So as my last year of college winds down, I’m starting to think about employment for after I graduate. To be honest, the coming change is kinda scary. I’ve never been paid anything above a wage before, and the idea of someone paying me thousands of dollars a year to do something blows my mind. I’m not sure if I’ll be good enough to do whatever it is I need to do.
As if the job market was not already tough, I have a few…..principles…I refuse to compromise on. My biggest fear is becoming a wage/corporate slave. I would rather starve than worship some evil overlords and thank them that in their mercy they allowed me to become their slave in return for barely enough money to live.
I refuse to prostrate myself before my employers, or potential employers. The relationship will be balanced, or there will be no relationship at all.
I refuse to have my cellphone turned into a leash my boss holds tightly in his hand.
I refuse to work in a barren cubicle that constantly reminds me how tenuous my employment is, that I could easily be replaced tomorrow.
I refuse to grovel for my vacation time. If I put in the hours, it’s mine.
I refuse to work unpaid hours to prove my loyalty to a company that has none for me.
I refuse to work in a top-down, one way communication, management environment.
I refuse to tolerate abusive and screaming bosses.
I refuse to spend the vast majority of my life working a job I hate in the hopes that when I am old I can retire and be happy for the 10 years before I die.
Live free or die.
There are a couple blogs I think you would enjoy. One is The Middle Finger Project (http://www.themiddlefingerproject.org/) and the other is The Art of Non-Conformity (http://chrisguillebeau.com/3×5/). I’m a big fan of both, and I was raised with a life philosophy similar to theirs, and they preach a lot of what you just wrote.