large people dont question the authority (and its basis) of police as much as they do doctors, and firefighters dont really have any. "Hero job" is probably not meant to equate in this as being the same as being an actual hero.

[@AmandaDavis6130]

I thought of garbage workers before police.

[@kwcl176]

@@BlindErephon Another way to look at it is that it isnt necessarily the society that enforces the idea of a hero for these "hero jobs". The police department can just make everyone working there believe they are the heroes, claiming that they are protecting "the people" and punishing "evil".

[@chrisowens4550]

Graeber calls these jobs just plain "shit jobs." Very necessary to the functioning of society, but low pay and low status.

[@claudiuscluver3787]

„When they call you a hero, it means they think you are expendable.“ Dave Anthony on the Dollop (Podcast), citing someone

[@Altropos]

"Rest more deeply than you have ever rested before". Yes, god yes so much yes. The internalization of capitalism is the feeling of being useless when you are taking care of yourself.

[@TheHelveticanbarbie]

I also hate how passionate you're expected to be when writing a CV/interviewing. Like, I'll put on a show, but we both know I want this job because I've got bills to pay and not that my life's calling was to flip burgers or stack shelves, I am obviously not enthralled by that notion.😩

[@robincrowflies]

100% YES.

[@robincrowflies]

Why do you want to work here?

[@robincrowflies]

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

[@robincrowflies]

Tell us about a time you failed, and why.

[@christopherhutchinson6545]

Not mine but it feels appropriate, "Is a free market truly free if the only alternative to selling your labor at that market, is death?" I post, while at my folding card table desk, at my job.

[@captainhaddock6435]

That hits hard.

[@nuklearboysymbiote]

That's how you realise how much you are being shackled. Even after realising it you see that this system is so widespread that it has stripped people of the ability to sustain themselves, or to band together and sustain each other free from money and government.

[@christopherhutchinson6545]

@Mark Donald the alternative to death is omnipotence? Can I choose the middle ground of financially surviving a late stage cancer diagnosis? (I.e. not begging for my life on GoFundMe/using some of those pooled resources we call a government to help those in need)

[@ThrottleKitty]

@Mark Donald A hyperbolic strawman ad hominem that litterally replaces the entire top, bottom, and center of the political party you are attempting to engage with with unrelated nonsense. This is the most hilarious failure to attempt political engagement I've ever seen. Are we to be converted away from our beliefs by your delusional reimagining of them? Or are you just reflexively trying to shove away an idea you can't spare the mental energy to actually engage with on an intellectual level?

[@aidenb1304]

Us: What if we had just enough to not starve to death on the streets, so we could have a bit more control over what we did with our lives? @Mark Donald: YOU WANT TO BE A GOD???

[@shattyfatmus6803]

Boss: Get back to work. Bill: There's nothing to do. Boss: Then pretend you're working. Bill: Why don't you pretend I'm working? You get paid more than I do, you fantasize. Pretend I'm mopping, knock yourself out.

[@bozzez2911]

And that’s why bill will never get promoted

[@DragomirSangeorzan]

Bill Hicks was ahead of his time

[@queerruska]

Honestly, as a teen, this made me feel even more scared of being an adult and getting a job, because I want to do something that's meaningful and something I like. Not one of those bullshit jobs, but I feel that as a young person I won't be getting anything but bullshit jobs for a while. Last year I had a summer job that was so emotionally draining for me, that I dreaded going to work halfway through second week. I was mainly putting stuff in the right places, but I would get asked where something was and I had absolutely no idea where it was. Then I had to find other employees so they could guide them to the right place, and that felt very embarrassing to me :')

[@EB240]

Honestly, nothing prepares you for the work ahead, this video is the best example of what work actually is. make sure you understand your role, who your working with is important too. whatever it is your trading your time for. i wont lie, most of it is soul crushing work, either mentally or physically draining. and mostly un-interesting. find something that you care about, or something your good at, work as many jobs as you can in things you might enjoy, and dont be afraid to quit if its not the right fit or the boss/management are horrible. know your rights and READ the contract you sign ALWAYS. get everything in writing and keep fighting the good fight. good luck.

[@queeries9154]

So many little nods to who she is, it’s great to go back and see this one, just to see the glimmers of Abby shining through, go girl !

[@diegosgc]

"the main product of the british economy, since the Thatcher years, are sarcasm and transphobia" I laughed.

[@relariistheparadox221]

Honestly when Ollie mentioned "hero jobs" the first things I thought of were "firefighter" and "waste management (custodian, sewage, etc)" And once he began talking about police and military, I realized how little prestige the noncombative hero jobs have

[@asshole9191]

I also thought of fire fighters. And I can understand seeing the police as heroes because for the most part they do necessary work (that doesn't mean that I sympathize with the racists in there or that I downplay the racism in the police force). But, as a German, the military isn't seen as a hero job. It's one like any other job. Most of the military work is done on "peace missions" (i don't know how peacefully or peace keepingly they are conducted) or in internal emergency situations like flooding. The whole military=hero seems very American to me.

[@brynjames3779]

I thought of nurses and doctors

[@edgar-sama642]

I thought about firefighters and doctors, was a bit confusing when he said police and military

[@KaliBeatsYoSoyAquel]

@@asshole9191 Yeah, in Mexico the military is feared just as much as cartels

[@jackpollard550]

Firefighters would get a lot more heroic prestige if they fought fires with an axe instead of water. We’d have a lot more dead firefighters and a lot less houses, but hey - fighting flames with an axe is badass.

[@tillyqtillyq3750]

a) I love to see people talking about the book *Bullshit Jobs* b) Abby is so present here underneath the performance, whether it's her hair/cheeks looking so cute from the mones or her joke about how her KZbin job involves A LOT of pretending. I'm happy for her :3

[@ellenorbjornsdottir1166]

she's not officially dropped that she's on FHT.

