I Work All Week And Have Nothing To Show For It

I work all week and have nothing to show for it. Twelve years in this industry and somehow that became normal. Took me two years to get a raise, and inflation went up more than my pay did. And we all just accepted it. It starts small. Eight hours becomes nine. Then there's a project and it's tens. Next thing you know, working twelves is just the baseline and nobody even announced the line moving. It just moved. And the two days off? That's not generosity. That's just enough rest to come back functional. Never enough to actually get full again. Our parents' hard work meant something. One job used to buy a house and feed a family. Same hard work now just gets you by. Then they told us to do what we love, so pouring everything into the job would feel like a choice instead of what it really is. And once the lifestyle and the debt are locked in, you can't walk away, can't scale back, can't even fully rest. It's not weakness that you can't leave. It's the design. I'm not lazy and I'm not entitled. I just stopped pretending that working myself into the ground is the same thing as a life. What have you got to show for your years? Let me know down below. If this hit home, hit subscribe — more of this every week. This is Outside The Order. #realtalk #workingclass #costofliving #burnout #paychecktopaycheck