I hear you. I'm 41, and earlier this year took a job wfh doing surveys for a market research company. Prior to this I worked for a different market research company as a supervisor, so it was a bit more money but got absolutely sick to the back teeth of looking after staff that couldn't go to the bog without smearing their outages from their back-passages around the toilet bowl, the constant bickering between staff, honestly there are some shocking stories but I'd be here all day if I start going into it! Now with this current job, it's ok ish, it's low pay but is at least flexible and as an introvert I enjoy wfh.
What keeps me sane, is having my Etsy shop. It makes me very, very little but I'm building it up, and learning. I love to make things. So it feels like my brain is kept active with learning about all the elements of running my own little business which I hope will one day will earn me a regular income.
At heart, I'm done with working for someone else, and just dealing with everything that goes along with that. When I was 13 I got my first job in a cafe. The manager used to threaten his wife at knife point in the kitchen. If I ever thought back then, that was not really a typical experience of how work-places are, then I was deluded. Fast forward a number of decades and I've witnessed violence (had to report a different manager to the police for domestic violence - this was in a pub I worked in for a brief spell), had 3 colleagues commit suicide (from 2 different work-places), 2 staff members sent to jail for attempted murder (catering agency I worked at), witnessed multiple episodes of bullying in more than 1 place (one time I worked for a place where the assistant manager was carrying a dictaphone in her pocket to record how vile the manager was, for evidence for higher up management), and again the list just goes on. Having a job has started to feel like a traumatic experience that must be endured if I'm honest.
Remind yourselves of all the other things in your life that make life worth living. The good people, the hobbies and interests, good food, and get regular exercise. Otherwise the balance feels like the mind just focuses far too much on the crap of working life.
There's a lot of people who feel like this and I know that my weird experiences are not unique. I've hear some shockers from people I know who have also had a really hard time in workplaces. Most of us just want to turn up, get a job done, and have basic pleasantries with those we work for, and with. Why is that sooooo difficult to find?
I totally understand why people don't want to work, and each to their own but at this point I'm convinced that getting stuck in and learning how to run your own small business, doing what you love, is the way forward.