There was a time when I would have accepted to go back for 3x the pay, or just go back and slack my ass off until I got fired, laughing my way to the bank.

But what changed for me is that I realized they are a bunch of self-serving liars-- and if they screwed me over once, they will totally do it again.

I would be stupid to put myself into that position and be stressed out the whole time trying to anticipate when they are going to pull the rug from underneath me again.

Instead, I rather move on to a new job, meet some new people, get paid to watch training videos which are often interesting and valuable (and if they are not, I just play Balatro on my phone while I half listen to them).

I also almost always get a pay raise when I move on to a new job, but not always. Moving from public accounting to state government accounting was a significant pay cut for me, but now I am going to get much better benefits, work less hours, my coworkers I’ve met so far are awesome, and the work I am going to do actually helps protect my state and my community. I know I’m going to be much happier in this new role and I value that more than I value money. And if I’m not, I’ll just bounce and find something else.

And I know we often think that’s easy to say when you don’t have kids to feed, and while it is true that I do not, I would much rather explain to my kids that we will all have to learn how to plant a veggie garden together and make do with less before I teach them to accept being abused and exploited for the extra money.

There’s been quotas and monitoring at every single one of my jobs, and all they do is alienate the talented staff and leaves the loyal morons & the money-driven behind.

The last two firms I worked at are still desperately begging me to come back, three years after I resigned, because the ship is rapidly sinking since their AI replacement strategy did not plan out.

I just resigned my latest position, and I’m gonna take a week or two to get back into making art and music, and then I’m going to take my talent and energy to the organizations fighting back against fascism.

Trump: TARIFFS ON EVERYTHING

Market: * crashes *

Trump: * acquires crashed stock at bargain prices *

Trump: LOL JUST KIDDING. TARIFFS PAUSED!

Market: * rallies, because full of gambling addicts *

Trump: * realizes massive gains on acquired stock *

Is that clearer, or are you choosing to continue to participating in your own destruction?

Such unrealistic beauty standards.

The important thing is that they grow into an emotionally intelligent adult, because it will allow them to better understand and protect themselves, as well as others around them.

Society is changing to a better direction when you raise gentle children like you are, even if sometimes it doesn’t feel that way.

I have long speculated it’s a way to keep copyright control of IP that may be entering the public domain, and people who enjoyed the original are more likely to watch the remake.