I absolutely loathe any sort of “skills assessment” or “personality test” during the job application, but these little simulation quizzes might be the worst.

There is nothing any 30 minute little game will tell you that my resume, project portfolio, professional references, and credentials wouldn’t.

And if you are really looking to know me personally, then just fucking interview me.

Any time a place makes me do any of these dumb little games, I withdraw my application.

I just tell them, “Thank you for the opportunity, but I value my time highly and don’t wish to continue a convoluted interview process. I’ve provided my resume and project portfolio, and would be happy to interview in person, but at this point, I’m no longer interested in this process.”

I am so tired of seeing AI everywhere. I’m a writer and copywriter. I had also started getting into illustration, but that line of work has been completely ruined...

As if it wasn't enough that clients are already using AI and we're losing jobs because of it, now the companies I actually work for , are demanding that I learn AI tools just to speed up productivity and pump out content faster.

For years, I trained to work with my own words. To use my own brain and my imagination. I only use AI as a minor tool to assist me with basic tasks, but never to have it write or create for me.

Honestly, I just want to throw in the towel and do some form of manual labor. I’d rather go sell things at a flea market or clean stairwells. I just want a job where I won't cross paths with AI ever again.

Is anyone else going through something similar?

Completely miserable in my current role and decided to fill out a couple applications last weekend and immediately had 2 interviews scheduled for this week. Did the first on Wednesday, that was a video call over Google meet. Went alright was supposed to hear something back yesterday and didn't. Second one I put off til today cuz it was a pre recorded video interview where I was supposed to talk to the camera for 20 minutes answering timed behavioral questions and then submit my audition and hope I get picked for a second one.

I thought I was prepared. Took a shower. Got dressed like I was going for an interview. Went over my notes. Got comfortable and hit start. Totally butchered all the practice questions and said fuck this. Texted the recruiter that reached out for me to get it done and told them Im not interested in doing a pre recorded audition. If they want to have a real meeting to discuss my skills and the position I'd take that meeting. Maybe it's just me getting old (46) but I have zero interest in playing that game. So aggravated.

Twice this year, supervisory personnel at the US Postal Service Michigan Metroplex in Pontiac activated sorting machinery while a maintenance worker was underneath. Neither incident resulted in an injury but in other circumstances the outcome could have been tragic, resulting in death or serious injury.

According to a grievance filed by the president of APWU local, the incidents happened in May and September of 2026. Steve Woods said the unit had filed grievances and a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as well as postal management. Woods also notified the offices of Michigan Democratic Congressional representatives Debbie Dingell, Haley Stevens and Rashida Tlaib.

The grievance filed by Woods stated, “They’ve been multiple incidents of both clerks and operations supervisors using the code” to activate the machine.

In response to the reports many workers posted on social media expressing concern and shock that proper lockout/tagout procedures on machinery were not in place at the Metroplex. One worker wrote, “I work at the metroplex and I can say [from] first-hand experience that place is being ran down to ground. This is not the first time nor the last time.” Another responded, “I work there as well and you’re absolutely right when you say it’s getting ran down to the ground.”

Another posted, “I am an ET at that facility and that machine should’ve been LOTO. (locked out) ESPECIALLY that machine! It’s over 100 ft long and taller than he is and he was INSIDE of it! So REGARDLESS of who pressed the start button, it should’ve been powered down.”

The same Pontiac facility was investigated a decade ago after workers raised the alarm over multiple employee deaths. A February 2016 USPS inspector general’s alert recorded a complaint that five workers had died in 14 months. A later APWU account gave a different chronology: four workers were taken from the plant by emergency services between October 2014 and August 2015 and subsequently died, while a fifth died under similar circumstances in June 2011. They ranged in age from 38 to 64.