[@tillyqtillyq3750]

@@ellenorbjornsdottir1166 Pssssh, I've been around the block a few times... I can tell when someones on mones. besides, she said she had to wear jackets to hide her new chest (I mean hypothetically she coulda gotten top surgery but I know from experience that at least in the US they require you to have gone on hormones for a long time before they even let a girl pay for some titties outta pocket)

[@ashleyleckwold5091]

I’m a fairly new viewer to this channel, but I appreciate Abigail for helping me put a finger on why my Healthcare Data Entry job has been dragging me down so much beyond “this job and the quotas that come with it are making me depressed.” Thankfully I’m moving onto a new job soon. Thank you! ❤️

[@Maslaczy]

Honestly, when you said "Hero Job" I instantly thought of garbage truck operators etc.

[@teteteteta2548]

Truckers for me, weird for me

[@moonsnakesheddingskin]

I thought medical examiner. 💚 My uncle was a garbage truck operator with a heart of gold ☺️

[@KindredBrujah]

Yup. One thing the pandemic has confirmed is which jobs are actually essential. Now watch the magic trick once we get back to something resembling normal, when no-one remembers this and bullshit jobs continue to proliferate.

[@laurasisson9175]

I thought of doctors

[@rickr.a2806]

I thought of janitors, plumbers, and construction workers lol

[@luketfer]

You know what the strangest thing I found is. Retail jobs are literally the LEAST respected jobs. Now people think cleaners are the ones who get all the shit BUT, at least here in the UK, people generally seem to realize it's a job that needs doing. When I was a cleaner I'd often have people actually complimenting me on how clean everything was or that I was doing a 'bang up job' and that they appreciated it. Working retail however...yeah...you get treated like utter shit because the whole "the customer is always right" has bled into society AND corporate mentality. Doesn't matter if the customer is actively going against the rules laid out by the company like 'no refunds without a receipt' and you're pointing out that's the reason you're not giving one...but low and behold your supervisor/manager/someone higher up the food chain comes a long and is like "Just give them the refund..." Bitch please if I had just done that in the first place you'd have dragged me into the office and chewed me out for doing refunds willy nilly, the company wrote the fucking rules in the handbook down, why is it every time the customer is even a little difficult, you fold like a wet piece of tissue paper because your worried one little pissant of a customer might somehow effect you multi-million pounds worth of sales. All it succeeds in doing is making ME looks like the asshole and YOU look like the hero.

[@cadencenavigator958]

I feel like that's on purpose. That it's a form of propaganda, making the actual workers look belligerent while the management gets to be the long-suffering "yeah, sorry, here you go." Also related is the fact that they'd drag you into their office- away from the eyes of customers- before yelling at you.

[@luketfer]

@@cadencenavigator958 Oh it is most definitely on purpose to make them seem like the 'good guys who have the customer's back'. The problem is that from that point on that customer KNOWS they can bully management into giving them a refund and they'll be back to do it again and again. An yeah any yelling at staff is always done out of the customers eyes so they can maintain the image of being 'the good guys' in the customers eyes. There was one incident where I did as I was told and did the refund then someone above them came in and shouted at ME for doing it...despite having been forced to by someone higher up. I had no 'evidence' that they'd told me to do it. From that point on I actually logged off the tills if someone like that wanted a refund (if it was just a regular refund with an obvious and understandable cause then I'm not going to argue it or if it was for something like less than £5) and made the supervisors/managers log in themselves to do it...which didn't make me popular since it made them super reluctant to give refunds because it would be on their head, not mine and thus suddenly the whole 'hero act' started to dry up.

[@ripztubig4457]

@@cadencenavigator958 and gives the perceived notion that retail workers don't deserve to be paid much because of this.

[@luketfer]

@@ripztubig4457 Yeah the impression that "all retail staff are stupid and stubborn because they're never right"...god I wish I could get a time machine, go back in time and strangle whoever invented the phrase "the customer is always right".

[@ripztubig4457]

@@luketfer same. I hate it. But I will say, the customers that are nice and respectful of me, I'll bend over backwards for. I'll do extra for them. But the ones who are rude and disrespectful to me are the ones I will do only the very basic option of making it right.

[@morningstartv5496]

In her next video, the metaphor for her previous identity as a man, was of a job that she didn’t feel suited for. So the timing of these two videos is perfect. Almost as if it’s a continuation, another job she just couldn’t do anymore. Abigail is a genuinely amazing writer and presenter. I can’t wait to follow her for the next phase of her life

[@FluidQueer]

Re-watching this after your latest video I realise now what was different with your voice lol. Welcome home, Abigail.

[@MalevolentDivinity]

My favorite part of Bullshit Jobs was thus: "To present a parable version: imagine you are a feudal lord again. You acquire a gardener. After twenty years of faithful service, the gardener develops a serious drinking problem. You keep finding him curled up in flowerbeds, while dandelions sprout everywhere and the sedge begins to die. But the gardener is well connected, and getting rid of him would offend people you don’t feel it would be wise to offend. So you acquire a new servant, ostensibly to polish the doorknobs or perform some other meaningless task. In fact, you make sure the person you get as doorknob polisher is actually an experienced gardener. So far, so good. The problem is, in a corporate environment, you can’t just summon a new servant, make up an impressive-sounding title for him (“High Seneschal of the Entryways”), and tell him his real job is to take over when the gardener is drunk. You have to come up with an elaborate fake description of what a doorknob polisher would, in fact, do; coach your new gardener in how to pretend he’s the best doorknob polisher in the kingdom; and then use the description of his duties as the basis of periodic box-ticking performance reviews. And if the gardener sobers up and doesn’t want some young punk messing with his business-now you have a full-time doorknob polisher on your hands." Like, one can just imagine it.

[@truther249]

This is one of the funniest spot on things I've read, this is one of the best comments I've see.

