HURDLES AND FRUSTRATION ENCOUNTERS IN THE WORKPLACE.

You've attended several organizer trainnings,countless branch meetings,gone to seminars and heard organizers tell their stories,but you still feel like everything is two steps forward and six steps back in your workplace.

We have to believe that we can do this work.We have to know that as a fact.We all have our isolation moments:feeling not good enough,that our bodies and mind aren't right,that we make the wrong choices.We have lifelong battles to accept ourselves or to ignore how much we don't accept ourselves.

This society relies on making you not feel good enough in order to push you into spending your last cash on something that you believe can make you stronger,prettier,smarter or sexier.

Then there's the very nature of subservient work:you're placed into a job with"superiors"that are younger  than you(I'm 31 and have a 19-year-old supervisor) or have less experience than you.We 're supposed to follow work orders without question,often to the point of injury or death.You have been told that you are worthwhile but actually believe in your bones that you are worth something. You have contributions to make to the world through your community,your family, and your job(s).

The majority of your co-workers,like you have had a lifetime of having their self-esteem chipped away at.We have been broken down by authority figures our whole lives, by the police,classmates,Intimate partners,Parents,Teachers and our bosses.

We're broken and molded into participating on this system that we never chose.We work ourselves to death in order to buy goods and services that we then use to keep ourselves functioning enough to keep working.Working students are working their way through school in order to get a better job only to realize that there is no much difference with the old ones.Does career even exist anymore?

We grew up watching our parents struggle and we promise them and ourselves that we would struggle our way out of this path of poverty.We swear to everyone that it will"pay off".

This cycle can end with us.We have to believe.We keep looking up for instruction when we should be looking to those at our side :our neighbours,friends,co-workers.Their ideas,like ours are worthwhile.If you don't believe you are capable then others won't believe it either.

We need to take our stands in our workplace and refuse to be mistreated.We spend most of the hours of our lives there.We need to start declaring at work,"Whose house is this?This is our house."and let the bosses know that they are "guests in our home".

Walk into your job like you own it.It can't operate without you.

It's important to exude confidence,even if you don't feel confident.

Try even if it feels hopeless,because without the effort, you've accepted defeat.