One of them was Keesha Gray, 38, who died on June 9, 2015. Her family’s attorney, Brian McKeen, told WXYZ that she felt ill at work and informed managers she was going to her car. She collapsed and died there, remaining undiscovered for nearly two hours. APWU officials questioned why managers had not noticed her prolonged absence. The medical examiner attributed her death to bronchial asthma. Her family hired McKeen to investigate whether conditions at the facility contributed.

A local mail handlers’ representative told WDIV that the five deaths involved three reported heart attacks, an asthma attack and a stroke. Coworkers also complained of headaches and coughing. The Metroplex was built on a contaminated former General Motors foundry site, with ventilation and methane-detection systems intended to prevent gas accumulating inside. The inspector general found the detection system had malfunctioned since March 2015. USPS maintained that testing showed safe methane levels; no causal link between methane and the deaths was established. Its January 2017 follow-up nevertheless documented continuing deficiencies in sensor maintenance and staff training.

...

Similar conditions exist at postal facilities around the country. Postal workers filed 38,977 federal workers’ compensation claims in 2025. That was almost half of all federal workers’ comp cases opened that year.

These are just a few of the deaths and life-threatening situations workers have suffered resulting from the efficiency schemes and speed up imposed by management and their collaborators in the union bureaucracy as safety conditions erode. These measures are aimed at improving “efficiency” and slashing costs in preparation for the privatization of the post office.

These attacks have accelerated under the Delivering for America (DFA) restructuring launched by former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in 2021. The plan consolidates work into fewer, larger automated facilities, cuts jobs and combines routes; Palmetto opened as part of this program. Workers’ testimony to the postal inquiry described billions being invested in automated equipment while basic medical equipment, trained medical staff and written emergency procedures were absent. Cutting staffing and treating every interruption as lost productivity puts workers under pressure to keep working through illness and to service machinery without adequate safeguards.

DeJoy’s successor, David Steiner, is preparing further cuts after the New Year. At the August 7 Board of Governors meeting, he said management “would not take any action until after the New Year,” while threatening changes to service standards and the closure of “thousands of unprofitable post offices.” He has told Congress that USPS plans to employ 30,000 to 35,000 fewer workers within four years. Further reductions would intensify the understaffing and overwork already endangering workers while accelerating the dismantling of the post office as a public service.

No confidence can be placed in the APWU bureaucracy, Democratic politicians, OSHA or USPS to address these conditions or to implement the measures needed to keep postal workers safe. Acker’s coworkers told the WSWS that safety grievances had been filed less than 90 days before his death and that APWU officials knew about them. One worker described disabled stop switches and the removal of the additional worker who should have been available to stop the machinery. The grievance machinery left these dangers unresolved.

The APWU leadership continues to channel opposition into appeals to Congress. At its August convention, President Jonathan Smith declared: “Congress just has to get off of their ass and act.” But at a House hearing in March, ranking Democrat Kweisi Mfume said USPS “obviously needs to cut costs and increase revenue.” The union apparatus subordinates workers to the same political framework of cost cutting that management invokes to justify restructuring. Workers need organizations capable of enforcing safety against management’s production demands.

The Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee is fighting these conditions based on mobilizing the independent strength of workers themselves. It unites postal workers across the US, Canada and internationally in a common fight. Workers must organize at their worksites independently of the union apparatus to assert their own interests. These committees give workers the means to expose unsafe conditions and organize a collective fight back, including worker oversight of safety and the right to refuse unsafe work.

After almost 15 years, I put in my two weeks! This might have been the only job I was getting paid less the last few years. My colleague asked “Who is going to run the office now” and I said “Honestly, not my problem anymore”. I have the privilege to not worry about money in the short term but I feel SOO free!!! The toxicity, being called derogatory names, doing three jobs, is now over at the end of the month!

Last week I worked 5 days, off Wednesday and Thursday. They asked me to come in Wednesday but I was going to the DMV, grocery store, and had a few things to do around the house so I declined.

This week I have Friday-Sunday off and they just asked me to come in again. This is all because they've laid off 30% of the headcount and want people to come in on overtime to save money.

