3 ms·

So, am I the only one here who was thinking "I'd take that job"? I mean I have a good job, and apparently am one of only 3 people on HN that doesn't feel abuse

So, am I the only one here who was thinking "I'd take that job"? I mean I have a good job, and apparently am one of only 3 people on HN that doesn't feel abused by their FAANGNOAwhatever employer, but for 3x the pay and 1 minute of 'work' a day? Yeah, I'd take that job and do it for the next 20 years...

MrMcCall 2y ago
Yeah, but I'd be spending hours a day training my body to be a finely-tuned fighting machine, ready to evade any damage if I chose to quit before the day's beating. Until I could improve my situation, every day I'd look him square in the eye with a fierceness that says: I'M READY, LET'S DO THIS M_O_T_H_E_R_F_U_C_K_E_R !!! Then I'd start hanging out a bit, learning what I could. Once I bump into Chris's boss, it will just be a matter of leverage, as is the nature of all tactical domination. Then one day Chris will show up, and be escorted by security into my new office, I mean, his old office. I'll crack my knuckles and tell him to have a seat. You're late for your onboarding, after which legal's going to explain your situation to you. I think I'll keep that ugly-ass sweater as a trophy. It can hang on the office wall. A reminder.
- disqard 2y ago
  You might thrive there. There are definitely people that thrive in such environments (like Chris). FWIW, it's an office workplace, not MMA, so one shouldn't need to be a "finely-tuned fighting machine" to do the job. Perhaps one can extrapolate that the author is hinting at another dark truth -- the higher up you go in the hierarchy, the more MMA-like this will be. Therefore CEOs are, by definition, distilled psychopaths (like the Felon and the Husk in the White House right now).
  - MrMcCall 2y ago
    > You might thrive there. Nah, I'm too easy-going for that bs. I'm a thinker, a problem-solver, but I was an athlete who trained myself pretty hard for nearly a decade of American folk-style wrestling. My thought-train started with simply being able to be able to take the daily bunch, then my imagination just ran wild, like the excellent author of the original post. Combine that with the fact that "Chris" was obviously a psychopath, I went towards figuring out how he could learn why he chose the wrong path -- learn as gently as possible. And, as someone who has watched a lot of MMA over the years, I understand that training the entire body for combat would require more than just a shitton of situps, so the story just kind of just followed the original story's inspiration, as per my life experience. > Perhaps one can extrapolate that the author is hinting at another dark truth -- the higher up you go in the hierarchy, the more MMA-like this will be. Therefore CEOs are, by definition, distilled psychopaths (like the Felon and the Husk in the White House right now). Hinting or not, he paints a disturbing-enough picture of the such narcissists and their choices to not give a shit how people suffer as a result of their decisions. If you want to learn a true story that is far, far worse, read David W. Blight's Pullitzer Prize winning 2019ish biography of Frederick Douglass. The audiobook was available as a free download from a reputable site (I forget), and my two teenagers and I listened 4-6 hours/day for 2.5 weeks (weekends off) until we made it through the entire 900+ page book. FD was an extraordinary human being who led an extraordinary life. As a result, my kids understand the cruelty of the wealthy as best as one can without having actually gone through it themselves. We are actually also pretty knowledgeable about WWII history (via Stephen E. Ambrose's unabridged audiobooks D-Day, Citizen Soldier, and Band of Brothers) so we are also aware of what our German kin are capable of, as are all human beings. Peace be with you, friend. "We gonna be alright." --Kendrick
    - disqard 2y ago
      I love these interactions on this site. Peace to you as well, and to your family!
disambiguation 2y ago
Its not stated explicitly as a theme, but one idea conveyed by the story is that we tend to over estimate our tolerance for abuse, while simultaneously struggling to anticipate how trauma will manifest. Of course its just a story, but you won't know for sure that you can endure it until you've really lived it.
- zug_zug 2y ago
  Very eloquently stated. I think socially we have mental-model of what a "good" job, or "good" life is, and this model is largely based on certain capitalistic/individualistic assumptions. We tell ourselves that being isolated, feeling useless, feeling blamed, being punched in the stomache once doesn't really matter and aren't real problems if we get paid a lot. So we save up a lot of money, but we aren't happy (despite insisting we should be), and ironically no amount of money can purchase back what we gave up -- a sense of purpose, respect, community, etc. A friend once asked "What would be your ideal job if you had F-you money?" and my answer was "The field wouldn't matter that much, just a job where I had coworkers who genuinely liked and respected each other and cared about what we did." He couldn't understand me and kept repeating "No what field though, if you could choose?"
- pas 2y ago
  The story pretty nicely hinted at the point that romanticizing the punch is bad. When the protagonist did finally something against the suffering he was immediately reprimanded. And of course the absurdity of the physical abuse is a mere literary device, the heavy hitter (oof, sorry) is the emotional one. (As the story spells it out. It's cPTSD from struggling in this unfamiliar world every day, with not knowing what exactly is going to happen, not being able to connect to humans, being alone.) Maybe the darkest aspect is how sidelined any support is. Spouse? Only mentioned as a healthcare package. An old friend? Good for telling the truth, but that did not help at all! Lots of supervisors are dicks.
notevenreal 2y ago
The job in the story is a stand-in for "an abusive job". The point isn't to ask the reader whether or not they'd take it, the point is that it is abusive and pointless. Like, it's not posing the question "would you take this job?" It's asking you to consider the life of someone whose job is, a priori, abusive and meaningless.
- pas 2y ago
  It's pretty important to add that there was a latent distress in this person all along, with a big dose of untreated mental health issues. The protagonist mentions that their previous jobs gave the same anxiety and pointlessness. (The previous boss that was bombarding them with tickets, emails, etc. seems like a stand-in for typical micromanagers who don't respect boundaries. And the protagonist was obviously bad at saying no and standing up for themselves, etc.)
Baeocystin 2y ago
No, I'd do that in a heartbeat. There are so many things I want to do, try, read, or learn, and yet I will never have the time, because I have to work. A high end salary for a minute of pain is so much better than what I currently have to do that it's ridiculous. Still fantastic writing, though. Just personally can't relate.
- nuancebydefault 2y ago
  But in fact the punch is a metaphore for the feeling you can have each day that you get a glimpse of your boss, who does not care about you and provides you with busy work. And that feeling sticks the rest of the day. The try, read learn easily gets changed for staring at the tail of a dead squirrel, or at a thrashcan for that matter.
- nunez 2y ago
  It wasn't just a minute of work though. The manager scheduled happy hours, in the office bar no less. There was an expectation that he had to be there. While the main character skipped several of these, he was nudged by Chris, the manager, to attend a coworker's farewell party. Given that the main character ultimately got PIPed for dodging a punch, it's assumed that he would get scolded somehow for not going.
- pas 2y ago
  > Just personally can't relate. I would have thought the same about 10 years ago, and then ... life got interesting. I was always going around with at least a book! How bad a punch is after all? Is it worse than tripping and falling with skis? And we still want to ski more almost immediately, right? Just work out a bit, get some protective layer, try to come up with some sustainability strategy with Chris so he doesn't punch in the same place all the time, and let's go! ... and now I can relate a lot more to the character. But after many years I read a book this year! (I mean other than this ~150 page short story. :D) Mental health shit is insidious.
nunez 2y ago
I mean, this was the point of the story! Doing a minute of work for way more pay sounds great, _but you're still getting punched in the stomach_. The main character actually thought about how people who are more physically able to withstand getting punched in the stomach daily would fare better at this job...as he was readying to be punched.

