Boss Tells Overworked Contractor to Get a Therapist, It Majorly Backfires

Advertisement
  • 01
    r/antiwork u/St3fanz. 1d The contractor I was working for told me I "need a therapist!" So I got one and they told me to quit, which I immediately did. Zing!
  • 02
    I own a carpentry business and had been working with a single contractor for years. The work was really interesting and challenging. It made me and my guys better carpenters because what we were doing was Jdifficult. The contractor had become increasingly unstable in recent years. Super greedy too. (Night and day to when we first met. Lots of external factors, not relevant here.)
  • 03
    I was hitting burnout with one build and carrying an injury. I decided I needed a break and he wasn't happy. This was when he told me I needed therapy. During my break I found an amazing therapist and her advice was to just quit. (There are many more people who need my skill set than there are providers of it.) I felt that
  • 04
    Towards the end of my break, I decided I needed another couple of days, so told him this. Burnout in high stress carpentry is real. The response was "Either you come back on Thursday, or don't bother coming back at all." I responded. "Cool man, I'll be there Monday to pickup my tools and materials."
  • 05
    One phone call later, entire crew with a new long term project, exact same pay and budgets, even more interesting work and, most importantly, working under a GC who isn't an over-caffeinated rude greedy It was so great that an insult from a toxic person led me to investigate not dealing with said greedy anymore. I've since told him as much. Thanked him for the therapy advice. He doesn't see the funny side. Which makes it slightly sweeter!
  • 06
    gayspacemice. 1d Ha, love it! Hope the new contract goes well
  • 07
    resa St3fanz OP • 1d Thanks. It's going really good. Imagine five years of having the Sunday scaries start on Friday and that just completely disappearing. It's an amazing feeling.
  • 08
    xbleeple • 23h Sunday Scaries on Friday at 5 is when you know you are burnt out to a mfking CRISP!
  • 09
    bookisgoat 1d ● Everyone in this sub ought to be proud of you, brother. Good luck with everything!
  • 10
    St3fanz OP • 1d Thank you! I feel happier by the day. What's been weird is breaking old bad habits from dealing with a toxic and irrational person. Working on that. (With my therapist lol)
  • 11
    Bandandforgotten. 1d Congratulations! About 4 years ago I was on my 5th year of FedEx. I was miserable, I off all the time, sore and severely neglected by basically all management, but so was every other person there, besides management. I was injured and on light duty, but they tried firing me for it and I told one of them to eat After that, I quit and am getting paid more to do apartment maintenance. Haven't looked back, pay is even better and my new company actually likes me. Hope everything
  • 12
    Blue Wizardhasdied. 1d When I was in the military I worked with a guy. Unit upper leadership was super toxic. I'd noticed he seemed to be struggling, had recently gotten back from a bad deployment (he'd had a previous bad deployment about 10yrs prior with a different service branch). He finally relayed that he was not in a good place mentally. I listened, but urged him to seek a professional. His therapist validated his PTSD, "condition made worse by current unit leadership".
  • 13
    Dramatic_External_82 • 1d Sometimes we all get caught in the now and can't see the truth. This is doubly true if the current situation is exhausting, burn out makes clarity difficult (been there, done that). Kudos to you for pushing through the blur and taking steps to make your life better. Onward and upward! :)
  • 14
    Narrow-Career5973 23h ● I had a former boss offer to pay for a few therapy sessions. I spent all of them talking about him! Then unprompted, I offered genuine solutions to my issues and saw the that the therapist stopped writing, looked a bit frustrated he couldn't add anything, and that I was pretty well adjusted.
  • 15
    Gem_Knight • 1d idle This is beautiful, and a more sincere take than most people think of when they think of antiwork. They just don't understand that we're not unwilling to work, we're unwilling to perpetuate a system of toxic work and capitalist greed.
  • 16
    Competitive_Sleep_21 • 23h I am not sure where you are but on the West Coast of the US carpenters are hard to find. No need to be abused.
  • 17
    davesy69 10h Glad you're Oak-kay.

Tags

Scroll Down For The Next Article