How heinous would it be to accept an offer, but keep interviewing with intent to renege?

I've been laid off and unemployed for just over 7 months. I have 8 years of experience, most recently as an engineering manager.

Recently, job interviews and the timing are starting to run together after employers are actually calling back. Next week, I have four interviews alone, two are final rounds.

With Company A, I'm overqualified for the role a Senior Engineer, and it pays $50k/yr less than past roles. But they're really eager about my narrative to "get back to hands-on delivery" when I'm really desperate about having two weeks of unemployment left and paying $900/mo out of pocket for benefits. They're likely to come forward with an offer first.

With Company B, it's most of the work of an people managing EM, but as an individual contributor TPM. Comp is going to be more competitive without the headache of being a people manager, but still not at the level of a Senior/Staff TPM. I would be more happy here. An offer is likely to come out at the same time as Company A

Company C is a Sr. TPM role, perfect domain alignment, but requires relocation. Company D is the best fit level and role wise (Staff TPM) but still super early stages (pending HM screen). I would be very happy with Company C, but. most happy about in-state Company D.

There's a 5th company that is fully remote TPM, and also pending recruiter screen.

I have hesitation because we've been trained about professional courtesy and not burning bridges. But I'm also inclined to accept any offer in hand and keep interviewing, possibly reneging on starting or leaving after a few weeks if a better role comes down the rode.

I say this because when I was laid off, they never gave me two weeks notice. You wake up one morning and can't log in to your computer and are shown the door. Once, I tendered resignation with 2 weeks notice on Friday, and was walked out the building the following Monday without being paid through my notice period.

At this stage in my job search, I've actually had a cleared offer rescinded one week before my start date because they "budgeted wrong and no longer have reqs." I've been dragged through 7 round interview loops spanning months to be ghosted. I'm starting to have to sympathy for the corporate side of "talent acquisition".

Would it be wrong for my selfishness and sour experiences with recruiting to shape my self-serving decision process at this point in my life?

https://redd.it/1q3gkze
@r_antiwork

I didnt have to go to work for the past 2 weeks. I had almost no free time for myself. I dont think I want to live like this any longer.

Tomorrow its back to work after 2 weeks away from the job. I had almost no free time for myself.

I used 1 day for all my Christmas shopping + regular grocery shopping.

Day 2 for all my Christmas cooking + regular cooking

Day 3 to visit my parents. Half the day was spent working/helping them.

Day 4 to visit all other relatives. 3 different locations - a 150 Mile round trip

Days 5 to visit GF´s family.

Day 6-9 was a 4 day deep clean. I do this once a year. So cleaning the entire house, looking through all the food if some got spoiled, sorting through all the stuff I bought over the past year to donate/sell/throw away. And just catching up with the regular stuff, like all the laundry I didnt manage to do over the past month.

Day 10 I had my first free day. I was so exhausted that I woke up at 1 PM.

Day 11 For maximum efficiency all my doctor appointments (3) in one day

Day 12 Doing some much needed repairs on the house

Day 13 Doing some much needed repairs on the car

Day 14 My second free day

And then its back to Monday-Friday and catching up at Saturday/Sunday for the next 6 months or so where I dont manage to do even half the staff I want to do and only around 2/3 of the stuff I need to do.

If this is supposed to be my life for the next 30-40 years, I might as well quit playing now.

https://redd.it/1q3oc0y
@r_antiwork

Just give a firm handshake guys, no idea what this sub is complaining about?
https://redd.it/1q3oo4u
@r_antiwork

DOGE did not find $2T in fraud, but that doesn’t matter, Musk allies say
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/doge-did-not-find-2t-in-fraud-but-that-doesnt-matter-musk-allies-say/

https://redd.it/1q3rdtc
@r_antiwork

My company got rid of bonus incentive to work on holidays, is mad nobody worked on their holidays.

The company I work for does this thing where to win clients they base all their contracts around real days and not business days. This means that we need staff on site 7 days a week and all holidays to keep on top of turnaround times and avoid late penalties. However, this is skilled white-collar STEM work that requires a solid foundation in biology and chemistry - they need to offer weekends off and paid holidays at a minimum to be competitive with other employers in the industry. So for years, they offered a 2x overtime rate for weekend hours, and if you worked on your paid holiday off, you'd get full holiday pay plus 3x OT for all hours worked.