MrMcCall 2y ago

Yeah, but I'd be spending hours a day training my body to be a finely-tuned fighting machine, ready to evade any damage if I chose to quit before the day's beating. Until I could improve my situation, every day I'd look him square in the eye with a fierceness that says: I'M READY, LET'S DO THIS M_O_T_H_E_R_F_U_C_K_E_R !!! Then I'd start hanging out a bit, learning what I could. Once I bump into Chris's boss, it will just be a matter of leverage, as is the nature of all tactical domination. Then one day Chris will show up, and be escorted by security into my new office, I mean, his old office. I'll crack my knuckles and tell him to have a seat. You're late for your onboarding, after which legal's going to explain your situation to you. I think I'll keep that ugly-ass sweater as a trophy. It can hang on the office wall. A reminder.

disqard 2y ago
You might thrive there. There are definitely people that thrive in such environments (like Chris). FWIW, it's an office workplace, not MMA, so one shouldn't need to be a "finely-tuned fighting machine" to do the job. Perhaps one can extrapolate that the author is hinting at another dark truth -- the higher up you go in the hierarchy, the more MMA-like this will be. Therefore CEOs are, by definition, distilled psychopaths (like the Felon and the Husk in the White House right now).
- MrMcCall 2y ago
  > You might thrive there. Nah, I'm too easy-going for that bs. I'm a thinker, a problem-solver, but I was an athlete who trained myself pretty hard for nearly a decade of American folk-style wrestling. My thought-train started with simply being able to be able to take the daily bunch, then my imagination just ran wild, like the excellent author of the original post. Combine that with the fact that "Chris" was obviously a psychopath, I went towards figuring out how he could learn why he chose the wrong path -- learn as gently as possible. And, as someone who has watched a lot of MMA over the years, I understand that training the entire body for combat would require more than just a shitton of situps, so the story just kind of just followed the original story's inspiration, as per my life experience. > Perhaps one can extrapolate that the author is hinting at another dark truth -- the higher up you go in the hierarchy, the more MMA-like this will be. Therefore CEOs are, by definition, distilled psychopaths (like the Felon and the Husk in the White House right now). Hinting or not, he paints a disturbing-enough picture of the such narcissists and their choices to not give a shit how people suffer as a result of their decisions. If you want to learn a true story that is far, far worse, read David W. Blight's Pullitzer Prize winning 2019ish biography of Frederick Douglass. The audiobook was available as a free download from a reputable site (I forget), and my two teenagers and I listened 4-6 hours/day for 2.5 weeks (weekends off) until we made it through the entire 900+ page book. FD was an extraordinary human being who led an extraordinary life. As a result, my kids understand the cruelty of the wealthy as best as one can without having actually gone through it themselves. We are actually also pretty knowledgeable about WWII history (via Stephen E. Ambrose's unabridged audiobooks D-Day, Citizen Soldier, and Band of Brothers) so we are also aware of what our German kin are capable of, as are all human beings. Peace be with you, friend. "We gonna be alright." --Kendrick
  - disqard 2y ago
    I love these interactions on this site. Peace to you as well, and to your family!

