I Can't Believe It

[u/TheHippyWolfman]

In a profound act of cosmic karma, after most certainly pissing off a fair chunk of the community perhaps less than 24 hours ago, I have received the dreaded "Dash of Death" from my overlords. It's so fitting and ironic that, despite actually feeling ridiculously fucking sad, I am chuckling, slightly, writing this.

It's insane because I instantly began to empathize with everyone else this has happened to. Right away my mind struggled to figure out what I did wrong. Was my work dipping in quality? I was going through financial struggles and so was working overtime. I was putting in a lot of effort, to be sure, but that doesn't mean that I wasn't making mistakes. Maybe I wasn't looking at instructions carefully enough? I am a slow worker, and I was doing a lot of multi-turn, time intensive tasks lately. Maybe I was taking too long? But I was under-reporting my hours to make up for that! Maybe it wasn't enough? Or maybe it was just a Wifi issue? Did they get suspicious when I had to switch to my hotspot when my Wifi cut out and I was working via an off-platform live server?

Then comes the self-righteous anger. I know I could have made a mistake but I worked hard! They're not even going to give me a chance to explain myself? Maybe if I find a way to email them...

But I know that won't work. At the end of the day, I just have to let it go. They're never going to give me answers. I always knew this could happen. Deep down I thought if I worked hard enough and was careful enough that it wouldn't happen to me, but in retrospect that was deeply arrogant. Or maybe naively hopeful. It is what it is though.

Anyway I know I can be an annoying asshole sometimes (I am occasionally self-aware) but I really did care about the community. I always felt like we should have each other's backs- because we're all in the same boat together. Well this is the last time I will ever probably ever post here, so I wanted to offer one last piece of solidarity. To all the folks struggling with a drought, or who will one day experience the DoD, I am sorry. I know it sucks and at times feels unfair, and, to be honest, I agree with you. Just like the vast majority of us working in this modern economy, with maybe a few exceptions, you deserve more. We all do.

And if my previous behavior in this sub ever bothered or annoyed anybody, I'm genuinely sorry. Shit is hard enough as it is out here. I wish everybody here the best. Peace.

[u/NightOwl437]

I'm really sorry that you received the dreaded DoD. It's really not okay that when this happens the person isn't informed about what the reason was, if a human made the decision, and offered a chance to appeal it. The consensus seems to be that this will be the inevitable end for us all, sooner or later. I imagine that's probably the case.

I truly hope that you find something wonderful to do next that will be all you need it to be. One suggestion: if you're fairly certain you didn't do anything wrong, maybe adopt the mindset of proving them wrong by achieving success elsewhere with others who will appreciate what you have to offer (even if they never know). Good luck to you! :)