[@morgoth_bauglir]

-Hey Abby, why did you become a socialist? -*B R U N O*

[@AlInGaP_Diode]

Bucciarati has converted many to the left

[@morgoth_bauglir]

@@AlInGaP_Diode based jojo?

[@kalamenco3071]

*BRÜNO

[@kloakekloaker1020]

Why is my name associated with so many weirdos for fucks sake.

[@iank472]

I have thought the same thing about a lot of lower pay jobs like cleaners or refuse collectors. When people talk about how hard it is to get folks to do those jobs my first thought is "Well it's obviously not well paid enough to compensate for how tough or unpleasant the job is!".

[@susanlippy1009]

Yeah so true from a highschool custodian that's struggling to keep a roof over my head. After over 20yrs my body is breaking down from repetitive motion and I can't afford to use my insurance (USA, USA!) so I'm barely making it night after night yet they are now asking for 44yrs for full retirement, they keep moving the goal post. I'm done in 8. I'll be da#@ed if I do more than 30. Live in my car if I must. So sick of society that doesn't value my contributions. Obviously we are supposed to work ourselves into the grave and just shuffle off not being s bother to anyone.

[@liquidportnoy]

"there's quite a lot of pretending that goes into making this show" That hits different after yesterday

[@toppersundquist]

"HEY!! Why aren't you working?" "There's nothing to do!" "Well, you pretend like you're working!" "... why don't YOU pretend like I'm working? You get paid more than me." - Bill Hicks

[@Witregel]

Think of that skit a lot.

[@cremetangerine82]

“Now I’m the boss and you’re fired! How’s that for a fantasy, buddy?” Miss that man!

[@KSG148]

Alex Jones*

[@broodypie2216]

@@KSG148 if alex jones is bill hicks he's getting paid alot of money to go against everything he believed in

[@coaldoubt2879]

Pretend I'm mopping

[@edgar-sama642]

Man, as a Mexican, the hotel bit hit a bit to hard...

[@yllejord]

As a Greek, same here.

[@danofthehour4822]

Imagine what it was like as a Panamanian :v

[@nob2243]

The "inner bit" part about guests spending their money entirely in hotel/resort's premises, and not (or barely) venturing outside, hit even harder :/

[@victorianeechan]

*heavy latin-american sweating*

[@KirbyUaufixD]

tranquilo compa :c no eres el unico

[@antoniahein3565]

“There’s quite a lot of pretending that goes into making this show” well more than we realised anyways! Can’t wait to see more of your authentic self, Abigail :)

[@addystontuckerray2054]

My wife works at a bank in their call center and her job is literally to not help people. Like, they want her off the phone in 3 minutes or less even if she isn’t able to help that person. Their whole metrics is how many calls she takes and how long she’s on the phone. If the purpose is to just be someone on the other line just automate the damn thing. There’s literally no reason for you to be there. I’m pretty sure that’s the definition of a bullshit job.

[@emilym5706]

“How long can you sit here pretending to do something before you give up? And it’s the pretending that’s exhausting. Which is kind of a weird thing for me to say, ‘cause now, pretending is my job. There’s quite a lot of pretending that goes into making this show. Plus, like I said, I’m also an actor, and that is literally just playing pretend.” - Abi Thorn, 4:56

[@ohno7852]

how did I not n o t i c e

[@simonalaniz1192]

Omg there was so much foreshadowing

[@anfisachern8570]

FORESHADOWING

[@AstraIVagabond]

And on the other side (Identity, 28:26): "Have you ever had a crappy job that just really wears you down? And sometimes it's alright, but it just starts to get to you? And that upset leaks into other areas of your life. You're tired all the time, but you also can't sleep, and you're anxious and irritable..."

[@OhhCrapGuy]

@@simonalaniz1192 I've been working my way through the back catalog, and there's SO VERY MUCH foreshadowing

[@oxiosophy]

Olly: mentions hero job Me: huh, probably doctors and nurses Olly: *military and the police* My anarchist ass: the hell

[@callumsimpson5685]

Yeah. That had me going for a minute... but it seems that "hero job" = useful community work. Instead "hero job" is something lionised by the press/nation/superstructure/etc.

[@ConvincingPeople]

And that's exactly his point. The notion of "heroic labour" in all of its uses is quite dystopian, frankly; as that Bob Black excerpt rightfully points out, the structural violence of the workplace and the structural violence of the state are functionally the *same* violence wearing different masks, and unconvincing ones on further inspection.

[@loner844]

there's an episode of Queer Eye where they do over a fireman, and he was uncomfortable with them calling him a hero. the show kind of underlined that this guy is a hero, but maybe the guy prefers to be seen as doing an important job, because being seen as a worker is better for him and other firefighters in the long run.

[@TheDelinear]

Bear in mind that it's only been the last year that the tories have been referring to our health workers as heroes, because they need them right now. Before that, they were a drain on the economy that should be privatised (and behind closed doors this message hasn't changed, just look how quickly they will pivot back to this message publicly once vaccines have been largely distributed). Meanwhile the military and the police will always be referred to as heroes, because they protect the wealth and so they speak with the authority of the wealthy, and also calling them heroes means it would be frightfully bad form for them to ask for more money or better conditions or equipment, because after all, heroes aren't in it for the money, right?

[@roryokane5907]

@@TheDelinear absolutely this. As a junior doctor who went on strike in 2015, I absolutely loathe the two-faced ness of the Tories and their associated rags. Don’t give us claps, you bastards, give us a meaningful pay rise. To be fair even my less leftie doctor mates have found the whole “paid in claps” thing a bitter pill to swallow, and it’s even worse for all the Agenda for Change Staff (the pay structure that nurses, physios, OTs, and all the other non-medical/dental staff in the NHS are on).

