It’s Monday morning. You open your eyes, and the pit of your stomach tightens into a hard knot. You could just cry. You ask yourself, “Why?” But you already know why. “What other choice do I have,” you think to yourself. You sit up on the side of the bed. You can picture your supervisor’s face, and you want to vomit. You’ve tried every “get-rich-quick” program. You’ve played everybody’s birthday, phone number, and grocery store receipt totals in the lottery, plus that $300 you blew in Vegas. DAMN! Still nothing!

How many more years of your soul do you have to give to “The Man?” Years? How will you make it through the day? How do you keep your teeth clinched together and keep yourself from screaming when you boss makes demands that are impossible? “Your numbers are down,” (s)he says. Remember, not long after you finally met your quota, the numbers changed. You got up to fifty, and some upper echelon ass raised it to 60.

You look over at the clock, and shake your head in disgust. You look at the phone. How many more unexcused absences can you have before it counts against you? You look in the bathroom mirror, and you don’t like the changes you see in your face. Your eyes used to twinkle-- now they’re red, puffy, and welled with tears. If someone slapped a blood pressure cuff on you right now, what would it read? Remember when the only time you had a prescription filled was when you had a really bad cold. Now you take Zoloft for anxiety, Relpax for migraines, and Prevacid for acid reflux. You need this job, too. How else are can you afford the medical insurance and the copays for all the medications that your on now? God help if you had to pay out of pocket! Do you think you’d need these meds if you didn’t have to spend eight hours a day in a place you don’t want to go, working for a boss you despise, doing a job that you hate? If money wasn’t an issue, what type of work do you love enough to do it for free?

You may have to file a claim with EEOC, or just get a lawyer on your own. I say, if you can sue them-- sue them! Your well-being is worth way more than any salary you can make.