The Ginger Cat

Let’s all remember that the man , and others like him wake up every day and decide they’re going to harm your friends , your family , innocents who have no way to defend themselves against the power they all wield . And they gladly do so to get a little more powerful than the day before

They don’t get to expect humanity when they’ve spent their miserable lives depriving us of our own

Dammit, I should have remembered that.

<- lived through the 1970s

The Illustrious Client

“He gave no explanations and I asked for none. By long experience I had learned the wisdom of obedience. But when I had left his room I walked down Baker Street, revolving in my head how on earth I was to carry out so strange an order.”

But I don’t know - when I started work, many decades ago, it was expected you’d start at 9, finish at 5. You’d get your lunch break. You are expected to give about 70% of yourself the majority of your time. The last hour of each day and Friday afternoon were quiet times. There was time in the day to hang out with your coworkers for ten minutes talking about anything, not just work.

Now you’re expected to come in early and leave late and work through lunch. Give 100% all the time, more if you can push it. Don’t take leave. Work every second of every day as hard as you can push yourself. Do not waste time in the kitchen just chatting. Why aren’t you working harder?

And perhaps we’re burning out and take massive amounts of stress leave not because we’re not keeping a gratitude journal but because we are all being pushed to breaking point consistently, day after day, until we snap.

The older days weren’t perfect. But there was an understanding that work wasn’t life, and we could relax a little at work and still get paid enough to live. Now we are expected to give everything we’ve got, then give more, and not get paid enough to do something as simple as get a coffee after work. Even our hobbies are supposed to be monetised.

Some places have hard limits for how much leave can be taken in a set time frame, and there is a threat of disciplinary actions for going past those limits;

Some places have rules about how many days consecutively you can be off on leave before you have to start putting in more substantial paperwork for being out;

Some places you have to build up leave before you can take leave, and a new employee doesn't have any leave to use so they can't take off when sick/tired;

You are not afforded enough personal leave for the 1) holidays, 2) errands that cannot be completed on the weekend, and 3) actually recharging, so you have to ration your leave and make trade offs (e.g. not taking any leave during the year so you have a 2 weeks of leave to be with your family/friends for winter holidays; not taking sick leave when you feel unwell because you anticipate needing that sick leave to look after your school-aged kids during flu season)

There is a culture (in the USA) around "crunching" (completing as much work with an impending deadline) before taking leave, which means you just overwork yourself before you go on leave so it doesn't recharge you as much;

If you don't have any back-up (because your employer will not hire enough staff), all the work you would have done while you were on leave is waiting for you when you come back and you have to play catch-up while also doing the work that is currently coming in, and the deadlines have not been extended;

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary (2026), Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Ryland Grace & Eva Stratt Characters: John Oliver, Ryland Grace Additional Tags: Parody of Satire, late night television, Nobel Prize Nominee, in-universe media Series: Part 2 of Last Week Tonight parodies by Petra Summary:

i cosplayed rocky this weekend!

May the Force be with you