So shortly before Christmas, HR sent an email stating that effective immediately, there would no longer be a holiday incentive. "Paid holidays are an extra benefit meant for you to have time to relax. If you choose to work any hours on a paid holiday, you forfeit the holiday hours. And as a reminder, overtime is only after 40 hours of actual work - working on your regularly scheduled day will not count."


Got in this morning to find an email from my management team that they're "surprised and disappointed" that only two people volunteered to work on December 25th and 26th, and nobody worked January 1st or 2nd, in spite of multiple requests for volunteers. Because nobody was "willing to be team players", the company now stands to lose close to a six figure amount in penalties for missed turnaround times.

Oh well, so sad. You only get as much loyalty as you're willing to pay for.

https://redd.it/1q3rzus
@r_antiwork

Use your PTO and sick days. Never feel guilty for being a human.
https://redd.it/1q3u58m
@r_antiwork

FAFO regarding performance review

I work in an international corporation, our performance is rated yearly on a scale that goes: bad, average, good, high, outstanding. The last two give you a yearly bonus and there is literally no difference in the amounts you get paid but an extra minor non monetary recognition for the last.

With my previous boss I had an agreement: I would do my job and cover for him as a deputy for vacations, simultaneous meetings, etc. And he would do his best so I got the HIGH performance rating every year. Be aware that I have never missed a deadline, and covered all tasks. I did earn the high performance every year for 4 years.

My boss left on August and I was foisted on a new guy, I showed new guy what I was doing (my job and deputy tasks), he agreed that I should continue doing those. On December 2025 for the yearly performance this guy rates me GOOD, so no bonus, I told him that I was successfully fulfilling my role and extra work, that is our internal metric of high performance. His reply was that he had not seem me work, and he had higher expectations therefore he couldn't rate me higher.

Very well, immediately after that I cancelled every meeting that had me as a my former boss replacement and sent several mails to HR and other stakeholders forfeiting the extra responsibilities, HR replied confirming that those tasks were not part of my role. Nothing much happened given that the holidays were upon us.

New boss will start his day tomorrow Monday with his plate full of stuff that my former boss did and I covered for, and other team's request for guidance on what to do that my ex-boss and I occasionally answered.

When he asks for those things, I will reply that since the extra activities did not allow me time to fulfill his expectations, I had taken to heart his words and (with HR blessing) immediately started releasing my schedule from things that were clearly not in my scope.

EDIT: I am not in the USA. Here CYA works if you can show malicious intent on dismissal. Malicious could cover thing like "retaliating for not doing tasks that this role does not cover".

https://redd.it/1q3sr5p
@r_antiwork

Reported my workplace to OSHA - here's what happened

TL;DR - My corporate workplace is in violation of multiple safety laws and will fail an audit if our location is selected for one. I filed an OSHA report, and they were immediately served a laundry list of violations. Manager looked like he saw a ghost and shit a brick, and it felt so good.

Last time I posted on this sub it was to vent about the low pay and general dickhead-ery of my workplace. I still work there, considering the job market is the way it is. The company continues to be hell bent on making work miserable.

General background: this company is a multi-billion dollar international retailer with in-house repair. Something something "the largest blah blah blah in the world". Current revenue is around 7 billion and they're working to become an industry monopoly. As such, anyone above a single-location level is an ass. I am part of in-house repair.

Specific background: our new Manager JACK gained his new rung on the ladder about 6 months ago. Capital M Manager because he's managing other managers. SO he's a head head manager. And his head is appropriately inflated to go with that promotion. What's it inflated with? Hot, steaming, corporate sucker juice. Of late we've been subject to visits where he tells us all about how "there's gonna be changes around here", and when pressed to expand on those changes it's nothing good or nothing at all. "Educational opportunities" and "new bonus rates"; fake incentives.

Recently JACK was on a soap box about his "economic theory" - asserting with absolute confidence that the company can't just raise everyone's pay because that will cause the price of EVERYTHING to go up. And everyone is nodding and pretending to listen, and I say nothing because I don't want to draw attention to myself as being better educated than he thought. I'm not a fool, he's prepping everyone for a shitty raise when "merit" raises come around this year.

Now with the cost of living in this area being roughly $19/hr full time for a single adult no kids (MIT calculator), our wages are already too low. I make $17.40, and the rank below me makes $15. Most jobs in this area start around $15 and rarely exceed $17. HOWEVER, we work in a position that is classified as a trade, meaning it's skilled labor. A local plumber makes $25/hr roughly, so we are quite underpaid. This company complains bitterly about how they can't keep employees, big surprise.

