Dream jobs have a funny way of convincing people to accept things they would never tolerate anywhere else.

In this story, a college student watches her boyfriend throw himself into a job he genuinely loves in the sports industry. The problem is that the pay is extremely low, the hours are exhausting, and the job seems to take over nearly every part of his life.

Between early mornings, late night meetings, university classes, and unpaid work outside his scheduled hours, she started worrying that he was sacrificing far too much for a company that was taking advantage of his passion.

Meanwhile, her boyfriend saw things very differently. He believed everything would eventually help him build connections and create opportunities in the future.

The more she questioned those choices, the more defensive he became.

Keep reading to hear the full scoop.

AITA for criticizing my (20F) boyfriend (20M) for letting himself be severely exploited by a “dream job”?

My boyfriend (20m) and I (20f) are both university students.

He comes from a comfortable financial background and his parents pay for all his expenses, so he doesn’t actually need to work to survive.

However, he recently started a job in a field he’s passionate about (sports). The problem is: the conditions are dehumanizing, and he seems blinded by it.

All of his time is wrapped up in the job.

He makes less than $2 USD (9 reais) per hour. Since his bills are paid, he just spends this tiny paycheck on useless stuff instead of saving it.

He starts working at 6:00 am. Then, he goes to university for the entire afternoon and some evenings. He has “mandatory” unpaid meetings that end at 11:30 pm, only to have to be back at work by 6:00 am the next day. He has no set breaks and works on his feet in the sand all morning.

Even on his few free hours, like Saturday afternoons, he just scheduled an extra unpaid meeting with a coworker to discuss “improvements” for the business, that only benefit the wealthy owners, not the employees.

She’s tried to talk to him.

I’ve tried to criticize this, but he won’t listen. He’s completely bought into the “entrepreneurial hustle” culture.

He thinks that by “suffering” now and being around business owners, he’s “networking” or building a future.

From my perspective, he’s just fallen for corporate propaganda.

No matter how it seems, she’s just concerned about him.

He’s exhausted, he’s sacrificing his health and his studies. He is essentially donating his life to a company that treats him like disposable labor because he thinks he’s “grinding.”

When I bring this up, he gets defensive and refuses to accept the criticism.

Yesterday, I tried to talk to him. He got super angry and said at least someone is working and getting paid.

At first I tried to not criticize, I was just making questions about his choices to see if he could make conclusions on his own.

AITA?

Wow! It’s easy to see why she’s worried, but it’s a start for him.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a thrift store employee who refused to play “guess the price” without seeing the item in question.

Let’s see how the readers over at Reddit feel about this whole thing.

According to this comment, his job is not up to her.

Here’s someone who also thinks he’s networking.

This person thinks he needs to take his glasses off.

For this reader, she’s wrong, but not wrong.

This honestly sounds like two people looking at the exact same situation through completely different lenses.

She sees somebody getting taken advantage of, while he sees somebody investing in a future career he genuinely wants.

Passion can make people overlook a lot of things.

At the end of the day, though, he’s the one who has to decide if the experience and connections are worth the sacrifices he’s making now.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who rejects a low contract offer and leaves the company instead.