Is it just me or is it Stockholm syndrome

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FirstAmendment68@reddit

I got out easily when it was getting bad

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IBringTheHeat2@reddit

I’m at the best trucking company in the US, UPS, and there’s no where else for me to go or anywhere for me to go up. I’m gonna be here until I retire

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InsaneAdam@reddit

That's always a sad thing to hear. Humans are ment to grow and learn. Not stay at the same position for decades.

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Unless you land a good job? This mentality of job bouncing is only a recent thing due to the poor growth internally for staying with a job. Some jobs definitely are positions where once you're in, you're set until retirement.

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InsaneAdam@reddit

Kind of true. But I ment with decades you can build skills and have much more value if you keep working on it. Really easy to get comfortable at a decent job and never change.

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HopeItMakesYaThink@reddit

I think trucking is like most jobs. If you stick to it long enough to get ‘comfortable’, it gets to the point nothing else is comfortable. Going from office work to construction is the equivalent, to me, of going from trucking to practically anything else. We fit the molds we rest inside. And trucking is a very wonky mold.

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Yadilie@reddit

The problem for me is finding a desk job or something that pays the same amount I get now. So I feel trapped unless I take a big hit to my salary.

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Miserable_Quail_5780@reddit (OP)

Pays too well to quit, pays too bad for the amount of work

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Codexe-@reddit

A lot of good paying jobs are like that though. Business owners never "clock out," salaried managers aren't paid by the hour so their company keeps them working all the time, etc

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InsaneAdam@reddit

It's just 2 jobs 40 hour average wage.

You get the luxury of working twice as hard and twice as long as the average person. But it does pay 2x as average.

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xxenoscionxx@reddit

I had the desk job , and it took everything. My marriage with it.. the trap isn’t the job it’s the system.

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Crzymk101@reddit

👆🍻🍻🍻🍻

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JOliverScott@reddit

It is this. Trucking pays well for the level of education and experience required and the skills don't correlate to other non-trucking jobs well so trucking does end up feeling like a dead end.

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Codexe-@reddit

I could definitely go get another job, but I want to get a job that pays 100k. I know that's possible with trucking.

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Miserable_Quail_5780@reddit (OP)

Same here, i made 84k last year. I can go back to the military or be a cop. But the pay schedule of trucking is too good for me to make that sacrafice

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IgnoringHisAge@reddit

I’ve been saying for years that the whole industry is essentially a toxic/abusive relationship. Sometimes the victim just keeps staying or keeps coming back because “I still love him” or “he’s going to change this time, I know it.”

Sigh. I’m one of the victims.

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Miserable_Quail_5780@reddit (OP)

Same here 😭

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yamahamama61@reddit

I'm too ugly, I can't get a job anywhere else.

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InsaneAdam@reddit

That'll do it

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yamahamama61@reddit

Thank God I love it

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Negative1Positive2@reddit

It's a weird occupation. Doesn't pay nearly enough for what we do, pays too well to quit. Either way, I've come to grips with the fact I'll be trucking till I die on the job. No way I'll afford to retire.

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InsaneAdam@reddit

How are you pissing away $90,000 a year?

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Negative1Positive2@reddit

Bold of you to assume I'm making that much. And having a disabled wife with monthly medical needs is crippling in this country.

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InsaneAdam@reddit

Well earning less than that minium is another issue but glad to help you find the leak

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that_one_erik@reddit

Too many people place their worth on their jobs, and trucking being the “lifestyle” that it is takes even more of ones self to thrive in. Take the former and add in an unhealthy dose of “no quit, work harder” and you have a recipe for Stockholms. Personally, I like driving, but I won’t fight anybody to stay in this job. The ones that force themselves forward despite nature, family and the mind telling them to stop, are the most miserable people on the road. Then they use the misery to talk down on those of us just in it for the money and the sightseeing

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West_Masterpiece9423@reddit

I’m local and close to retirement. I won’t miss the actual job, but I will miss driving the truck.

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InsaneAdam@reddit

Just buy a retirement truck to drive to the grocery store once a week

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MustangMark83@reddit

Yep. Been doing it for 21 years. I have no other skills, no degrees. I made trucking my entire identity. Now I’m burned out, I’m forced to stick with it with no end in sight. I’m miserable

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InsaneAdam@reddit

You had 21 years to study some other skill or get a degree online. Look in the mirror and take accountability.

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BitEnvironmental4872@reddit

Once I got used to getting paid weekly I can’t go back to bi weekly pay

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truckmonkey12@reddit

I think this really depends whether you’re home daily or not

If you are home daily, a CDL can get you a variety of jobs, so you can always search for better paying work or more specialized work to diversify your experience.