We are underpaid without the justification, but moving on.

We had a piece of equipment break down. Expensive equipment with dangerous electric and photonic components. We told JACK, and he said to call the company that made it, and the "technician" made the mistake of telling us to fix it ourselves. The mistake is that this opened our machine and an entire can of worms to research, which led to some interesting discoveries on my part about what this machine could do to an unwary tamperer - cancer, blindness, death by electrocution.

OSHA also new all of this. And they were overjoyed to hear from me, as our company has many of these machines in many locations that certainly are in violation of those same safety laws.

Cue JACK coming for an unplanned visit, looking like death had dialed the wrong number. I guess he thought it was all roses and sunshine from here on out, but something tells me all the Managers on the rungs above him are a little shaken. In 30 days I am meant to report back to OSHA about the status of these violations, and I shall be most certainly. And yes, I did put my name on the report. I've been a top performer in the area more than once, and I want them to know it was me.

Report your workplace to OSHA. We have so little power as workers these days, so make as much noise as possible.

Small edit: we are not plumbers, I just happen to know one who works for a local company and used his pay for reference. I have been informed here that union plumbers do much better than that, so he is also underpaid. Red state, red area, bootstraps and all

that...

https://redd.it/1q3s85i
@r_antiwork

People dont seem to grasp what immense advantage it was to get a job just with a high school diploma

Sometimes Boomers got good paying jobs even without having a High School Diploma - this is virtually impossible today.

But for the most part they got their jobs just with a High School Diploma. Almost no one had a Bachelors/Masters/PHD in the 60s or 70s or 80s. Also virtually impossible today.

Even if we assume that wages and prices remained more or less the same (adjusted for inflation) people dont seem to grasp how much easier this made life.

HS is relatively easy and you are finished at 18 years old. Then you get a job where they train you and teach you everything with 18 or 19. By age 25 you already have half a decade of relevant work experience and have been through valuable working skills and have been making good money for half a decade.

Nowadays you are 18 when you finish HS. But then you have to spend the next 5 years getting your Bachelors and Masters. Up to 6 or 7 years when you have to work besides University or when you have parents you have to take care of or when you are struggling in life.

So you are forced to spend the time from 18 to 23 or even 25 learning, doing difficult tests and exams. By the time you are 23 or 24 or 25 you have only rudimentary work experience, have been robbed of half a decade of full time income, have most likely tens of thousands of Dollars in debt and are only at the beginning of your career.

Oh and you have to compete with 10x or 100x more people for the job compared to Boomers. And they expect you to have 10x more skills and knowledge than Boomers.

Basically you start your career at 23 or 24 or 25 after having to work much harder, compared to Boomers who started it at 18 or 19 and had it much easier because they didnt have to go into debt and didnt have to spend years of their lives doing difficult exams and tests and learning.

We are set back half a decade or even a full decade and have it much harder. And then they complain that we are not buying houses and having children. Its bizarre.

https://redd.it/1q3qptk
@r_antiwork

How can people (supposedly) do so much besides their job?

I wake up at 6:30 AM. Out of the House at 7:15 AM at my job at 8 AM.

I usually work around 42.5 hours/week. So with the half hour lunch break Im at my job from 8 AM to 5 PM. Home at 5:45 PM. In bed around 10:45 PM. So I have in theory 5 hours of free time.

But I have a really busy job that leaves me exhausted after 9 hours. So I cant do that much in these 5 hours. Mostly relaxing and some cooking/cleaning. But perhaps at 1/3 efficiency.

The weekends are spent with grocery shopping, cooking,cleaning, repairs, errands, doctor appointments (if possible), helping my parents etc.

Its true that I have a slighlty longer commuting time than average. I also dont have home office, but only around 25% of the workforce have it.

I manage to read perhaps 5 books in a year. I go to the gym perhaps 10x a year.

But then I see people who claim to work the same or even more than me, claiming to read like 200 or 300 or 400 books every year. Or going to the gym 10x a month. Or hiking the entire weekend. Or doing weekend trips to other cities and countries.

And Im here asking HOW? Like dont you have any chores to do? No parents to take care of? Do these people have house keepers? Or such easy jobs that leave them full of energy?

