I’ve lost 80 pounds in the last 18-ish months! I still have a long way to go, but 80 is further than I ever thought I’d get.

Unrelated, but if you want a little bit of positivity each week, I highly recommend the We’re Here newsletter. It’s a nice Friday pick-me-up from Hank and John Green (they’re the Crash Course guys, if you’ve ever seen a Crash Vourse video) that focuses on positive news that often gets overlooked for one reason or another.

What you consider to be “above and beyond” is what others consider to be a standard part of any role. Other comments on other posts you’ve made have said the same thing: a general “additional duties as assigned” clause is very normal, and nothing you’ve said has given the impression that what you’re being asked to do is atypical.

Your manager considers helping out your coworkers to be part of your base responsibilities. This is a normal expectation. If it’s one that you have no desire to meet, then your best bet is to find a new job. The problem there - as both I and others have pointed out - is that any other job you find will likely have this same expectation.

I was in your shoes about five years ago. I felt it was completely unfair, I tried other roles in an attempt to find a job where it wasn’t expected, I asked coworkers how it was possible that such a thing was normal… I get it. It’s not fun. But living at this time and in this place under these conditions - it’s normal. I personally chose to suck it up and deal with it, and ultimately I came around to understanding that it wasn’t as bad as I was making it out to be. It’s not perfect - I’m not saying that - but part of having a job is working with other people, and that includes the give-and-take of what you’re experiencing right now.

If you honestly, truly can’t bring yourself to work under these circumstances, you might want to change careers. Contract and gig work could potentially give you the strict adherence to tasks that you’re looking for, but it may come at the cost of pay, benefits, or difficulty in finding work. Starting your own business will at least mean all the work you do directly benefits you, but that again comes with its own set of risks.

Final thought:

Going extra miles don’t mean more money for me, so what’s my motivation?

Being employed so you don’t end up homeless. Nothing grander or more meaningful than that. You need a job, so you’re doing what it takes to keep your job. Same as the rest of us.

I see you’ve chosen to go with Option 3, at least for now. (Previous comment for reference.)

To be perfectly frank, it sounds like you’re already half-assing your job and maliciously complying. Think about it: you do only the exact amount and type of work as specified in your job description, you actively resist being given additional work even when you aren’t currently doing anything, you don’t offer help to coworkers when you have the ability and they have a need, and you openly flaunt these facts by using your downtime (even when not officially on a pause) to write poetry or otherwise not do work in locations where your coworkers and manager can see you doing it.

If malicious compliance and the bare minimum are your goal, then congratulations! You’ve accomplished your objective.

I’d be careful looking for jobs while at work, especially on a work computer. That’s a great way to get let go if they notice you doing it.

As far as the search itself, you currently have more leeway because you’ve got a job - you don’t need something tomorrow, so you can take more time. Start by talking to any friends or friendly acquaintances you have in the same field you’re looking to work in. Ask about their current workplaces, their former workplaces, etc. to see if any stand out as places you’d also like to work.

Once you’ve spoken to any people you know, consider companies you’ve heard good things about. Check sites that share employee reviews like Glassdoor, look them up on LinkedIn, etc. Your goal should be to get a sense of average employee tenure as well as potential pain points. Two big things to keep in mind as you do this:

1. No workplace is perfect. Every job is going to have its flaws, so you’re looking for one with flaws you’re okay dealing with in the mid- to long-term. If you’re looking for perfection, you’ll never find it.
2. Employees who post reviews tend to feel very strongly about their employer, and those feelings trend negative. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t trust the reviews, but it does mean you should take them with a large pinch of salt and look for trends rather than specifics.

Once you’ve found companies that you think might be a good fit, try reaching out to employees at those companies via LinkedIn (or some other site where they congregate) and asking for a brief chat. You don’t want to take up a lot of their time, but a quick “I’m thinking of applying to X and would like to hear what working there is like before I do” should hopefully get you some firsthand information. It may also get you a referral, which is a big bonus when applying.

Even after all of this, it’s important to remember that you still probably won’t have all of the information you’d like to be able to make a confident decision. That’s unfortunately just not how it works most of the time, which is why so many people choose the devil they know and stay instead of risking going elsewhere.

This has been surprisingly useful. I went in expecting “LinkedIn but better formatted” and actually found a site that does what I need it to do (unlike LI). And with fewer scams and third party recruiters too.

I will say that anyone using it should check the current list of companies first. Because they’re scraping individual company pages, they may not have a company on their list that you’d like them to check - if so, there’s a form linked at the top of the page where you can drop the company’s URL to get them added.

I remember seeing your earlier post about escalating your situation, so I’m referencing both when I speak here. Also, please keep in mind that I live in the US and don’t work in healthcare, so my experiences are all from that angle.

That clause in your contract is totally normal.

I’ve had a version of that same clause for every role I’ve worked - it’s a catch-all for “we might ask you to do a thing not listed, and when we do you need to do it.” Some places are more reasonable in their requests than others, but basically all of them (that I know of) have it just in case.

Your previous post mentioned that you would receive requests to help out other nurses when you had downtime between patients. That too is normal. Every workplace has its own norms and social standards, but a fairly common one is “if you have time to help others who are busy when you aren’t, do it.” That support is meant to swing both ways, but if a person routinely has a lot of downtime while others don’t, they may feel they’ve been unfairly targeted for extra work while others may simply see it as evening out the workload.