OTR is basically all the same shit different pile. Sure each employer may have different trucks, pay structure, contracts, lanes, etc, but at the end of the day, you live in the truck and stay at the same areas once you figure out what routine works for you to get your load delivered. I think alot of guys get trapped in OTR because they get addicted to the lifestyle. Something about transitioning to a “civilian” lifestyle seems challenging or unappealing. I’m still doing OTR because there’s many places i’d still like to travel to, but this will probably be my last OTR job before I go local

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Present-Ambition6309@reddit

💯

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xDoomKitty@reddit

Eh, I'm writing my own animated series and teaching myself C++ and Unreal Engine in the process.

Ur only trapped if you wanna be.

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firstblush73@reddit

Agreed. This job gives you the opportunity to pursue personal hobbies or goals. The great thing is, since you're bu yourself, there are limited interruptions or distractions. I have read so many books this past year!

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Swimming-Performer57@reddit

The way out is to invest your money or save enough money to go back to school without having to worry about money until you're done.

Or find these high paying jobs in oil and mining

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cdubose@reddit

I just read this comment in a thread from 7 months ago and it says it best:

One thing I’ve learned about trucking is the industry as a whole will try to keep you trapped in it. And I’m not stating this to be negative. It’s just a fact. I’ve dreamed of driving for six months and then having six months off every year and living overseas with the money I’ve earned. You can’t do it because you’ll be labeled job hopper. Most employers will let you do it once and then they’ll tell you to move along. If you give them notice, what does it cost them to do this? Absolutely nothing. They do it simply for the reason that they want you to stay on the hook and only have a couple days a month off for the rest of your life and live out on the road and be their slave. I figured this out a long time ago when I talked to an old gentleman who had owned a trucking company on a night out after a few drinks and he basically told me the truth. I said look what does it cost you to let me run for six months straight, making you plenty of money and driving hard and then leave for six months and come back? He said maybe $100 in paperwork, that’s it. But they won’t do it.

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Yam_What_I_Yam@reddit

I’m going into trucking with this literally being my plan after two years. Shit.

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the_clam_farmer@reddit

Small companies, are more willing to work with these time-frames, if you have the experience to show that you're worth it.

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Safe_Fail_568@reddit

Yep. The company I’m with now is my 3rd time back with them

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Live-Door3408@reddit

You're definitely not alone in feeling this way. I love driving to but what gets me is the hours and just lack of time away from work. The past few weeks I've been feeling extremely burnt out, almost less lucid. I do love driving, I truly do but I guess when they say don't mix business and pleasure it makes sense lol. Driving my stick shift bimmer on the PCH and driving a semi up and down the 5 isn't the same at all.

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poutinelover6@reddit

I'm in trucking for the money and the freedom. I know many people say that you can make more at a warehouse, which is probably true these days. But do you get the freedom of working without someone breathing over your shoulder?

When I worked at the airport, we were constantly being watched by supervisors, safety supervisors, managers, security and other stupidity. Trucking let's you be free from all that.

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HighwayStar71@reddit

Really? What about all the cameras that have AI and the radar and speed monitoring?

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poutinelover6@reddit

I don't have those cameras. Just in cab, never have heard anything in the two years we installed them.

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ivyentre@reddit

I have a Bachelor's degree and an HVAC license.

If I left now, even after 10 years, I probably wouldn't come anywhere close to the amount of money I make now.

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Miserable_Quail_5780@reddit (OP)

Whats your bachelors in?

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ivyentre@reddit

English

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LethalRex75@reddit

That’ll do it

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Miserable_Quail_5780@reddit (OP)

Im assuming you wanted to be a teacher once apon a time

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-Clem@reddit

I don't know any other job I can do where I'm alone all day and make 90k a year.

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Naborsx21@reddit

Ehhh , truckings been alright to me. I have said you get pigeon holed into it.

I don't really want to go anywhere else, going back and working "normal jobs" sounds like a nightmare to me. I've been OTR since I was 22, before that I worked on oil rigs, before that I was at any Ivy League school studying German and Chinese.

I've tried getting different jobs and considered doing other things but they all just... suck.

I'm really shy and most people I've worked around on other jobs assume I'm mentally slow, so I ended up hating working with coworkers anyways.

Now I'm an oo and things are p decent, I just drive around America at night and no one even knows I exist. Truly the pinnacle of freedom.

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sobesobesobe@reddit

If I can’t wear flip flops it’s not happening

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yamahamama61@reddit

Lol. This. An I get to sit all day.

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OkSeaworthiness251@reddit

If jobs offered as much freedom and money as trucking there would be way more defectors. I make 65k a year dryvan only turning 2500-2700 a week not being bothered and never rushed I couldn’t find a desk job equivalent unless I was a mid level manager or something of that nature.

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