[@sabrinafg3556]

I don't know how else to put it , so bare with me: there is something very healthy about the way your mind works and how you put your videos together. Watching them is always interesting and I have the feeling that I expose my mind to unexplored new ideas, connections and logic that somehow deeply benefits me. Thank you :)

[@urbanagoge7598]

I work washing dishes in an American-themed chain restaurant (I console myself that I follow in the footsteps of George Orwell and Bruce Lee). I WISH you did the voice-overs for the many, many corporate videos I have to watch in any given year.

[@deliquescencemusic]

I’m a swim teacher. We got “if you don’t go back to work, children will die” during covid. I love my job but that was totally uncool.

[@felinefurkin4275]

Wow. I mean, they wouldn’t get swimming lessons, but they’d be safe at home. Bizarre leap of logic.

[@memebump7612]

Sounds like a really dumb statement.

[@camelopardalis84]

@@felinefurkin4275 As if it were so difficult to keep children away from water. And the kind of water you can accidentally fall into, even under decent adult supervision, is mostly dangerous for children who just learned to swim anyway. What needs to be considered now is that children either didn't learn to swim at all, not properly, or that they got less practice after learning it or none at all. And to take the necessary precautions. "Hmmm, my just child barely learned to swim in the Summer of 2019 and didn't get any practice in all of 2020 ... Maybe now, in Summer of 2021, I shouldn't act as if my child spent a lot of time swimming and inproving their skills all Summer in 2020 ... And maybe I should consider that my now seven-year-old probably forgot a thing or two ..."

[@TheDelinear]

Oh wow. At the risk of coming across as an anti-swimmer, I managed to survive childhood and well into adulthood without ever learning to swim. This may be wild hubris on my part, but I suspect that whatever I actually die from, it likely won't be submersion in water. It's surprisingly easy to avoid drowning situations, even more so when you haven't left your own home for 9 months!

[@camelopardalis84]

@@TheDelinear I've fallen into water a couple of times when trying to kajak(?) across a river in p.e.. But it was all on the same day, with a teacher who'd seen me swim the year before at least once, the water was shallow enough to easily stand in it (where I fell into it at least), I definitely would not have been forced to participate in the activity had I been incapable of swimmin, and I highly doubt I would have been allowed to. If I had a non-swimmning child, thought, I probably wouldn't let them on any kind of boat, though. ( *Maybe* if it were possible to perfectly supervise them.) You can't control your child every day all day but preventing them from drowning in the neighbours garden pond should be doable for as long as is necessary. I'm curious as to whether you're interested in learning to swim and as to how it came that you can't swim. If you don't mind telling.

[@sunyavadin]

The whole STEM meme is hilarious because as a STEM graduate, I spent 10 years after I graduated competing with 400 other applicants for every job in my field that came along, to no avail. That's what happens when those with power in a society push everyone to get training in a field that there's just not the jobs in, in order to increase the disposability of those trained in that field and drive down wages.

[@redenginner]

Thats why we are seeing a massive push towards the blue collar trades in the last few years. Right now they have a mix of unionized tradespeople and scarce qualified people that they can’t quickly and cheaply replace. But if the welding/plumbing/carpentry school system is pumping out 100k grads a year before long they have a surplus army of labor large enough to drop wages like a stone and break the unions over their knees.

[@mayalourie5238]

During third year of my bachelor's STEM degree me and some other students were given a tour to an office of a big tech corporation. Crowded office with zero privacy, people slouched over computers, looking unhealthy and unhappy... Great opportunities, huh? My professor said they really look out constantly to new students, you can get a job easily even before graduating. On the flip side, they really try to make you quit your studies after bachelors so you get stuck in a low position forever. He said we must do a Master's degree if we don't want to get trapped at the bottom forever :/ Gotta make yourself a slightly more expensive detail of the machine.

[@milkteamachine]

I had multiple people in my circle of acquaintances switch to STEM paths despite having expressed zero interest in it before, just because they hope for a more stable income. It's not sustainable, and the implication that humanities are inherently less valuable than STEM is also just disgusting tbh.

[@redenginner]

ANPC 5493 That too,but they are pushing hard enough to where they will likely create a large surplus of labor.

[@JPNoro]

I want to pursue stem (mainly mathematics), but I'm worried about the gruelling work conditions and just becoming a cog in the machine. I respect treachers, but I don't see myself becoming one. So now, I've applied to many university programs in math/stats, but I'm thinking of also majoring in another subject just for versatility

[@StephanieFink515]

"The real divide is between people who get money by owning stuff ... and people who don't own anything, so all they have is their ability to work." ...And "...The jobs that really need to be done don't get paid enough to make them worth doing, and [that] a lot of the economy actually requires coercion in order to work." 💥💥💥

[@princessaria]

Can confirm, I’ve done many bullshit jobs. 90% of my job was pretending to be busy because my boss would get mad if I wasn’t “working,” but he didn’t give me anything to do that took up all the hours I worked.

[@CrossfacePanda]

We should start referring to rich people apologia as ”Carnegging”

[@ideasinthegord3915]

I'm going to use this liberally!

[@ericmacpherson1713]

“Why would you say something so controversial, yet so brave?”

[@communistpowerranger9629]

Well I guess i'm using this one.

[@NoumenalSoup]

Stop being poor.

[@cunty]

@@NoumenalSoup wish it were that simple baby

[@elliel.5915]

"Young people should be doing *ssssSSSTEM* " Me, a young person getting a math degree, knowing full well I'll never find a goddamn job in my country: *sobbing*

[@MmmMulholland]

A maths degree is so damn useful. Specialise when you’re coming to your masters. Don’t worry :)

[@marcuse9011]

I am not sure what country you are in, but at my university in Sweden is the master's students in math getting more jobs from the bank world than the economy students. Math master students are in high demand and well paid today in the west if they know the fundamentals of programming, which normaly is no problem if you get a master in math

[@Hecatonicosachoron]

I did good degrees in STEM, still not employed in my field

[@marcuse9011]

@@Hecatonicosachoron Sorry to hear that. All STEM fields are not the same. There are fields like biology and some part chemistry were it harder to get a job compared to engineering or medicine, but this also depends on region and country. The whole idea that people get a job because of STEM was always flawed. What is not flawed is the likelihood for a better-paid job and a more secured future compare to most of the humanities-degree from a historical perspective.

