We have a special guest joining us on our upcoming Community Call! Danielle Roberts aka the Anti Career Coach (https://danielleroberts.co/) will be hosting! She is a career coach with an emphasis on life design and breaks down the myth of a dream job. If you haven't heard of her she's a dear friend of mine and is on the same mission as us around redefining our relationship with work! She would love if any of you have topics she should cover! Please comment any suggestions below

Hi anti-work friends! I'd love to get your takes on a situation that's been stressing me out for a few months now. I've been working with one employer/client as a 1099 contractor on short-term (3-6 month) contracts for a year. I've recently decided to re-negotiate my arrangement to build in more flexibility: they wanted me working "about 40 hours" a week without giving me the benefits of a full-time employee, I got tired of it and asked for a reduction of hours to 3/4 time (aka ~28 hours). I'm now being told that I have to commit to a set schedule -- so, specific days and times that I will ALWAYS be working and available. As a 1099 contractor, I am well within my rights to push back against that, BUT the caveat is, I've accepted some "gray area" perks like PTO, which a contractor is not normally entitled to. Here's my struggle: Do I accept this "quid pro quo" (we treat you a little better than a contractor is entitled to and in return make demands like setting your hours) or do I try to walk this relationship back to what it's strictly supposed to be (I receive a deliverable, I complete it whenever I see fit as long as I meet mutually agreed upon deadlines)? The big caveat here is based on all my time working with them, and the company culture, I see it being a huge uphill battle for me to redefine the relationship that is unlikely to work out well for me.

Hello, I am truly hoping someone can help me. I have been applying to jobs for over two years now. My friend recently got a new job, and it took her three years. She still had to know someone to get an interview. It really feels like you HAVE TO know someone to get a job nowadays. I have applied to many jobs on Indeed, LinkedIn (using the lazy girl way), and many other websites. I have reached out to different people, asked for help finding a job, talked to job recruiters, and joined facebook groups. I have updated/changed my resume many times now. I have only had maybe 4 interviews. I either get a rejection email (sometimes immediately after applying) or never hear back at all. I applied for many different jobs. I am not a salesperson, so those are the only jobs I do not apply to. I HATE my current job. I am already "quite quiting." My boss just literally wants me to read his mind and do his job for him or make sure he does his job. It is so draining every single day. He refuses to let us work from home because no one would be able to "cover" for him since he is never at work. If someone else works from home, he ALWAYS makes commitments about how they aren't working if they work from home. I am trying to pass my CPC (medical coding exam) or CRC (medical coding risk adjuster) exams. I have already gone back to school for medical coding. I do not want to go back to school again or pay for another course. I don't make a lot of money right now or have a lot of money saved up either. I would love to have a remote job. I just do not know what else to do. I realized I should maybe clarify my question and give some more background. I am struggling with getting a response back to any job I apply for. I have applied to remote, not remote, part-time, full-time, customer service/support, check in-clerk, call center, data entry, jobs that offer less than what I make now and etc. I do not like customer service roles, and I hate having to talk on the phone all the time. I have tried coming up with a side hustle I can do, so I could do that until I pass my exam. I'm not sure what I could really do or what I would have time for. Hopefully, after I pass my exam, that will help me get a remote job. I have a partner and a son. I currently work full time as a mortgage processor. My partner has evening work events for his current job role. So, in the evenings, I usually care for our son. I am friends with co-workers on Instagram and Facebook. I never really get on Facebook. I do have a tiktok, I just started using. I just want a better job, have more work-life balance, and start making a livable wage. (I am currently borrowing my mom's car.)

I accepted a management position over 6 months ago and I am very unhappy in it. It was one of those promotions that fell into my lap because I was doing a "good job" and they wanted to give me more responsibility and I felt pressured and didn't want to "waste" an opportunity so I accepted it. The pay is okay, but the stress multiplied tenfold. I work a ton of hours now. It's high stress. High urgency. There are a ton of pointless meetings. A lot of interaction is required daily. I am forced to worry about my teams production metrics. There are hundreds of unnecessary emails. It's customer facing so there a lot of escalation calls and arguments too. I would like to "descend the ladder" but I feel stuck now. The company is remote which is great and that seems increasingly rare these days so I don't necessarily want to leave. I just want to do my job and go home and focus on other important things in my life. I doubt seriously my manager would let me apply for for a new role now not having mastered this one. Leadership is a typical corporate, loves the company, focuses heavily on the metrics and production. Also encourages doing "extra" things outside of the job scope. I am finding it challenging at times to set boundaries. Also typically to apply to another position, you need to wait a year. 1. How am I supposed to tell my manager I don't like this new role? Have I even given it a fair shot? 2. If I am stuck doing it for the time being, is there a way to make a front line managerial role a "lazy girl job" because as a manager don't you have to care about all the team metrics and numbers and stuff?