At the end of the day, your workplace is unlikely to change. It’s unfortunately going to come down to what you want to deal with:

1. Accept the norms at your current role and work within them, even if personally don’t like them. (Otherwise known as “suck it up and deal.”)
2. Find a role with norms that fit your working style better. (Knowing that this attitude is common, so you may be looking for a while.)
3. Do the bare minimum until you’re grudgingly accepted or forced out. (Leaving you either ostracized and with little chance of future promotion or fired with a reason that may make finding another role difficult.)

I share your dislike of having more work assigned to you despite it not really being yours to do, but I’ve also chosen to just accept that this is part of working. An annoying part, but one I’ve learned to deal with.

One last thing from a fellow “please just leave me alone to do my work” person: I’ve found that if I occasionally volunteer to help someone in my downtime, they’re more likely to leave me in peace when they either see I’m actually busy or when I tell them I’ve been working all day and just need a few minutes to chill. That bit of proactive busyness on occasion has gotten me more downtime in the long run than trying to hide it ever did. (Just my experience, though. You do you.)

I’ve done remote call center work in the past and have friends who’ve worked for a few others, and they were all technical support rather than sales work. Granted, some may want you to try to upsell services as you’re troubleshooting, but it’s not a true sales role.

As for the insurance places - yeah, those are basically all sales from what I understand. I’ve never worked for one myself, though, so I can’t confirm what the experience is like.

If neither of those options appeal and you don’t like the variability of the others I listed, I’d recommend searching for “remote entry-level work” and seeing the types of things that pop up. I personally prefer sites like Hiring Cafe over places like LinkedIn or Indeed for searching because there aren’t as may scams, but make sure to check the company out thoroughly before you apply regardless of the platform you’re using.

If your disability is such that you’re able to work so long as you can work from home, there are entry-level roles for several industries that can be done remotely. I have no idea of your background, but call centers and places that sell insurance over the phone are pretty much always hiring (the work’s no fun, imo, but it’s work).

If you’re completely unable to work and are on disability, I’m unsure what the rules are around making money while receiving benefits. I’d recommend looking into that if you haven’t already so you don’t accidentally cross a line somewhere and end up losing benefits.

If you’re truly looking to just make some spare cash (and it won’t cause any issues like I mentioned before), you’ve got a few options depending on your skills and what you consider “decent pocket change.” Off the top of my head:

• Online tutoring: Can be good money depending on the company and whether you’re able to build up a solid customer base, but highly variable.
• Survey sites: You’re never going to get rich and you’ll give a lot of data away, but I’ve known people who do this for Christmas money or to help with groceries or something. Some sites/apps are more reputable than others.
• Transcription services: Also never going to make you rich, but it’s an option. Don’t be fooled by the places advertising $15/hour - that’s per audio hour, and a single hour of audio takes multiple hours to transcribe.
• Hobbies: This is completely dependent on you and what you’re good at, but if you’re an artist maybe you could earn enough of a social media following to start taking commissions. If you’re crafty, maybe an Etsy store.

I recently watched a Joe Scott video about Love Has Won, which isn’t a cult I’ve had any direct experience with but was an interesting video to watch nonetheless. I saw it on Nebula, but it looks like he’s got a YouTube version too for those interested: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uxapSQdpFYE

Growing up, we’d douse cotton balls in peppermint oil and drop them in corners or under furniture to help keep the mice - and some insects - away. It won’t kill them, but they find it very irritating and will avoid the area if they can.

This is not a great idea if you have pets, mostly because they’ll either try to eat the cotton balls or get annoyed by the smell. But as a bonus for you, your house will smell minty fresh!

Agreed. If it really is for a stupid reason like OP said, then this feels like a simple “I was an idiot, got caught, and ended up having a rude (but necessary) awakening. Thankfully that’s all it was, and now I know not to do it again. It’s time for some changes.”

For a chill puzzle game, I’ve been enjoying the water sort puzzle from Martin Kunze. I like that version specifically because there’s no ads, no monetization, no data collection, no login, no nothing. You just sort colored water until it stops being fun.

That’s the menu you get by clicking the profile icon in the lower right. I’m talking about the one in the upper right:

You appear to be in the “Lemmy Web Preferences” section, not “Look and Feel.” Maybe we’re accessing settings from different places somehow: I go to my profile picture in the upper right corner, it pops open a half-menu, and I use the option at the bottom to access my settings.

I’m on Summit as well and have the option to block keywords.

Settings > Look and Feel > Post Feed > Filters > Keyword Filters

Then you can do the same thing under “Post and Comments” (instead of “Post Feed”) if you want even more blocking.

I’d’ve never thought of this one, but I completely agree. It sounds great in theory and absolutely terrifying in practice.

Along the same lines, I’d also rule out deep ocean explorer or even cave diver. Anything where calling for help is, at best, a question mark.

Anyone famous for sure. Actor, musician, athlete, etc. all sound great until you remember that fame is a guaranteed route to no privacy, ever, for basically any reason.

No thanks, I’ll pass.

Not necessarily dumb, but I had a harlequin rasbora that loved to lay down on anubias leaves. Like, fully horizontal. I can’t tell you how many times I thought it was dead and went to remove it, only for it to swim off when I got close with the net.

It wasn’t sick. It didn’t have any swim bladder issues. The little jerk just spent years pranking me for seemingly no reason.

Still one of my favorite fish.

In no particular order:

• Sahara
• Hercules (1997 animated version)
• Mulan (1998 animated version)
• 27 Dresses
• Jurassic Park (although probably not for sleeping given all the screaming, lol)

Same! I’ve been using the Lifefactory ones for the last few years and just run them through the dishwasher with everything else. No special treatment, and they’ve held up well.