[@elinekonstansekjsnes8691]

Mood, although as a non-binary maths student, I do have a lucrative side hussle of creating genders, so I've got that going for me

[@BerinKinsman]

"...will return in 2021 with a new look". I now see what you did there. Well played.

[@MsLaosian]

Your video resonates with me immensely. This is the approach that I have taken to live my life again instead of slaving and wasting away my body and soul for a “heroes work”. It really feels wonderful watching this vid for it appears to come in full circle. Keep up with your marvelous content. ❤

[@EllidaWangel]

"Don't google it", the infallible foundation of all capitalism

[@JustAlex2000]

@Not You i need to double check, but this has to be some sort of satire/sarcasm? Literally everything about this comment is wrong and it's actually hilarious.

[@timk6181]

@@JustAlex2000 It's so weird how right wing shills have managed to construct a worldview where all the problems caused by capitalism are actually caused by secret commies, and even weirder that people buy this utter pig swill. What's the problem? Billionaire secretly commie corporations with too much control! How can we stop them? Lower taxes and deregulation! That will show 'em!

[@nicholasleclerc1583]

@Not You You’re not necessarily a statist if you think that taking down the government helps corporations *who might become, or already are somewhat, a form of government comparable to the US’s official one* You might think of yourself as an anarcho-communist, for one thing, because you dob’t like capitalism at all...

[@sierra3052]

You could have just said idiot and spared us all

[@ivandrago3621]

@Not You is strange how these people think google is somehow not biased. LITERALLY every person who works there is liberal. They have admitted to LITERALLY blocking Conservatives.

[@nateshade]

Oh yeah the liver regrows around 6 and the eagles show up around 9, so the whole ordeal is over by about 1 so I basically have the whole afternoon to myself

[@Axius27]

Prometheus is so lazy, all he ever does is be chained to a rock all day. He should go get a 'real' job :P

[@TheMogul23]

This needs more upvotes.

[@thevirtualtraveler]

Best. Comment.

[@rjs3493]

The thing that always gets me about "no one would become a grocery clerk or toilet cleaner if they didn't have to" is that as a kid my Dream Job was to be a grocery clerk - specifically at a local grocery near where I grew up. And then I DID get that job in highschool and college. I loved it for a couple years until I had the misfortune of no longer looking like a hardworking young kid. Previously kind or neutral people started either being outright rude or, much like the bar regulars in this video, sharing absolutely vile things with me completely unprompted. Eventually a Big Name Celebrity came out in my country who I happen to share a first name with. People were... Unbearable about that. The verbal harassment caught me off guard and even from the "nicest" customers I was fielding "sympathy" like ten or more times a shift from people who seriously came to pick up some produce and ended up telling me I should change my legal name to avoid association. Management wouldn't let me remove my name tag or print a new one with a nickname. I quit my childhood dream job a month later and even though it's been years, I've never quite forgiven the management for that. Or the people in my hometown that acted that way. One of my first hard lessons in 'your boss is not your friend'. Unfortunately it also taught me that your neighbor is only your neighbor when you're off the service job clock.

[@chantelleblanc9167]

I was listening to this at my miserable barista job and when she mentioned it I actually almost cried. This video put together the thoughts that I have been having lately. All I want is to quit and start a part time job instead of my (illegal btw) 13,5 hour shifts, but debt won't pay itself and I just feel stuck in the capitalist nightmare

[@terry9238]

Whatever happened to unions? Or actual ENFORCEMENT of labor laws?

[@chantelleblanc9167]

@@terry9238 well, good news, I'm at a good job now that pays us well. But the point still stands. Unions here were crushed when communism fell so there's that

[@beautyandgrace7997]

My first thought when you said “hero jobs- a job that absolutely has to be done” was garbage collectors and waste management

[@extrantice]

I thought plumbers

[@authenticbaguette6673]

I definitely scoffed at the idea of "Military and police" being .. umm .. necessary , let alone "hero jobs" . but , that's the point , perhaps ? The contradictory and over-romantucised abstract ideas of glory and heroism seems to surface in jarring ways in the codes of "discipline" and "duty" associated with such occupations .

[@psychicbyinternet]

I thought healthcare and firefighters

[@Trevin_Taylor]

People forget how important waste management is until they don’t have it. When disasters strike, like hurricanes, some of the worst problems after the fact are caused by the buildup of garbage.

[@lunacouer]

Lol, same, except I added supermarket workers and utility folks. I did an actual double-take when he said military and police.

[@fjr4205]

No horror compares with that yawning existential void when you're sitting in a cubicle and think "holy shit this is the rest of my life".

[@michelottens6083]

Just glad my cubicle has turned into a home office because of the pandemic, where no one can see me take my copious dog and relaxation breaks. I wonder at the excuses that companies will come to to force people back into their cubicles eventually.

[@fjr4205]

@@michelottens6083 I live in hope that I will not be asked to return to the office once this is over. Or in a limited capacity, anyway. There was never much of a reason for me to be there to begin with.

[@methyod]

i promise the blue collar version of this is infinitely worse. not only is it just as tedious but your body is actively being destroyed.

[@VaeSapiens]

I worked in retail before going full corpo. I am a Pharmacist, so imagine combining high stress that I could potentially kill someone with retail "costumer is always right" mentality. I wanted to literally kill myself once a week. I will never go to that hellhole again. Corpo is so much better, even though 80% of my job is BS.

[@Selestrielle]

@@methyod You'd be surprised how much your body can get destroyed by sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day. I used to work as a receptionnist in an office where I wasn't allowed to leave my desk even if we barely had any visitors. After a few months, my knees started going to shit because the reception desk chair was one of those fancy modern stool things with terrible ergonomics. Not saying it's worse than a blue collar job, but your body can definitely get destroyed at a desk too.

