OK, most days I can’t even with it.

Let me preface this with: I like the work I do, I like enough of my coworkers, I know it’s pretty much shit everywhere, and the job market is garbage, so “Go somewhere else” isn’t helpful. But that doesn’t mean things don’t drive me up a fucking wall, and sometimes a rant is needed.

So, 2024 was a really good year at my company. We hit a milestone we’ve been chasing for revenue – it’s a nice shiny round number and it’s nice to hit it. Revenue growth is better than industry average by a decent amount, which is great. We’re profitable and our profit grew nicely year over year as well, with a good margin to boot. Parent company is on track to net about 1.4 billion with a B.*

So, you’d think the message would be, “Whatever you did in 2024, especially Q4, keep doing that!”

LOL, no. A fucking great year and it’s not enough to satisfy the greed of the investor class. The investor class that has been getting 22% a year since our parent company acquired us 8 years ago. (Yes, ups and downs, and stock prices don’t always reflect reality but rather “how well did you guess your results in advance” but still, 22 fucking percent.) But we have to focus harder on growth.

And before anyone chimes in with “Well, you should invest in your company!” – most of us aren’t making enough to put our eggs in that basket**, and there is also the whole “don’t shit where you eat” thing. We already invest ~2,000 hours a year in the company.

And I know my company isn’t unique. I know the goal of capitalism is to make sure that when money is exchanged for goods and services, as little as possible goes to the people actually making the goods and providing the services.

I know all this, but it’s just weighing heavier than usual this week, and the fact that I feel so very stuck in it. So much of the day to day necessities have to come through some multi-national corporation that is screwing over it’s employees at every level and probably giving a fuckton of money to fascists to boot. So much of my money just goes off into the ether where the folks doing the actual work don’t benefit.

And I try to be mindful of this, but we’re not exactly flush with small independent businesses where I live. That’s why I love the farmers markets, arts & crafts markets, and finding artists online so much. My money is going to the farm, small restaurant, baker, cheesemaker, artist – directly to those very real people. And I get food, sweets, cheese, and art in return! Banger of a deal if you ask me. Regular ol’ commerce with people is nice.

And I don’t have any good answers other than we all just try the best we can, and while there is “no ethical consumption under capitalism” it’s so often unavoidable anymore and we shouldn’t kick ourselves too hard over it. Cause if you’re getting artisanal handmade adderall, I think that might be meth? And we don’t all have access to farmers markets, or they not open year round, or there just aren’t a lot of small indie businesses, or Walmart is just all you can afford.

And my very small “fuck you” to capitalism and hustle culture today was to spend time sketching out one of my projects for my fused glass class next month. A class where the money goes to the instructor and local arts center and doesn’t just vanish into thin air, and I get back joy and pretty melted glass.

* That is a fuckton of unpaid wages per employee across all the subsidiaries. Like, life changing amounts of money that just seems to disappear. Also – publicly owned company, so I’m not disclosing anything confidential – parent Q4 numbers not official yet, I just did the math based on Q1-3 which is publicly accessible data.
** Hell, at rate things are going, we’re heading back to not being able to afford regular eggs, much less nest eggs.