A lot of my coworkers are wanting mandatory overtime so that they can force people like me to come in so they don't have to work as much. Which is crazy to me, why would you not be complaining about them reducing our head count. It's not even just boomers that are saying this. It's people in their mid 30s too which is wild.

I would try to find a new job but my wife and I are trying for a baby so I'm trying to hang on until paternity leave. As soon as I get on that though I'll be mass applying to jobs.

We're had two waves of layoffs in the past two months, with no notice each time. Never any management always workers. They did this at the end of the day on a Friday, not even at work. They texted us about an hour after we got home.

Corporate is coming Tuesday, I guess to gut the rest of the building. Everyone left is scrambling to get new jobs because we don't believe for a moment that we're gonna stay open.

The fact the manager who had to get a dozen people to explain she can't chain an emergency exit shut today and has never done any work besides complaining about our work gets to keep her job is insane

Due to a payroll issue, I wasn't paid on time. Waited three weeks just to find out I had an extra $400 taken out. I can't afford to not have that money right now.

edit: oops, I'm using taxes and withholdings interchangeably when really I mean just withholdings. I know I'll get the money back in April, but that's a long ways away.

Been interviewing at entry-level places over the past few months and yesterday I had an interview for a general labor position stocking product in a warehouse and assisting delivery of products to work sites...16$ an hour...Guy tells me it'll be close to 3 weeks before I hear back cause he's got around 20-30 interviews to go through. Cool I get it. But let me just say to you guys WHAT'S GOING ON? How is anyone surviving right now?

This is just ONE of the dozens of places I've interviewed with over the last few months where they either stated before I asked or when I asked about following up the same exact thing...Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for the job I have now but this shits insane to think that it's really THAT BAD out here.

Moral of the story if you have a job currently, think twice before you do anything you might regret cause this shits bad man just be humble and rough it out for a bit you'll be fine.

Anybody else notice that those that lack people skills the most often move up faster, like straight up assholes and treat people like garbage. I worked with a guy like that before and the company was trying to force an upper management position on him, I'm working with a manager now whose peers said over and over again that he shouldn't be allowed to manage anyone but here we are and now everyone under him is trying to find another job. I see it with so many companies if you want to move up to management just become a complete deutsch bag, you don't even have to be good at your job just belittle someone in front of your coworkers.

We're not allowed to have coffee during work. I've never experienced this at a job, some have even sent me to the machine because I can't function without. It was a big problem I was quickly chugging coffee while waiting for glue to dry.

I work in a niche trade, so it's not easy to find a job elsewhere. I also want to work here because I can acquire the skills I want to develop more. They are also lucky to have me, because I have experience which is pretty rare for someone my age. I worked at a world class company but I had to sacrificing a 20h commute, so they really want me there too with the experience I have. They haven't found anyone the past 4 years.

It's sad because I am new at this job and close buddies with one of the chefs and this new boss we have is a terrible micromanager. I've even found fault in the stories he tells me, he says he has been working there for 4 years already (not true, 2 years) and some other stuff, not going into detail here. A lot of people have left because of him and the place has changed in a bad way.

The coffee is something minor, but I have been warned by a lot of people about him ever since I started. I will be compliant until I signed the contract after my first month. It's sad to see how my co-workers who have been loyal for 10 years are frightened by this micromanaging liar. Some are also too conditioned to be compliant with working overtime every day. I'm not afraid of losing my job, I have some other people jumping waiting for me to return to their company. I won't quit, but it's hard seeing this dynamic with a boss you can't trust. He also set the clock three minutes earlier for some weird reason. Everyone keeps changing it back, but each time he changes it back apparently.

So I work in auto manufacturing, and a few weeks ago I started getting some severe pain in my hand whenever I would do one of my usual stations that persisted even during my days off. Pain would flare up whenever my fingers or knuckles bumped against anything, fingers would be locked in place when I woke up and caused extreme amounts of pain whenever I tried to open or close my hand, and any attempts to loosen or adjust my grip leads to my fingers immediately snapping open or clamping tightly.