[@julesjoy6499]

The half vanishing effect is very clever once you know she was coming out soon. 10/10 Abs 10/10

[@Jmcinally94]

A lot of focus on the "new look" line, which is amazing. Don't think anyone's noticed that "the man that wasn't there" is almost completely faded away here? The shittiest job she ever had is almost over in this video. Love it!

[@vinicius99157]

Finally Abby as Dracula, so she can be three times as thirsty

[@emilyfallaw5912]

It's not just him that's thirsty 😌

[@vinicius99157]

@@emilyfallaw5912 she turns us all into thirsty vampires

[@hiddeluchtenbelt6440]

The vampire capitalist is a returning character

[@arandomcomment1092]

He was working on acting as Dracula in a play, so it makes sense

[@Vortor]

he was already a vampire in another video

[@whitestarlinegoodnight]

"Let our teachers be heroes" sounds like the kind of thing you'd hear in a dystopian society in the far future, not 2020. *Oh wait*

[@rekagotik2785]

We have a saying in my country, “teachers are the unsung heroes” which was supposed to say that we should appreciate our teachers... I'm like, “okay... how about paying them decently instead of glorifying their hardships‽"

[@Isoroku25]

It reminds me of the “arming teachers” proposal in my country

[@ANTSEMUT1]

@@rekagotik2785 or at the very least don't have them needing to spend their own money to buy school supplies for their kids to function in class.

[@lazerpipe]

I watched this video for the first time, AFTER watching Abigail's recent coming out video, and the line "There's quite a lot of pretending that goes into making this show," as a trans woman myself, really gives me the feels. Thank you Abigail for helping us all to think and feel more about the world and people around us, and thank you for sharing yourself with us all 😂💖

[@pipers_river]

You covered the entirety of my second year uni subject on work (basically; "Capitalism, a history") - a semester's worth of content, in just 43 minutes. And you did it all with Dickens and Vampire aesthetics, and personal anecdotes. So thank you! This was a hell of a lot more entertaining.

[@sophiem3560]

So many people feel overworked while others are struggling to get employment...what if we simply employed more people, for fewer hours, and better pay?

[@finngardiner5358]

but den the cowpowate hiyewups wouwdnt make as much money 😭

[@elianacamyllesilvaramos6771]

Because you Just have profit If you don't pay people what they deserve ,profit come with exploration and low pay salaries (ssorry for the bad english)

[@finngardiner5358]

@@elianacamyllesilvaramos6771 based and pogpilled my friend, the English is fine except I think that is meant to be exploited rather than explored

[@StaringCompetition]

Each additional employee doesn’t just represent the hours they work. There’s the embedded cost of orientating and training them to your specific way of doing things in your workplace, and depending the country’s laws there is sick pay, holiday pay, retirement savings contributions, insurance, time and paperwork, extra health and safety requirements for the premises to accommodate extra people. Not to mention what happens in times like COVID, how many salaries do you want to keep subsidised while you literally can’t do any business? The fewer employees the better. And if you understaff a team of people, you can capitalise on their sense of conscientiousness, loyalty, and pride in themselves because they won’t want to leave workload for their team members to pick up.

[@Izit87]

We can it just requires us to organize and fight for it.

[@Neptunia98]

NHS employee: “What did you put in the microwave?” Olly: “Soup for my family.”

[@emilygray2025]

underrated comment

[@dwc1964]

I only saw this after I typed an inferior "soup for my family" post, now I must go delete...

[@lesterparedes8358]

This channel has quickly become one of my absolute favorites on KZbin. Thank you for all of your hard work to attempt to expand my mind.

[@theomegajuice8660]

My worst job was as a student I did a 3 week temporary gig making up Christmas hampers which largely involved assembly line type work. I spent three long days (15 hour shifts each because the management was terrible and they got really far behind) piping hummus into little pots. It was really eye opening because some people spend their whole careers doing that and it almost broke my brain even though I knew it was short term and I was mid way through my degree. I still sometimes have dreams about the little stacks of pots and the piping bags. 2nd worst job was data entry for personal trainer. I had to compile her e-mail list into one thing which took about 8 hours and she gave one of those bouncy ball things to sit "for my posture" instead of a chair and I was in so much back pain by the end of that 8 hours that I couldn't stand up straight

[@DominiqueNoel0]

At the beginning of the pandemic I mentioned to a friend that it was interesting how low paid job are considered to essential now, yet they get so little respect. She refused to engage in a conversation with me about it because she said "we don't see eye to eye on these things"... that part of the video really hit home for me

[@GameGod77]

I know the moment's passed now, but you should totally say "I guess I win the argument then" until she either agrees or has that conversation to try and make her case.

[@TheEvilCheesecake]

@@GameGod77 your idea is stupid, now debate me about it and if you don't I win

[@Lanoira13]

Sounds vaguely like a new friends moment.

[@alexvandenbroek5587]

That is code for "I don't respect them either". The thing nobody wants to talk about is that the focus on "efficiency", either to increase company profits or lower government expenditure/taxation usually comes from underpaying, undervaluying, overworking and overcharging those that are least organized or in control. Not from more efficient processes. Nursing a sick person doesn't require much less time than it did 5 years ago but the ratio of patients per carer has likely gone up, decreasing the time available, creating backlogs, stress and introducing many more errors, likely mandating extra working hours while the overall pay has stayed more or less the same. I suspect your "friend" has a rather unnecessary job which they either deem super important or they're afraid this conversation will expose their uselessness lol

[@Robiness]

Same. Except i got "Yeah but _anyone_ can do it."

