5 min read blog

Graduating from a lazy girl job

Graduating from a lazy girl job
A job is a job. In this exchange of commodities - your labour in exchange for paycheques - you are not obligated to give your loyalty to the employer. 

Over a year ago, I made a video talking about my corporate job that restored my anti-capitalist spirit. At the time, it was an easy decision to a cog in the corporate machine, this 9-5 comes with stable income and health benefits. 

It was my “lazy girl job”. 

I certainly wasn’t lazy at work, but I did not chase promotion or visibility. When I clocked in, I did the job. When I clock out, I leave it all behind. The “laziness” of the job speaks to my active refusal to participate in toxic corporate culture. 

For a hot moment, I believed in the lies of corporate stability.

While military spendings and corporate subsidies are swelling to new highs, the budget for social programs continues to shrink. It was not a shock to receive a notice for job cuts as an analyst working for a social supports program. It was a harsh reminder that workers are always disposable in a capitalist system. 

the vlog in question

My employer may call it a “voluntary departure,” but don’t be fooled - there is nothing voluntary about it. 

Though my employment contract was protected through a collective agreement, the legal contract fails to encompass is that labour cannot be quantified by "hours of work" nor tied down to "a place of work". I challenge the capitalist notion that employment is an equitable exchange between workers and the employer. 

Despite objections from union representatives, the employer continue to amend the employment conditions without consultation. Time and again, the employer demonstrated how employment conditions were no longer an equitable exchange of labour and wages. 

The employer’s demands with return to office removes flexibility necessary to balance work and care responsibilities.

With the return to office mandate and unilateral policy changes, employment arrangement are no longer the original conditions I signed onto. Rather than spending a few mins to get online and working, the Secretary of the Treasury Board made "a philosophical choice" in service of landlords and real estate investors. Workers are expending their non-work hours to get dressed, put on makeup, reserve and set up a workstation, a 2~3 hours of transit to an overcrowded pest-infested office, to share a filthy workstation - all so that workers can attend virtual meetings to "collaborate".

make it make sense

Return to office mandate is detrimental to a barrier-free labour market. The flexibility and relief offered by remote work reaches young mothers and families, workers with disabilities, and workers with caregiving responsibilities. Despite the environmental benefits of remote work, the increased flexibility and work-life balance, and proven increase in productivity, our employer decided it was more important to have workers pay into parking fees and butts in chairs.

For weeks and months, the employer unilaterally declare changes without a plan of action - typically a all-staff email sent on a Friday afternoon, leaving workers without direction. There are no guarantees that the employer will not further alter the condition of employment, nor will I have any agency in how my "box" will be re-positioned within the org chart. The employer provides zero clarity or explanation, and is expected to change it whenever/however/whatever they wish.

How could work be a consensual exchange when one cannot survive without wages to pay for necessities like food, water, or a home?

In a factory job, a worker turns off the equipment and leaves it all behind at the end of a work day. In a policy job that requires the worker to think, analyze, and transform information, one literally cannot walk away from work - the work happens in the head.

How does one disconnect from their brain? 
their lived experiences? 
their day-to-day realities?

Mind work is emotional and psychological labour that stay with the worker long after the end of a work shift. Policy research and analysis often relies on “mind work” that requires a human to imbue knowledge, research, and experiences into policy products. 

The disconnect with performing diversity, equity, and inclusion by exploiting marginalized folks' labour, while also erasing and dismissing the lived experiences of marginalized communities.

The issue here is two-fold:
(1) a reliance of people experiencing marginalization rationalize their experiences to demonstrate the privileged public to take action;
(2) equity policy action without grassroots community advice rarely reflect community perspectives. 

The labour of marginalized community members in equity sector is disproportionate labour compared to their privileged counterparts. Not only must one overcome systemic and institutionalized marginalization to reach a position of influence, but survivors of these violent systems are also expected to provide analytical insights and offer solutions to problems that were created to marginalize them.

Employment under a capitalist society is not voluntary nor equitable, but a necessity for survival. It is never a fair choice to participate in labour. The employer is demanding workers to compete to earn the right to keep their position, while leveraging the return to office mandate to force workers out of the workforce.

I found myself burning out regularly and repeatedly.

The working condition continued to deteriorate, and I knew I have to make a hard decision.

I am not choosing labour. 
I am not choosing wages. 
I am not choosing corporate lies. 

I choose to take back control of my labour, time, and energy.

Quitting this job is the right move for me. Might not be the most financially logical decision, but money should not be the ONLY consideration in decision my work.

FUNemployment Diaries Part 1: writing and processing the end of my corporate girlie career, practicing refusal while surviving capitalism

📝 Reading List 📝

Remote work reduced gender discrimination — returning to the office may change that
For many women, going back to the office can mean stepping back into environments where gender bias is more pronounced.
The ConversationAndrás Tilcsik
What return-to-office mandates mean for women in the workforce
Return-to-office mandates are pushing more women toward entrepreneurship but gaps in capital, childcare and digital supports remain.
Policy OptionsJuanita Lee-Garcia