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He has health problems. That is the same reason I do freelance work. Additionally, the economy is seeing a general uptick in gig work and a general downtick in

by Mz 9y ago

He has health problems. That is the same reason I do freelance work. Additionally, the economy is seeing a general uptick in gig work and a general downtick in full time employee positions. I have run into a number of people online who have been job hunting for a year or more, to no avail. I tell them all the same thing: You may not be able to find a job, but that doesn't mean you cannot have an earned income. Go looking for gig work while you keep job hunting. While I would dearly love to be you, my health makes that impossible. Modern medicine has created a lot of people who lived that would have died a hundred years earlier, but they may never be genuinely hale and hardy. They limp along as best they can. I do not qualify for disability, but a regular job is a problem for me. Gig work has been a better answer, though I kind of hate it because I value security and social status. So I would much rather have a job and a brag worthy title. That simply was not working for me. I was running up crazy levels of debt when I had a corporate job, in part because that lifestyle just does not work for me. I have been paying down debt while making a lot less money doing freelance work. Good for you. You go. But you are very fortunate. Not everyone can pull that off, even if they desperately want to.

vinceguidry 9y ago
If you learn a lucrative enough skill, and the basics of negotiation, then you can find a corporate job that can fit your needs. I have a friend with narcolepsy, he worked ten years at a company that let him come in whenever he wanted to, usually around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. What I would do in your position would be to be very clear in a job interview what health conditions you have that must be accommodated for. Once you start the job, find a routine that works. And then don't let anyone pressure you into deviating from your routine. They need to accommodate you, not the other way around. Eventually it'll get fixed into the company firmament and you'll have your security.
- Mz 9y ago
  I wasn't asking for advice. And you are ignoring large parts of my point, such as the fact that there are fewer full time jobs and more gig work. Some people simply will have no real choice here, your insistence to the contrary not withstanding.
  - vinceguidry 9y ago
    Okay, fine. But that wasn't the case for the author. He was happy to have gotten fired. He thanked his manager for letting him go. Having another job, ever, was completely off the table, not an option. This is not a rational mindset. Yours might be, you don't seem to want to share your thought process and I'm sure you have your reasons for that. But his clearly isn't.
    - Mz 9y ago
      Just because he does not articulate that "I have health problems, thus a normal job does not work for me" does not mean that isn't baked into his choices. He was apparently relieved when he was fired because the job wasn't really working for him. The lack of that observation may mean he isn't the most stellar author ever. Or it may mean he is not some font of wisdom and his explanations are sort of half-baked. But none of that is evidence that his choices were irrational. It doesn't have to be the same choice you would make for it to be rational. And I don't owe you justification for my life choices. It is obnoxious to imply that I do. I haven't dismissed nor attacked your life choices. I have merely pointed out the obvious-on-the-face-of-it fact that your life is different from his and this creates different decision trees and different outcomes. That's it.
      - kadavy 9y ago
        Hi, I'm the author. Thanks for reading and commenting. To clear it all up, yes, I had health problems even at the time, and still do. I didn't realize how much the condition was affecting me until several years after I started on my own. Now I know that it caused me to make more emotional decisions, to have a short fuse, and to tire easily. It still does. As I reflect on it, I try not to make that too much of a factor. It's one of those mysterious impossible-to-indentify conditions. I still marvel that a person can go to an office every day, work around all of those people, and not need to take a nap in the middle of the day. In the rare days that I really feel good, suddenly "normal" people make sense. But that quickly slips away. I don't want to make that a part of my rationalization of my decisions, though it likely played a large part. Anyway, I think I explained the rationale behind my irrationality in my post so I'll let that do the rest.
- rwallace 9y ago
  > If you learn a lucrative enough skill, and the basics of negotiation, then you can find a corporate job that can fit your needs. I have a friend with narcolepsy, he worked ten years at a company that let him come in whenever he wanted to, usually around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. How? Not a rhetorical question; most people, even with a lucrative skill and the basics of negotiation, don't manage that. How did your friend pull it off?
  - vinceguidry 9y ago
    It's not that hard, if you have a lucrative skill. You get an understanding manager, explain the situation, and ask for the accommodation. If you don't get it, change jobs. If you have a lucrative skill, then you can keep doing changing jobs until you have one you like. If you don't have a lucrative skill, your first priority should be getting one. These days you can swipe a credit card to go to code school. Or just save up. Code school grads still get snapped up as soon as they graduate. Not everybody likes to code, but hey, it's better than not having a job.
    - coldtea 9y ago
      >It's not that hard, if you have a lucrative skill. If you have a lucrative skill you'd be an idiot to go work for someone else. You can have your own business and have clients coming to YOU, and get to keep all the profit, and grow the business too. So, somehow your definition of lucrative skill is "lucrative, but only if you're a salaried employee".
      - s73ver 9y ago
        Meh. I'd either have to do all the business crap, which I have no interest in doing, or I'd have to pay someone to do it, which would get rid of those profits.
        coldtea 9y ago
        Depending on the skill, "all the business crap" is usually minimal, and millions of freelancers have no problems do it. The business side is only a hassle at scale, at which case, you can afford to hire some assistants.