[@Dachusblot]

Man, emotional labor is a real thing. You never think about how exhausting it is until you get a job where you have to constantly smile and say the same things cheerfully, over and over and over again for hours, with the same amount of friendliness as when you started. I worked at a restaurant back in college, and I remember once texting my boyfriend at the end of a shift and asking if he thought my voice was annoying, because after listening to myself cheerfully say "Hello, welcome to ____, what can I get for you today? 8D" for hours, I just wanted to punch myself in the face until I knocked myself unconscious. It didn't help that I had a very overbearing manager at that place who was constantly watching me and nitpicking everything I did. I quit that job after only four months because one day I drove to work, realized I couldn't bring myself to go inside, and just went home again. And the sad thing is, I felt like a wimp for just giving up like that, when some of my coworkers had been working at that place for years.

[@shadowboxing7029]

My last job was working in catering for airlines. The nature of it was schedules changed at the drop of a hat, everything was planned beforehand of course but there wasn't much wriggle room. Coupled with the high level of security and protocol involved, it was stressful to say the least. As you can imagine people weren't exactly at their best emotionally with that kind of pressure, as such we had a couple in particular who would literally yell/scream and demean you for the smallest things. These people were difficult to replace so most folk just put up with it cause management wouldn't do shit about it. They knew of course. I saw people leave after the first day because of them and I'd contemplated it myself in my first week. I dug my feet in though, endured it planning to be so on top of my shit that I could throw it back in their faces. Which is what I did (I did bring up their behaviour to management and when they saw how good I was, they started to take it more seriously and pulled them up). Yeah I persevered but I never felt right with it. Couldn't reconcile feeling tough vs feeling like a fucking moron. The only people who really benefited from all of that was the company. The pay was terrible and the environment was toxic all round. So don't feel bad about quitting, you put yourself first which is what I should have done but covid took care of that for me instead lol. My mentality has been far better since.

[@JoeNoshow27]

Capitalism teaches us that our value stems from our utility. Love teaches us that our value stems from our humanity. You're not a wimp. You're human.

[@rosvlinds]

I work in a kindergarten... it feels like that sometimes

[@themumblingdumpling2838]

First year of uni I worked in a children amusement place (think slides and ballpits) and the managers would scold us for not smiling. For me, at some point, it developed into a nearly constant state of muscle contraction. It was pretty eerie when I would, for example, look in the mirror while alone in a bathroom and see I still had a smile on- because that was the default, my body almost forgot how to relax my face, even with no one around. It was freaky.

[@anab0lic]

indeed, in my younger years i worked at a petrol station as a cashier and had to for hours pretend to be happy to be there and greet every customer with a smile. Far more exhausting and soul destroying than back breaking manual labour jobs i have been subjected to.

[@obiwanobiwan13]

Abby deserves a BAFTA wrapped in an Oscar wrapped in a Palme d'Or for... *waves hands at all of the year-long THIS before coming out like THAT...*

[@Melissa-kj7jy]

Brilliant how she set it all up with this video. I already loved this one but how she explained the emotional labor and performativity of bullsh*t jobs? It adds a whole new dimension and makes that section of her newest video hit even more

[@MichiruEll]

Oh God, I'm the university person writing the report about how our Faculty is "really committed" to improving their ecological impact. I'm sorry. I know it's mostly empty. And the people at the top don't even want to give me access to the data I need to write the report. Like how should I evaluate our impact if they won't give me access to how many flights they reimbursed or how much electricity our buildings use. And what use would it even be?

[@Owesomasaurus]

Solidarity.

[@brynjames3779]

My university was investing over £14m in fossil fuels and the arms industries until a group of students got together to protest, and then of course the university proudly declared that it would divest its money from these industries, as if they would have done it on their own, not because students were protesting

[@ozzyd971]

@@brynjames3779 UoM?

[@a1r592]

Is it a private or a public university? Some countries require public universities to disclose their budget in an (annual) report that's accessible to anyone.

[@tangent94]

@@ozzyd971 which one? Lotsa M Uni's.

[@eoghan.5003]

In which Olly explains how while journeying in a foreign land at the tender age of 19 he independently deduced the precepts of Marxism

[@elyukayee123]

Did... did you not? /s

[@Dumpknoedel]

I remember being 16, eating cake with a regular fork and then, ealking around for weeks telling everyone who would hear it "we could just STOP producing tiny forks and still pay everyone who would normally make them and they'd have lots of free time and a better life! And our lifes wouldn't change! We could just decide they don't need to do that!" so I feel very seen by this tbh.

[@fruitygarlic3601]

@@namenloss730 Is it so hard to imagine that people just feel things when stuff happens to them? You disagree with the guy, so he has to be lying about everything? You can only form questions about capitalism at Communism University, else you lie!

[@bassafratz]

23:08 I ACTUALLY SNORTED, WHEEZED, AND SCREAMED AT THIS 🤣🤣🤣😭🤣

[@Smidgenism]

Making a whole gorgeous video about the systems of control behind the concept of work... Which also functions as a graceful segue into the metaphors & ideas in your following gorgeous coming out video(s)... The cheeky foreshadowing... The narrative continuity of your personal experience between the subjects... I am full of appreciation 💖

[@ZeketheZealot]

Hey so the part of this video where you said “imagine what your life would be like if you worked 4 hours a day[...] you could rest” and I started to cry, like tears and shuddery breaths and hey I think I might be a bit burnt out

[@brynjames3779]

Take care of yourself, sending best wishes to you, stranger ❤️

[@ZeketheZealot]

@@brynjames3779 Thank you.❤️ Today is day one of a much needed vacation and holiday. Can’t do much because I live in the “plague denying hellscape called America” but I do still have two weeks to myself

[@edwinwentworth7697]

Came to the comments section to say exactly this, you're not alone

[@aparker7777]

Work in health care. Kinda wanna die... Yea, burnout is a thing right now. Be well.