After a few weeks of reporting the injury and literally having a video album of the condition worsening, I was finally seen by the on-site medical team before being taken to an urgent care clinic and put on an extremely strict work restrictions. Now, how strict are we talking?

* I may lift up to 2 pounds occasionally. Most power tools and parts I would handle were 20-30lbs.

* I may push and pull up to 5 pounds occasionally. This is a factory where we're building cars; even with pneumatic lift systems we're regularly pushing and pulling several times that.

* I cannot use power/impact/vibratory tools with the injured hand. None of the tools can be operated with a single hand due to their weight or the amount of kickback they generate.

* I may occasionally grip, squeeze, or pinch with my injured hand. The fact that this is limited means even the simple tasks that don't require power tools or heavy lifting can't be done for extended periods.

* I have to wear finger braces. This just makes everything from cooking to sleeping more annoying, and I had to type this out on mobile since the braces make typing on the keyboard a massive pain.

Once the clinic forwarded my supervisor the list of restrictions I was under, he called to tell me that they had no way to accommodate my restrictions given my position, and he was putting me on medical leave until I recovered from the injury and completed my treatment/physical therapy.

Fast forward to today, and I get an email from upper management saying they were scheduling me to return to work on Sunday. This is despite the fact that the treatment for my injury is still ongoing and my restrictions prevent me from using my dominant hand in any useful manner. When I replied and explained that my treatment was still ongoing and that the work schedule would conflict with my next appointment, I was told that not showing up would affect my Workers Compensation case and be counted as unexcused absences. In polite terms, if I don't show up I'm fired and possibly forfeit the remainder of my medical treatment.

The thing is, I've had to deal with a workplace injury at this company in the past, and I know they're awful at accommodating medical restrictions. Last year I had an injury that required a cortisone shot, and the company put me back on regular duty the next day. A few hours into the shift I started bleeding from the injection site, got sent back to the doctor, and was put on "light duty" that completely failed to accommodate my injury. I also know that our shift has been extremely understaffed for the entire time that I worked at the company, so it sounds like upper management is trying to put me back on schedule so they have one less empty station, consequences be damned.

Sorry for the long rant, I'm just insanely frustrated by the whole situation.

20f

i have been looking for a job for like 5 months now and this was my first actual interview. everything seemed fine and i was asked to come in to trial today for an hour. this was for a music store. i was told to look around and tidy up things that seem messy, i quickly realized the things that had been seemingly intentionally out of place to see of i would notice, thats fine, so i went around tidying and was told about 15 minutes into my trial not to just tidy but to also "fix" things. confused i asked the manager who was training me what was meant by fixed and he looked at me as though i was stupid and abruptly told me to just "fix it" he then obviously frustrated with me tidys the display i was supposed to notice was out of place without even knowing the layout of the store yet.

i was also told that he would be observing how i interacted and greeted customers when they walked through the door, so for every person who walked in i greeted with "hi, how are you? is there anything i can help with today?" trying to not be too overbearing because i know how much others and myself hate being hovered in a store. i was told soon after that i should wait a minute after greeting the customer with "hi" and asking "do you need help". when a customer asked me if they have any music recommendations for a birthday present to a friend i explained it was my first day and redirected them to the manager, after said customer left i was then informed that i shouldn't be redirecting to the manager and i should be giving my own suggestions. bare in mind i have literally been in here for like 30 minutes or under at this point.

anyway bad vibes all around and i dont think i got the job anyway. think i dogged a bullet, but also feeling guilty and weak for not sucking it up considering ive been looking for a job for so long and now i maybe get one i dont want it just because i felt uncomfortable. my previous 2 jobs i ended up being treated quite poorly and walked all over due to me being young and at the time in a rural town.

not devastated just sad and disappointed in myself. i tried my best

Pictures include just some of the mold and bug infestations I have found around this building. For some context, I work at a dog daycare in Atlanta, and I have just been promoted to general manager. Before moving to this building, I worked at the best dog daycare in the United States (in my opinion) for five years. My company bought out another failing business and put in new managers at all of the new buildings we aquired. I have the divine pleasure of being assigned the building seen in these pictures.