Even if I could muster the energy to do all these things after my 9 hour shift, I wouldnt get done any chores. As it is my house is semi-clean most of the time. If I would just read/exercise/hike etc most of my free time, I wouldnt get anything done at all. How do they do it? Are they lying? Working less hours?



https://redd.it/1q3opqd
@r_antiwork

Shareholders are now crying over people calling A.I. slop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1Dzr5S06ek

https://redd.it/1q3onud
@r_antiwork

Can't Make Ends Meet and I'm beyond annoyed

I can't take it anymore, not being able to afford to literally live! It's too hard and every time I turn around a bill has either gone up (utilities, health insurance, internet). I'm 62+ & just got put on a special diet due to health issues and I literally cannot afford to feed myself healthier food!

It's so bad that I have filed for early social security just so I'll be able to eat! I live in a state that refuses to increase the minimum wage to $15 hour, which to be honest isn't enough to live off anyway (I currently make $14.50). All my bills are behind and I already keep the heat down to 65f and it's below freezing outside & windy. My arthritic fingers are so cold I can barely type.

Went to the local pantry and the food was so terrible (zip lock baggied food items! No thank you! I don't know where your hands have been sir!)I got frustrated, especially since I have to watch what I eat, everything is so processed and full of corn syrup or gluten.

Maybe this will be the year the whole thing collapses and everyone has to start over. One can have a dream for the new year, right?



https://redd.it/1q43q7t
@r_antiwork

"I Voted Trump to Lower Prices": Now My Groceries Cost $100/Week, My Farm's Bankrupt, and Healthcare Just Doubled. Where's My $2,000 Check?
https://nationalwired.com/2026/01/05/i-voted-trump-to-lower-prices-now-my-groceries-cost-100-week-my-farms-bankrupt-and-healthcare-just-doubled-wheres-my-2000-check/

https://redd.it/1q46mq3
@r_antiwork

Occupational depression is real, like actually-get-sick real

I saw a term recently: “occupational depression.” And it hit way too close to home.

This is the ongoing, deep mental drain. The second I think about work, my body reacts. Anxiety kicks in, my chest feels tight, and all I want to do is disappear.

For me it looks like this: In the morning, it’s not just being tired. It’s this intense resistance the moment I wake up. Like my whole system is screaming “DON’T GO!!!!” Sometimes I’ve caught myself thinking, “If something happened today and I didn’t have to go in… that would be a relief.” That thought scares me, because it’s not normal.

At work, I feel completely hollowed out. Even on days when nothing heavy happens, I’m still exhausted, like bone-deep. And it doesn’t reset. I get off work and I’m still drained. I sleep in on weekends and somehow still feel tired.

The worst part is what it does to your head. You start questioning your worth. You start thinking you’re bad at everything, that you’re failing, that nothing you do matters. And the longer it goes on, the more those thoughts show up, and the louder they get.

I’m trying to learn to de-load the pressure. Stop treating every task like it has to be perfect. If I mess up at work, I mess up. Maybe I get yelled at. But I’m not dying. I keep reminding myself this isn’t being dramatic or weak. Long-term workplace stress can genuinely mess up your mental health, and it’s not your fault.

The biggest thing that’s helped is giving myself a fallback. A little exit route. For me, when I have time, I edit short video clips and upload on TikTok. The little habbit steadies me, because nobody rushes me and scolds me, and the outcome is mine. That feeling of control helps more than I expected.

I think the root of occupational depression is when your whole life and identity get tied to your job. When you spread your risk a bit, give yourself more options, your mindset gets way less fragile.

https://redd.it/1q484sr
@r_antiwork

No budget for a raise, but we’d like to see more from you in 2026

Just got off a phone call with my manager. Despite hitting 100% of my targets this year and leading several important projects, unfortunately neither I or my colleagues, who worked just as hard, are getting a raise. They would, however, like to see me “take more ownership” of my work this year and “show more initiative.”
Fuming.

https://redd.it/1q4em1u
@r_antiwork

Goldman Sachs warns 2026 will be the year AI quietly wipes out millions of jobs — even without a recession
https://newsinterpretation.com/ai-automation-expected-job-layoffs-in-2026/

https://redd.it/1q4gkb1
@r_antiwork

Trump claims 'Somalians' are 'stealing 19 billion dollars' from US taxpayers
https://www.irishstar.com/news/politics/trump-claims-somalians-stealing-19-36497018

https://redd.it/1q4i7x3
@r_antiwork

This is another reason it isn’t worth working anymore. Health insurance.
https://redd.it/1q4qxrp
@r_antiwork

Ain't that the truth majority of my mental health issues could be fixed if it wasnt for poverty and had more money
https://redd.it/1q4u4qv
@r_antiwork