Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Counselor at a non-profit community mental health clinic.

Oh that sounds interesting Meggs!

I'm a bankruptcy lawyer who worked on Wall Street (investment banks and white shoe law firms) and is now taking time off to be home with my baby. Its the most fun job ever! I worked for The Man, and now for the kidlet :)

But how does you being underpaid and getting no benefits mean that other people who don't are privileged?

The kinds of jobs I was thinking about were some of my friends who are artists, writers, crafters, nannies, dog walkers, musicians, photographers, small business owners and their employees.

I'm a nanny and I am underpaid and get no benefits.

When I worked for a nonprofit I had fabulous benefits but still made very little money especially considering I worked 70 hour weeks.

I also never used my health insurance in over a year of having it because it was too much of a pain to get time off.

Yeah, I don't know what I was trying to say there. Sorry. I need to think more before I post.

I am starting a not-for-profit. So technically I am the man. Hubby works non-profit too.

I'm a full time student studying Politics and Comparative American Studies (undergrad). I also work part-time in the student union building, tutor in a sixth-grade classroom, am a peer writing tutor, and work as a peer counselor at the sexual information center. Trying to figure out what to do with myself post-grad (next year).

I'm a part time corporate/event/marketing/music photographer.

Whoa there. We are living the dream and that is surely reward enough. Who needs fair wage or health insurance or other Man things when you are living that dream? Artists don't need to be well compensated for their work because it's really just funsies time for them. Bring on the funsies!

Totally agree!!! Art is its own reward.

Office Admin for a department in a quickly growing energy efficiency company. Basically, catch all. I sort of work for the man I guess.

We should just give what we do away for free! I mean, I don't think other people should even have to pay for the costs, since we're the ones to get to have all the funsies.

Man, story of my life. And I'm paying for my health insurance, but finding time to see a doctor is too much of a pain in the asparagus to bother.

I'm a social worker and attorney. Apparently I don't know how to pick just one career.

I have a temporary job that I hate selling tickets at a Christmas theme park whilst I apply to uni.

<3<3<3

I eat and pay my bills with fun and dreams.

Funny story about this question: I was at a wedding recently, chatting with a person I did not know. They ask what I do, and I say honestly that I am working on some writing and art projects and at a free community bike shop, and idosomeboringtempworktopaythebills.They wanted to know ALL about the shitty bill paying jobs. what the fizzle?

Anyhow, my "real" career was as a newspaper reporter, which I gave up because it was stressful, traumatic work that ate my whole life, paid very little, and none of the jobs i spent years working toward really exist any more. Plus, it really limits what you can do in your spare time, in terms of ethical considerations and just having no time/energy.

I'm a PhD student and an instructional designer. I also freelance and adjunct here and there. I totally mooch off the man to support myself while I'm in school.

If someone told me they worked temp jobs, I think I'd ask what sort of temp jobs (not a detailed description) just because I'd be curious.

I guess what was weird to me is, I'm pretty passionate and excited about almost everything I do in my life, except the stuff I do for a regular paycheck. This would be obvious to anyone who talks to me. I can see being curious and asking what type of temp work, but if I'm making idle conversation with a stranger, I'd be far more interested in hearing about what excites them vs. how they pay bills.

I'm a buyer for the US branch of a European pharmaceutical company. It's not thrilling but it pays the bills, and it pays pretty well for this area of the country where wages are notoriously low. We're in a really niche market and don't manufacture traditional drugs, so I am mostly able to reconcile working in pharma with being vegan. Most days.

I'm a baker at the local coop. Great coworkers, good pay, good benefits, working for an employer who reinvests in the community, and I get to bake stuff (about half vegan) all day. It's pretty perfect.

I work in a school district doing boring data-entry type stuff. I hate it but I really don't know what I really want to do.

i bolster the patriarchy and flaunt my privilege by fastidiously correcting other people's spelling and grammatical errors for too little money and no benefits. but i get to work in my pajamas with my cat in my lap, so it's all good.

This is totally me! I've always seen jobs as a means to an end, not my passionate pursuit. My passionate pursuits come outside of paid work but yeah, when I tell people my purposefully dull employment history, I sound like an unpromotable loser who's been doing the same thing for twenty-four years whereas I see what I do as the key to making my creative pursuits possible (flexibility of work hours and a job that doesn't sap my energy via dumb office politics and endless work stress so I maintain the energy to write). My job pays my bills and is a good one and I'm really grateful for it but Lard, it's a boring subject and I really don't want to talk much at all about it.

Right now I wait tables in a vegan restaurant and teach cooking classes and help people throw parties to make the $$$. What up recession / late 20's crisis about the quality of life when working full time and not being broke vs. not working much and being totally broke! But, I'm an independent curator, former art dealer, and aspiring director of an artist residency program. Sometimes I make and write things too, but mostly I'm on the side of supporting artists in their work. I'd sort of like to work for the man for a while, it's been years since I've had health insurance.