There is black mold in five notable areas including the break room, two different places in the medium dog lodging area, and the dog food prep area. The ceiling is falling down from water damage and what seems like the weight of an animal living in the ceiling. There are cock roaches and water bugs living in the walls in the playrooms and boarding areas. The employees told me that they found roaches in dog food and everywhere you could think.

The reason I feel tricked is because I was given a tour that glazed over all of major problems, and I feel as though the district manager purposely misrepresented the condition of the building to trick me into accepting the position.

When I complained to the district manager and owners of the business, they implied that I was being dramatic. I received platitudes like, "Rome wasn't built in a day," and shit like that. As though the founders of Rome discovered a shittier Rome to improve before building around the mess. I understand it's a comment on the speed of our processes and not a comparison, but I feel as though there are some things that need to be addressed posthaste.

I have employees with kidney disease and asthma having long term exposure to black mold for 40+ hours a week. It just feels like nothing is being taken seriously. From someone who picks up dog shit for a living, this place is disgusting.

The old manager used to sage the place to try and "get rid of the demons." If anyone saw the condition of this building for themselves, I'm highly confident they would leave a bad review and never come back.

I asked how they got around tour parents complaining, and they told me that they just show them the cleanest parts of the building quickly as to avoid inspection. This feels like we are tricking customers in the same way I was tricked, and I'm absolutely at my wit's end. Am I overreacting?

Thirteen workers have been killed in Chile’s mining industry so far this year. With more than two months remaining, the death toll is fast approaching the 20 fatalities recorded in 2025, itself the highest figure since 2014. Seven of the dead were killed in six accidents just between September 23 and October 14. The carnage is the direct product of a profit drive that has intensified to the point of outright criminality, and it has created a situation that the ruling class, the government and the trade union apparatus all recognize as explosive.

The dead are not statistics. They are workers, each with name, age, workplace and an employer. They are:

- Marco Monsalve Farfán, who died on January 16 after an accident on January 12 in the Silo 4 sector of the Potrerillos Smelter, part of the Salvador Division of the state-owned National Copper Corporation (Codelco), in the Atacama Region.

- Heriberto Ossandón, 74, who died on May 10 in a cave-in at a mining site in the El Huacho sector of Combarbalá, Coquimbo Region.

- A worker of approximately 60, who died in early June after being struck by an explosion during blasting operations at the El Aguilucho mine in Andacollo, Coquimbo Region.

- A worker who died on August 7 at the Dulcinea mine in Tierra Amarilla, Atacama Region.

- A 56-year-old worker who died on September 15 after being struck by a rockfall while performing bolting work at the Zulema mine in Taltal, Antofagasta Region.

- Carlos Humberto Rodríguez Soto, who died on September 23 while performing maintenance on a mining shovel at Minera Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine, operated by the Anglo-Australian giant BHP, in the Antofagasta Region.

- Waldo Castillo Barraza, 49, a mechanical maintenance technician employed by the contractor Berliam, who died on October 1 in the crushing and materials handling sector of Codelco’s Radomiro Tomic Division in the Antofagasta Region.

- Nelson Torres Parra, 46, a specialist operator for the contractor IMOPAC, who was found dead next to a drilling rig on October 6 at the Los Colorados mine in Vallenar, Atacama Region, operated by the Pacific Mining Company (CMP).

- Guillermo Guajardo López, 53, and Diego Ponce Ponce, 34, both employed by the subcontractor San Lorenzo, providing services to the contractor Aura, were killed on October 11 when a snow and mud avalanche struck the section of the open pit mine at Codelco’s El Teniente Division in the O’Higgins Region where they were conducting inspection work.

