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Screenshots of texts with your freaking boss are taking over Twitter

I quit!

Christianna Silva

on October 21, 2021

Screenshots of texts with your freaking boss are taking over Twitter

That's not very labor shortage of you Credit: Getty Images/ Mint Images RF/ Twitter/ @justinkcomer/ Twitter/ @dannysfuntime

You must have heard by now: there's a labor shortage, and not all bosses are acting like it.

Take a peek at the subreddit r/antiwork and you'll see more than 700,000 members have joined the group over the past two years, according to Business Insider. It's mirroring a trend across the nation.

The shortage is one of the many effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the economy. It's giving workers more opportunities and has led to what economists are calling the "Great Resignation," with millions of workers nationwide leaving their jobs. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that more workers are willing to walk away from their jobs, and the U.S. Labor Department's monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey shows that there were 10.4 million job openings in August while the number of people quitting their jobs hit 4.3 million — that's the highest level on record, according to CNBC.

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On the r/antiwork subreddit, some workers have been posting screenshots of text exchanges in which they tell their bosses they're quitting. It spans from the banal to the extreme, and it led to a whole host of folks creating what we can only assume are very obviously fake exchanges between people and their freaking bosses.

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All jokes aside, this also comes amid a national unionization movement across industries in a fight for better treatment. From Deere & Co.’s factories to nurses, workers are demanding more time off, higher pay, and better benefits from their jobs because, with a labor shortage, they can. The month has even been dubbed "Striketober."

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Christianna Silva

Senior Culture Reporter

Christianna Silva is a senior culture reporter covering social platforms and the creator economy, with a focus on the intersection of social media, politics, and the economic systems that govern us. Since joining Mashable in 2021, they have reported extensively on meme creators, content moderation, and the nature of online creation under capitalism.

Before joining Mashable, they worked as an editor at NPR and MTV News, a reporter at Teen Vogue and VICE News, and as a stablehand at a mini-horse farm. You can follow her on Bluesky @christiannaj.bsky.social and Instagram @christianna_j.