by Mz 9y ago

vinceguidry 9y ago

If you learn a lucrative enough skill, and the basics of negotiation, then you can find a corporate job that can fit your needs. I have a friend with narcolepsy, he worked ten years at a company that let him come in whenever he wanted to, usually around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. What I would do in your position would be to be very clear in a job interview what health conditions you have that must be accommodated for. Once you start the job, find a routine that works. And then don't let anyone pressure you into deviating from your routine. They need to accommodate you, not the other way around. Eventually it'll get fixed into the company firmament and you'll have your security.

Mz 9y ago
I wasn't asking for advice. And you are ignoring large parts of my point, such as the fact that there are fewer full time jobs and more gig work. Some people simply will have no real choice here, your insistence to the contrary not withstanding.
- vinceguidry 9y ago
  Okay, fine. But that wasn't the case for the author. He was happy to have gotten fired. He thanked his manager for letting him go. Having another job, ever, was completely off the table, not an option. This is not a rational mindset. Yours might be, you don't seem to want to share your thought process and I'm sure you have your reasons for that. But his clearly isn't.
  - Mz 9y ago
    Just because he does not articulate that "I have health problems, thus a normal job does not work for me" does not mean that isn't baked into his choices. He was apparently relieved when he was fired because the job wasn't really working for him. The lack of that observation may mean he isn't the most stellar author ever. Or it may mean he is not some font of wisdom and his explanations are sort of half-baked. But none of that is evidence that his choices were irrational. It doesn't have to be the same choice you would make for it to be rational. And I don't owe you justification for my life choices. It is obnoxious to imply that I do. I haven't dismissed nor attacked your life choices. I have merely pointed out the obvious-on-the-face-of-it fact that your life is different from his and this creates different decision trees and different outcomes. That's it.
    - kadavy 9y ago
      Hi, I'm the author. Thanks for reading and commenting. To clear it all up, yes, I had health problems even at the time, and still do. I didn't realize how much the condition was affecting me until several years after I started on my own. Now I know that it caused me to make more emotional decisions, to have a short fuse, and to tire easily. It still does. As I reflect on it, I try not to make that too much of a factor. It's one of those mysterious impossible-to-indentify conditions. I still marvel that a person can go to an office every day, work around all of those people, and not need to take a nap in the middle of the day. In the rare days that I really feel good, suddenly "normal" people make sense. But that quickly slips away. I don't want to make that a part of my rationalization of my decisions, though it likely played a large part. Anyway, I think I explained the rationale behind my irrationality in my post so I'll let that do the rest.
rwallace 9y ago
> If you learn a lucrative enough skill, and the basics of negotiation, then you can find a corporate job that can fit your needs. I have a friend with narcolepsy, he worked ten years at a company that let him come in whenever he wanted to, usually around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. How? Not a rhetorical question; most people, even with a lucrative skill and the basics of negotiation, don't manage that. How did your friend pull it off?
- vinceguidry 9y ago
  It's not that hard, if you have a lucrative skill. You get an understanding manager, explain the situation, and ask for the accommodation. If you don't get it, change jobs. If you have a lucrative skill, then you can keep doing changing jobs until you have one you like. If you don't have a lucrative skill, your first priority should be getting one. These days you can swipe a credit card to go to code school. Or just save up. Code school grads still get snapped up as soon as they graduate. Not everybody likes to code, but hey, it's better than not having a job.
  - coldtea 9y ago
    >It's not that hard, if you have a lucrative skill. If you have a lucrative skill you'd be an idiot to go work for someone else. You can have your own business and have clients coming to YOU, and get to keep all the profit, and grow the business too. So, somehow your definition of lucrative skill is "lucrative, but only if you're a salaried employee".
    - s73ver 9y ago
      Meh. I'd either have to do all the business crap, which I have no interest in doing, or I'd have to pay someone to do it, which would get rid of those profits.
      - coldtea 9y ago
        Depending on the skill, "all the business crap" is usually minimal, and millions of freelancers have no problems do it. The business side is only a hassle at scale, at which case, you can afford to hire some assistants.