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What Radicalized Me?
Hi there,
When I was in high school, I had my first real job working in a restaurant at AstroWorld, a Six Flags amusement park. The park opened a few months before summer, so during that time it was only open on weekends. I was a people pleaser and really wanted to do a good job, especially since it was my first job.
Because school was still in session, they were short-staffed; most students waited until summer to start working. With high demand and too few workers, management leaned on us hard. I often worked double, sometimes triple shifts every weekend. The park was open from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and I’d frequently be there from 8:00 a.m. to midnight on both Saturday and Sunday.
After a few weeks of this, I asked to work a normal shift one weekend because my chess club had a tournament on Saturday. I thought I’d earned it, since I’d been putting in long hours without complaining. My manager said no; they really needed me. I begged and pleaded, but it didn’t matter.
The policy at the time was that if you called in sick for one day, you didn’t need a doctor’s note; more than a day required one. I decided to use that policy: I called in sick on Saturday, went to my chess tournament, and came in on Sunday. Still, what my manager did didn’t sit right with me. So I refused to work Saturdays under that manager from then on.
That was my way of taking back my independence in the face of stubborn, uncompromising power. It was also the moment my naïveté was shaken out of me: the belief that hard work would automatically be rewarded.
— Wesley Faulkner
Survival Tactic: Naming What’s Happening Is Not Complaining
In too many workplaces, simply describing reality gets dismissed as “complaining.” You point out that deadlines are impossible, or that a manager interrupted you, or that workloads are uneven, and suddenly you’re labeled “negative.” That’s not an accident. The system benefits when problems remain unnamed.
Naming what is actually happening is not complaining. It is clarity. It is truth. And truth-telling is a survival skill.
Here are a few ways to practice it safely and effectively:
Stick to observations, not judgments.
Instead of “this project is a mess,” try “the requirements changed three times this week, which makes planning difficult.” Concrete details are harder to dismiss.Frame it in terms of impact.
Link what you see to outcomes: “When deadlines overlap, quality suffers” or “When voices are cut off in meetings, we lose good ideas.”Invite solutions, don’t just highlight problems.
Say, “What would help is clearer ownership of tasks,” or “We might need to adjust timelines to make this sustainable.”
The goal isn’t to sugarcoat reality, but to speak it in ways that can’t be easily brushed aside. Complaining isolates you. Naming validates your experience and makes space for others to say, “Yes, I see that too.”
When you name what’s really happening, you stop carrying the problem alone. You make it visible. And that visibility is not just about change, but it’s about preserving your sanity in a system that would rather gaslight you into silence.
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The System is Broken: The Proof is all Around Us
The Job Market Feels Like Hell (Published September 8, 2025)
Despite headlines about recovery, many workers find today’s job market chaotic, unstable, and punishing. Constant churn and mismatched opportunities are leaving people exhausted. via The Atlantic
Mental Health Leave Soars (Published September 10, 2025)
The share of workers taking mental health leave has risen 300% compared to pre-pandemic levels. This spike underscores how unsustainable workplace stress has become. via CNBC
Return-to-Office as Stealth Layoffs (Published September 10, 2025)
Some bosses are using return-to-office mandates as a way to trim teams without announcing layoffs, pressuring employees to quit instead. via Fortune
Site Updates: Fixes and Progress
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Spread the Word: Strength in Numbers
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