[@ZeketheZealot]

@@aparker7777 I feel that. I dont work directly in health care, but in the hospital kitchen. If my job is stressful I can only imagine what you guys are dealing with

[@Vicky-uv8ri]

"Hero job" worker here, thank you for mentioning us. I get applause and "don't you quit now, we need you!", but not enough to pay average rent.

[@TheEvilCheesecake]

Applause is from people who need you but won't pay you. It's for their benefit, not yours.

[@deejaybundst1671]

fucking legend from the trenches. Abby i hope that your art and passion are all the more fun and fulfilling for 2021

[@Vorael]

Me in 2020: With a new look? What does that mean? Like a new studio or... Me now: Oh. *Ohhh.* Congrats Abby!

[@Tom_Nicholas]

I read Bullsh!t Jobs recently and was reminded of an office job I had in my early 20s. It was 80% bullsh!t which was pretty (actually very) depressing but it was made even more maddening by the fact that other people who worked there felt they were massively changing the world.

[@pragon1173]

Fancy seeing you here

[@koalasquare2145]

@@pragon1173 it's really not that surprising, lol

[@aznneozanet]

This might be inappropriate but I have to ask how old you are, because I definitely thought you were still in your early 20s...

[@raiorai2]

In your early 20s? So like... Yesterday?

[@daved2352]

The most bullshit parts of my job are generating paperwork for a person who's job is entirely bullshit because they deal with the dumb paperwork we generate that serves no purpose.

[@MisterHild]

I literally wept at the end of this video. I teach. I know what I do is important. But I am still working class. I get paid so little to work so hard...and I am not in control of my life...I am just the hired help.

[@sugoruyo]

@Tom S. Tea Teachers teaching teens should get hazard pay and therapy permanently.

[@emma7933]

@@sugoruyo As a teenager who once had my Spanish teacher quit on us because a student in another class literally bullied her out of the school I agree.

[@annastevens1526]

@daluved1 Oh my gosh, that hits hard! I reckon G.B. Shaw's stupid saying about "those who can't do, teach" [paraphrased] should be destroyed with fire; it's so insidious & wrong. I live in awe of my many close relatives who've somehow survived (mostly!) long careers spent teaching teenagers...

[@0warlocknsoulgem0]

So happy thought slime got to make an appearance here

[@sadime7902]

Your comment about, 'I just love data entry' reminded me of my recent meeting with my Psychology Professor. They commented how they honestly love data analysis, to start with on a Monday. Tired though they may have been (mug-full of coffee) they seemed genuine. People are WEEEEEIRRD!

[@MartinMaat]

Data analysis is about exploring and finding new treasures, thinking up ways to approach the data, looking for unexpected patterns. Quite different from mindless typing.

[@MedlifeCrisis]

TIL I learnt Abi and I did the same job as teenagers. I just never left the NHS. And let me tell you, the number of BS jobs in this "heroic" organisation would make your eyes water. Thanks for highlighting the public/media role of the NHS during the pandemic.

[@GriffinWulf]

hi rohin fancy seeing you here

[@whatelseison8970]

OMG it's him! The heroic shit-posting.. uh.. cartographer. 🖤💙

[@msb4838]

Me too. Except for the City of NY not the NHS.

[@oscardighton8580]

The NHS reminds me of central services from Brazil

[@tomcho8221]

Well I didn't expect to see you here.

[@honestlythough7250]

I’m loving Thought Slimes energy in this. He really said THERE ARE NO SMALL ROLES!!!

[@fionafiona1146]

Except if you buy toilet paper in Japan, there are small "on the go" rolls stuffing the hole in regular ones holes.

[@wbbigdave]

Is that thought slime? "Were not Raaaaaciiiisssst" yep that's him.

[@FionaOfMountLawley]

I was also pleased to hear Thought Slime. Matt really does have interesting delivery of lines.

[@fionafiona1146]

@J. Hughston Collins believe me, pursing a bachelor in philosophy while babysitting is less sensible than teaching daycare... I am however not giving up the opportunity my parents insist on lauding.

[@dwc1964]

@J. Hughston Collins When I saw the title of this video, my first thought was "oh, I guess Olly saw Matt's series and thought 'I could do that!'"

[@letsgetlost6163]

Your video brought me to tears. Thank you for taking the time to make this and speak it into existence.

[@GrimIvory]

I'm binging a bunch of your video atm and I gotta say Abby... speaking as a Kiwi, you did fucking fantastic that accent. UK/US usually mimics outright Australian but not only did you hit the Kiwi accent, you even got the inflection of more East Coast/rural Kiwi and the more exaggerated vowels. I went back to listen to that impression several times in a row just to appreciate it.

[@TalkingVidya]

"Every time I play New Vegas, I kill Mr. House" MY GIRL

[@slydogamigo2303]

All houses are bastards

[@Proudhand]

No Gods, No Masters

[@TribuneAquila]

I cant help doing it with a golf club saying A man chooses, a slave obeys!

[@connorwalters9223]

I also throw General Oliver off the dam. Because fuck the NCR and also it's hilarious

[@rxcort]

A left tube channel in Spanish? Count me in compañer@

[@saraha5425]

I really wish more people had the self-awareness and respect for others that is required to stop microwaving fish soup in an office environment.

[@ToastieBRRRN]

Reminds me of my colleague who is a right cheeky sod because he always races to be the first one to use microwave at lunch break for his Thai fish curry. Which ruins anyone else's attempt at using the microwave afterwards. Otherwise their food would taste or smell of fish.

[@FrozenRat161]

I treat fish as a food as rotting parts of a corpse of a fish which I think is not very nice so I am not sure how I'd feel about that.

[@Hecatonicosachoron]

I had a fellow graduate student in the office who had a phase eating canned fish and leaving the cans around, including on radiators... ...not fun ....not fun at all as an olfactory sensation

[@cooper8617]

that moment you realize the designs on the vest AREN'T ACTUALLY DESIGNS ON THE VEST

[@waytoobiased]

oml