I wanted to provide my thoughts on the repeat posts I see, hopefully nudge those souls in the right direction and perhaps even start moving away from the tendency of repetition any regulars see (if only for a week or two). I didn't spell, grammar or edit this. I might when I re-read it later.
If anyone is interested, I'll be happy to do a 'number 2' post in a few days. But below is the number one repeated point I see on this sub, so here's my 2 cents.
- "How did you get a job working from home?!? That's my dream!"
This is the most common /r/Simpleliving comment, irrespective of the post. A significant portion of us see working from home as some holy grail of simple living. Perhaps for some it is. Perhaps for some it isn't. The fact of the matter is that if you're in a job you dislike, around people you dislike, you naturally want a change.
But working from home has a whole other set of challenges. Motivation, drive, discipline, I'd even go so far as to say social skills (which may slightly decline). 'Working from home' put front and center in the 'simple living' lifestyle gallery is a byproduct of a reason a significant amount of subredditors are here: you're over worked, under paid, unhappy in what you do, and day dreaming about an escape.
Working from home provides freedom, not simplicity. For some, the two are intrinsically connected. For others, less so. But do not believe working from home is a silver bullet for accessing a simpler life. Quite the opposite dependent on your definition of 'simple living'. The vast majority of 'home workers' are independent contractors. Your responsibilities are significantly higher, the risks are normally higher and the complexities of taxation, living space, maintaining your own office, your spouse's personal space (they get zero alone time), self care... the list goes on and on.
Removing travel time and the joylessness of stationary in peak hour traffic is one of the many benefits of working from home, but arguably the simplicity ends there. Your office is cleaned. Your schedule is set. Your computer is maintained. Perhaps your lunch is taken care of. Accounting pays you the same amount, month in, month out. Your job security is (comparatively) high...
...but we all know deep within us that the real reason this comment comes up time and time again has nothing to do with the reality... it's to do with the toxicity of modern society.
'To be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society is no measure of health'. It's the quite desperation you feel in your commute. In that meeting. In that awful spreadsheet. It's the mundane conversation, day in, day out about how your weekend was, and then how your weekend will be. It's the mono-tonal hum of pure white florescent lighting, ringing in your ears, every day. Forever.
That's why you want to 'work from home'. Not because it's simple, not because it's easy. But because it's necessary. It's necessary for you to live. The question was never 'how did you get a job working from home', the question was always "How did you escape this system?"
And, what is the answer to that question? The question that's nearly a mantra for this sub? How did you get a job working from home? How did you escape?
I'm a pretty private guy. I delete my reddit account once every few weeks or so. Shortly I'll be doing the same. Funnily enough the answer is related.
You escape this system by finding an alternative, fighting for an alternative, never giving up on searching for an alternative. But it will always come down to a point where you need to let go. You need to jump off the cliff. You need to remove the rope. There will be a point in your life where you're going to need to sacrifice what you perceive as 'security' in order to escape. In order to 'work from home'. You might fail. And if you do, you'll have learned something. You'll not fail in that way the next time. It's never easy. It's never 'simple' to become self reliant, to 'be your own boss' and 'set your own hours' and 'work from home'. But the vast majority of the people who have read up until this point can and should do it. It's possible, but nobody on the internet can tell you exactly how. You must be creative. You must sacrifice. You must learn something new and carve your own niche. Become the person that knows more about something than anyone else. Become a specialist. Work at it for years, and if you can't work on it any more then work on something else, eventually weaving the two together.
Is that simple? Hell no. But will you, asker of this question, be happier? Yes, you will.
I work about 6-8 hours a week, in total, from home, and earn around the 6 figure mark. I work for a company (not self-employed, but have been). If that ain't simple living I don't know what is. I used to be paycheck to paycheck, tethered to a desk, sitting in pointless meetings. But then I decided to leave the system. I quit in Costanzaesque style, with no prospects. I hustled as a writer, and slipped into a little debt as I tried to carve my own corner of a industry. Then I began then getting contracts in my actual field of study. I became 'that guy' in a particular area. Eventually I signed on to where I am now.
But the point I'm trying to make is that you must simply do something, and you must risk a lot (mostly job/financial security) in order to work from home. You must create your own value by becoming valuable. There is no magical online job board that will help you. There is no special job that's your golden ticket. This world is not what it used to be. You have no job security. You are a rat in a wheel. Reject that. From one millennial to whoever you are out there: the playbook rotted away a long time ago. Reject this system.
Edit: Wow. Points missed on vast majority of readers. My point is that working from home is not a necessary part of simple living. My point is that it's hard to work from home AND still have free time.
This is a creative writing exercise, providing a societal observation that the vast majority of you have all missed.
Submitted May 27, 2019 at 11:40AM by CalmResort http://bit.ly/2QpWuPi