disambiguation 2y ago

Its not stated explicitly as a theme, but one idea conveyed by the story is that we tend to over estimate our tolerance for abuse, while simultaneously struggling to anticipate how trauma will manifest. Of course its just a story, but you won't know for sure that you can endure it until you've really lived it.

zug_zug 2y ago
Very eloquently stated. I think socially we have mental-model of what a "good" job, or "good" life is, and this model is largely based on certain capitalistic/individualistic assumptions. We tell ourselves that being isolated, feeling useless, feeling blamed, being punched in the stomache once doesn't really matter and aren't real problems if we get paid a lot. So we save up a lot of money, but we aren't happy (despite insisting we should be), and ironically no amount of money can purchase back what we gave up -- a sense of purpose, respect, community, etc. A friend once asked "What would be your ideal job if you had F-you money?" and my answer was "The field wouldn't matter that much, just a job where I had coworkers who genuinely liked and respected each other and cared about what we did." He couldn't understand me and kept repeating "No what field though, if you could choose?"
pas 2y ago
The story pretty nicely hinted at the point that romanticizing the punch is bad. When the protagonist did finally something against the suffering he was immediately reprimanded. And of course the absurdity of the physical abuse is a mere literary device, the heavy hitter (oof, sorry) is the emotional one. (As the story spells it out. It's cPTSD from struggling in this unfamiliar world every day, with not knowing what exactly is going to happen, not being able to connect to humans, being alone.) Maybe the darkest aspect is how sidelined any support is. Spouse? Only mentioned as a healthcare package. An old friend? Good for telling the truth, but that did not help at all! Lots of supervisors are dicks.

notevenreal 2y ago

The job in the story is a stand-in for "an abusive job". The point isn't to ask the reader whether or not they'd take it, the point is that it is abusive and pointless. Like, it's not posing the question "would you take this job?" It's asking you to consider the life of someone whose job is, a priori, abusive and meaningless.

pas 2y ago
It's pretty important to add that there was a latent distress in this person all along, with a big dose of untreated mental health issues. The protagonist mentions that their previous jobs gave the same anxiety and pointlessness. (The previous boss that was bombarding them with tickets, emails, etc. seems like a stand-in for typical micromanagers who don't respect boundaries. And the protagonist was obviously bad at saying no and standing up for themselves, etc.)

Baeocystin 2y ago

No, I'd do that in a heartbeat. There are so many things I want to do, try, read, or learn, and yet I will never have the time, because I have to work. A high end salary for a minute of pain is so much better than what I currently have to do that it's ridiculous. Still fantastic writing, though. Just personally can't relate.

nuancebydefault 2y ago
But in fact the punch is a metaphore for the feeling you can have each day that you get a glimpse of your boss, who does not care about you and provides you with busy work. And that feeling sticks the rest of the day. The try, read learn easily gets changed for staring at the tail of a dead squirrel, or at a thrashcan for that matter.
nunez 2y ago
It wasn't just a minute of work though. The manager scheduled happy hours, in the office bar no less. There was an expectation that he had to be there. While the main character skipped several of these, he was nudged by Chris, the manager, to attend a coworker's farewell party. Given that the main character ultimately got PIPed for dodging a punch, it's assumed that he would get scolded somehow for not going.
pas 2y ago
> Just personally can't relate. I would have thought the same about 10 years ago, and then ... life got interesting. I was always going around with at least a book! How bad a punch is after all? Is it worse than tripping and falling with skis? And we still want to ski more almost immediately, right? Just work out a bit, get some protective layer, try to come up with some sustainability strategy with Chris so he doesn't punch in the same place all the time, and let's go! ... and now I can relate a lot more to the character. But after many years I read a book this year! (I mean other than this ~150 page short story. :D) Mental health shit is insidious.

nunez 2y ago

I mean, this was the point of the story! Doing a minute of work for way more pay sounds great, _but you're still getting punched in the stomach_. The main character actually thought about how people who are more physically able to withstand getting punched in the stomach daily would fare better at this job...as he was readying to be punched.