- A 66-year-old worker, identified by the initials R.A.B.Á., who died on October 13 after falling into a rock crusher at the Nueva California mineral processing plant in the Aucó sector of Illapel, Coquimbo Region.

- And J.L.R.V., 61, a bulldozer operator for the contractor Transportes Santa Elvira, providing services to Minera Las Cenizas, who died in the early hours of October 14 when his bulldozer veered off the road and fell approximately 50 meters at the Rajo Aguilucho mine in Taltal, Antofagasta Region.

The ages of the dead are themselves an indictment. Ossandón was 74. The Illapel worker was 66. The Taltal bulldozer operator was 61. The Andacollo worker was around 60. These are men who, in any rational society, would have retired years ago. They were still descending into mines and climbing onto heavy machinery because the pension system created by the dictatorship and preserved by every government since obliges workers to sell their labor power until their bodies give out. Five of the eight workers killed since September were employed by contractors and subcontractors, the disposable tier of a workforce that is now roughly 80 percent outsourced across the industry.

This toll follows a year in which 20 miners died, and 225 workers were killed across all industries in Chile. That is 67 more than the 158 recorded in 2024, a rise of 42 percent. The deaths are overwhelmingly the product of precarious working conditions, precarious employment and precarious contracts imposed under the subcontracting regime that the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet created. This same regime has been preserved and deepened under the center-left governments of the Concertación, the “progressive” administration of Gabriel Boric and now the ultra-right government of José Antonio Kast alike.

...

This is feigned concern of the most duplicitous kind. The same Chamber of Mining that now sheds tears for the dead has spent decades demanding the subcontracting, the speed-up and the erosion of safety that killed them. The same Kast government that now convenes “safety roundtables” has introduced a 2027 budget that dismantles public services while showering tax breaks on the mining monopolies.

The real reaction of the ruling class is not one of grief, but of fear. The concern is genuine only insofar as it reflects a deteriorating economic situation in Chile and on a world scale. US imperialism’s criminal war against Iran, launched in February, has deepened the global crisis, sent energy prices soaring and destabilized the entire world economy. Imperialism’s war budget and the assault on social programs are a single class policy, and its consequences are being felt in every working-class household.

Within this global crisis, the crisis of copper production in Chile has a specific and terrifying significance for the bourgeoisie. The country is failing to produce copper at the highest price in history. In August, national production fell 13 percent year-on-year to 369,500 metric tons, the worst monthly figure since February 2011. The consulting firm GEM Mining Consulting has issued a warning that applies with equal force to Chile, Peru and Argentina: “Announced copper is not delivered copper.” The firm’s analysis, which examines a Chilean investment portfolio of US$104.5 billion for 2025–2034, a Peruvian portfolio of US$64.1 billion and an Argentine financing framework of up to US$7 billion, concludes that a large portion of these investments is geared toward sustaining existing operations rather than adding tonnage, and that the International Energy Agency’s baseline scenario projects a gap of nearly 25 percent relative to primary copper demand by 2035.

This is the context in which the ruling class contemplates the prospect of the working class paralyzing the industry. If the miners were to shut down the mines, if the contract workers and the direct employees were to unite, if the struggle were to break out of the corporatist union straitjacket, the already-catastrophic production crisis would become a disaster for the bourgeoisie. That is the fear that animates every statement, every roundtable, every “dialogue.”

...

The miners at Centinela and Escondida, the contract workers who are dying in the mines, and the entire Chilean working class must build independent, democratic and militant rank-and-file committees that unite direct employees and contract workers, that take the struggle out of the hands of the union bureaucracy, and that link the fight for safety and wages to the political fight against the Kast government and the entire capitalist order. The struggle against the deaths in the mines is inseparable from the struggle against imperialist war, against the assault on living standards, and for the socialist reorganization of society. The lives of the workers are worth more than copper—and only the working class, organized independently and internationally, can make that truth a reality.