He Escaped the Military Only to Hate His Blue-Collar Job—Now He’s Fighting to Completely Reinvent His Life
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Labor-intensive jobs aren’t for everyone.
I had plenty of them when I was younger and, while I’m grateful for the experiences I had and the people I got to know along the way, I don’t think it was ever truly for me.
But you live and you learn, folks!
The guy who wrote today’s story has a blue collar job, but he’s tired of it and he thinks it’s time for a serious life change.
Read his story below and see what you think about his situation.
I think I took anti-work too far.
“I’ve had pretty bad depression ever since getting out of the military.
It was a combination of resenting the military for how immoral and unjust US imperialism is, hating myself for joining and contributing to it, constantly having to pretend I enjoyed the military in order to blend into society and receive my benefits…
He was having a real crisis…
I felt like a fraud.
And on top of all that, I couldn’t stand my new career field. It was blue collar work that I got BECAUSE a job liked that I was in the military.
Blue collar work sucks the life out of you. Long hours, physically demanding, working outside in the elements, damaging your body, bending over backwards for a company that couldn’t care about you.
It might be an honest, well-earned paycheck, but it is soul-sucking stuff. It completely disagreed with my body and spirit.
It sounded like nothing was going his way…
I hated the work so much that I turned into a complete bum. I started waking up late pretty regularly, calling out sick more often, not volunteering at work, not even doing the bare minimum and straight up NOT doing my job half the time.
Eventually it turned into me losing multiple jobs due to poor performance and lack of attendance. I genuinely didn’t have a bone in my body that thought showing up to work was worth it.
Financial hardship as a result completely drained all my savings that I had built up from the military, and put me in a very scary position where one mistake threatened to leave me homeless. I was heavily addicted to weed, disassociating all the time, wishing I was no longer living my own life.
It nearly ruined my relationship more than once.
I realized that I needed to change myself. I’ve tried therapy, psychiatry, medication… I’ve tried quitting weed, quitting watching inappropriate videos…
I learned some things, but nothing that snaps me out of this depression. I’m now completely changing my environment, leaving this career field to go back to school and “start over”.
He needs to completely reset.
My hatred for work has gone too far. I NEED to work in order to make money. I NEED to care because if I don’t, I could lose everything. I NEED to care, otherwise I’ll always be unhappy.
I’m now in the phase of trying to not only change my career and environment, but change my mindset.
I’m reading “Atomic Habits”, trying to change my routine and self-care habits.
I’m trying to manifest good things and force myself to have a positive mindset. I’m trying to spend less time on the internet, disassociating and longing for a different life. ANYTHING to shake up my life and not hate being productive.
Does anyone relate?
Has depression and anti-work sentiments caused you to completely ruin your productivity and your career as a whole? Any advice would be helpful.”
Here’s how folks reacted on Reddit.
This person weighed in.
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Another individual shared their thoughts.
This Reddit user spoke up.
Another individual weighed in.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a manager who wonders why productivity dropped after he banned overtime with no exceptions.
And this person offered some advice.
It’s never too late to make a change in your life!
Sure, it’s scary and hard, but the first step is actually getting started.
Baby steps!
Sometimes, you need to completely change your whole life to find happiness.
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