The Abyss of Work

Posted on November 20, 2007
Filed Under Deep Thought |

Worrying phone call from the wife this morning, we’re broke.

This necessitates one of three courses of action:

  1. I go out and get a dull time, sorry full time, job.
  2. We sell one of the children into a life of slavery and servitude.
  3. I embark on a career of international super-villianny, steal a nuclear weapon, and hold the world to ransom for 1 billion dollars, mwah ha ha!

Obviously only the first of these options is feasible and unless I can come up with a fourth solution, instead of selling one of the children into a life of servitude I’ll have to sell myself. My problem is that I have worked for others, to make them money, and have hated it. There was nothing I found more satisfying (however underpaid it was) than writing articles for Gaming Moments and having people read them. I think this was for the following reasons:

  1. I enjoyed what I was doing.
  2. I could set my own timetables (whether this was a good thing or not is still up for debate).
  3.  I could tell easily when I was doing a good job and when I was being lazy (My pay was indirectly performance related).

So What To Do Now?

If I go out and get a job it would have to be full time as a part time job would barely cover the childcare costs. The minimum hourly wage in the UK is roughly the same as the hourly cost of childcare, and I’m not kidding myself, any job I get will more than likely be minimum wage. Employers don’t tend to value experienceor knowledge if you’ve been self taught, they put more stock in pieces of paper. The problem with a full time job is that I’d be leaving my son in the hands of a complete stranger for a large proportion of the time and I’m not sure I want to do that. I would miss him terribly and for his part he may never forgive me.

What Am I Good At? 

Without the requisite pieces of paper which employers put so much stock in, that question is quite hard to answer. Lets start with the basics:

  1. I can type, and have a pretty respectable, if not relativistic, typing speed.
  2. I have a vast vocabulary, and I know how to use it.
  3. I am familiar, if not supremely well-versed, in the use of html, CSS, PHP and MySQL.
  4. I know my way around a computer (Windows and Ubuntu).

I’ve been messing about on the web for about 10 years now and have been messing about with computers for a lot longer, I’ve never had a job that used this though, apart form one but we don’t talk about that (If you’re out there Mr Dingwall, I’m still waiting for a paycheque.)

‘Fleece a Wally’ 

My dad introduced me to that phrase, and it has stuck with me throughout my life. A fleece a wally scheme is basically a pipe dream regarding how to make money for very little outlay or effort. I’m always coming up with mad hairbrained ideas which are never followed up. Either because the initial outlay is beyond my means or I lack the knowledge, expertise or motivation to make them happen (also partly because the wife shoots them down by pointing out the impracticalities.) I’m not going to divulge any of them here because if someone else manages to get them to work I’ll feel somewhat hard done to.

So in reality I have two options:

  1. Get a full time slave wage job working to make money for someone else and not having my skills fully appreciated.
  2. Find some way of making money doing what I do now, ie pissing about on the internet and playing computer games whilst looking after my son.

Either way I have to do it soon.

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Comments

One Response to “The Abyss of Work”

  1. Joel on November 26th, 2007 9:25 am

    Keith,
    You commented on my blog about getting a new job, but I think I have to hold off on the whole “get a new job” thing.
    The problem with a new job is that I have a comfortable living now, and getting a new job will require me to change that. I get paid pretty well to do what I do. I also get amazing health benefits, so trying to find a job that has both great pay and benefits is not happening in this town. I also can’t leave this town until I have a new job, sell the house, buy a new one, etc, etc, etc… I know that these are all excuses, but they are pretty compelling ones for me.
    For now, I’m Stuck. Thanks for the comment.

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