Bob Robertson IX

Soul crushing.

Worked at a place for 16 years, made many close friends there, helped the company grow from a $2M company into a $2B company. Then one day they decided that it looked like they might not be add profitable in the coming quarter so they needed to cut 20% of the company. I was my family’s sole provider and now wasn’t sure how we were going to survive. I did get a nice severance of 6 months pay, but only 3 months of COBRA coverage. I was very fortunate to find a better paying job a little over 3 months later. Financially it was a good thing for us, but mentally I’m pretty fucked up now. I’ve never had anxiety issues but now I’m on 2 different medications for it. I’m depressed. I hate my new job and coworkers. I have no joy in work. I know if I get laid off again that I won’t get nearly as good of a severance package. I realize that my lifestyle only exists as long as my employer chooses to keep me employed. I feel like I not only have no safety net, but if I fall I take my family with me. It sucks.

The best raise you can get is by changing jobs. Businesses are not going to be loyal to you, there’s no benefit to being loyal to them - add either a customer or employee. Embrace and welcome change.

When you get a pay raise immediately increase your 401k (or equivalent retirement fund) by at least 1%.

Enjoy your 20s, they don’t last long but the person you are today is who you will feel like you are in 20 years. Don’t rush your life. There’s plenty of time to get married and have kids. You and your kids will benefit from you having an extra decade of experience before raising another human.

Luckily they’re a small and mostly insignificant generation

Fuck you buddy. You’re right, but still, fuck you.

I like the idea on the surface, but no, I don’t want to be forced to vote for a few reasons:

• A lack of voter engagement is it’s own outcome of a vote.
• Freedom of speech means being able to refuse to speak, and voting is one of the most powerful forms of speech most people have.
• I’m not a fan of the government forcing me to do something I might not believe in.
• There are many people who don’t want to vote for trump but refuse to vote for Democrat and if forced might hold their nose and vote trump.

Making election day a Federal holiday and guaranteeing everyone has the option to vote would be more effective and have a better outcome.

Edit: Several replies are basically saying the same thing: you can turn in an empty ballot. But the exact same thing can be accomplished much easier by staying at home. You can’t force people to go somewhere, or even mail in a ballot… they have a hard enough time getting people to do the census. Also, a candidate such as trump would refuse the results of any election they lost that didn’t have 100% turnout, especially if the margin of loss is less than the percentage that didn’t vote.

Again, I do like the spirit of the idea, but in order to make it work it would take more effort than it is worth since staying home accomplishes the same thing as a blank ballot.

I used to find these with my cousin all the time in central Illinois and 40 years ago (ugh, how is that possible?)… Haven’t seen one in a very long time though.