In the same vein, ‘long weekend’ is another that can drop dead as well.

To the point where I’ve started calling a ‘normal’ weekend a ‘short weekend’.

Peak boomer humor is “take my wife…please!” Cue laugh track.

Rent

Some, definitely. Others don’t have hobbies. Others don’t sleep much and try to pack everything in.

I’ve been considering adding massive amounts of amphetamines to my life so I can accomplish all I need to and do all I want to.

It’s millennials fault for not buying stuff.

The company I work for was nice enough to give me a 5% COL increase last year. Groceries are 50% higher. Gas 25%. Insurance 20%. Clothing is definitely at least 10%. Restaurants about 20%.

But yeah… My “real” wage is higher.

I’m guessing you also believe in Keynesian economics.

No they’re not. Wages have not kept up with inflation over the last few years.

What’s a real wage?

Compared to inflation

How does that work? Unless there’s been some drastic improvements very recently, or billionaires are included, US wages have been losing purchasing power for decades.

When I last checked a few years ago, when accounting for inflation, average US wages had dropped about 5% compared to the 70s while the price of goods had increased by anywhere from 50-100% in most cases, with some things increasing by 200% or more. College, in particular, is up like 1,100% or something from the beginning of the 70s. Another absurd example is a taco at Taco Bell, which has doubled in price since the 90s, when accounting for inflation. The cost of rent has doubled since the 70s and has gotten even worse in recent years. The rule used to be not to spend more than 30% of your wages on rent. Now it’s don’t spend more than 60%. It used to be feasible to buy a house on the wages of 1 person. Now, it’s barely viable to afford a house on the wages of 2 people.

Wealth inequality is the worst it’s been in US history. According to the IRS, more than half of Americans made less than $20k last year - I think 51% made less than $15k. At a previous job where I made roughly $25k a year, I was making more than the bottom 60% of Americans. Raises haven’t kept up with CoL increases for years now. The average American works 50 hours a week between 2 jobs and switches jobs every 2 years because it’s the best way to make sure you’re paid what your skills are actually worth.

I can’t imagine where the data you saw came from, but that has the same vibes as when they said that people were going to take their COVID checks and use them to buy cars.

This is the way.

I appreciate you. I’m a teetotaling vegetarian. I usually manage to figure something out (and I try not to impose or be a killjoy), but it’s easier when colleagues are looking out for you.

This is why I’m a fan of pot luck lunches.

Done right with a little planning so you don’t wind up with 5 bowls of Midwest Nasty Salad (that’s… the bland, disgusting potatoe salad white people up here think is “good”…. Where the sole flavor comes from that half-jar of dill relish juice….) one dessert and no protein…. Everybody gets to bring something that works for them. Bring enough to share. Maybe start a competition with differing teams “hosting” the thing. (Managment starts to get it off to a good start.)

All of my close friends were coworkers at one point. A few were friends first but most were not. It helps that my jobs have always been tech related so there’s always something to talk about. Even if it’s just commiserating on tech debt lol.

Nope, not hard to understand. But that’s a different context than people’s blanket, “No”.

I can very much relate to being in a work environment where I there was no one I’d choose to interact with outside of professional conversation or idle water-cooler talk; if even that!

I’ve also been lucky enough to be in other ones where I’ve made great friends that I’ve had over for game nights, taken road trips with, invited to my house, been to their wedding (and they mine), and gone to shows with.

All I’m suggesting is to be open to it.

Yup, 100% with you there. I’m just saying that friendship can start with that one thing in common and grow. Or fizzle out when you quickly figure out it’s the only thing in common.

As another responder said, work is potentially your largest adult social pool to source from. Don’t dismiss it. But of course don’t feel obligated either.

Even then I’m not a fan.

So instead of paying me OT to do things they want me to do after hours, they’ll pay the cost of a meal or a drink?

Nah.

Yeah, it’s overwhelmingly clear that too many people who can make decisions have this idea that “not revenue generating” = worthless.

With 3rd places needing to be profitable, it puts a really big stress on them getting throughput. So then that turns them into bars, restaurants, pool halls, or arcades. If they don’t they don’t make money and they can’t keep the space they are renting.

3rd places were always monetized.

Ah that’s fair.

Yeah had a few of those. They were always carefully written as “optional” but it was definitely a Convo piece of you didn’t show up.

I typically showed face for an hour or two, had one beer, sucked up and left. Which is what I’m assuming everyone else did too

And back when your boss might actually also be the owner of the company - especially through the 50s and 60s, the person you worked for in the factory very likely could OWN that factory, and so having a decent relationship with them made it easier to approach them with modifications that might make a worker’s day easier, without the hostility of a strike.

Now, since every company is basically owned by some conglomerate, looking to sell to some conglomerate, or is about to get swallowed by some conglomerate, things like “labor relations” are dead. You can’t talk directly to your boss about maybe making sure the factory line has proper guards in place, because the guy who he has to talk to in order to make that decision is having brunch in Paris or meeting with some world leader today. Even if they could, the company bean counters already ran a cost-benefit analysis that showed that the loss of limbs and the payouts and fines they’d deal with for having no guards in place would only be 34% of the profit they’d make from increased production capability or whatever.

The day I was hired at my current job, my boss’s boss “made” me promise I’d work there for a decade lol

Not every job sees you as disposable. Leave those jobs until you find one that appreciates you. I’ve found 2 (out of my last 4) in a decade, but they’re out there.

I’d rather be cut into by a neurosurgeon who does it because he’s paid than one who does it because it’s fun…

I’m glad I have a hybrid schedule (although WFH is the dream) so I only have to deal with inane prattle half the time and the earbuds mostly solve that problem.