Althouse: "The frustrating/strange/down right annoying thing is, I frequently hear things like 'that's not a real job'...:

March 26, 2015

"The frustrating/strange/down right annoying thing is, I frequently hear things like 'that's not a real job'...:

"... 'you can't possibly make enough money doing that!,' 'that's only a temporary thing, right?' and '"what are you going to do after this?' But what is a 'real job'?.... Is blogging not a real job because you can't go to school for it or because you don't need a resume to do it? Is it not a real job because you don't need an interview to fill the position or because you don't personally know anyone who does it?... Whatever your answer I assure you, blogging is a real job.... I pay all my own bills with the money I make blogging.... It needs to be acknowledged that any way of supporting yourself even if it isn't traditional, so long as you aren't stealing or hurting anyone, is a real job. It seems awfully silly to criticize someone for making a living doing something they love and enjoy, doesn't it?..."

Writes The Dainty Squid (on a blog I quite like).

I'm all for giving respect to those who can make their living doing free-lance writing (such as blogging), but part of the respect I'd like to give is that you are free lance, you are independent, you have avoided getting a job.

You ask the question "What is a job?" You made that the centerpiece of your thinking, apparently because you're letting people get into your head, demeaning you with the statement that you don't have a job, and that tracks you into arguing for a broader meaning for the word "job" so that what you do gets to be "a job."

But why do you want that? Because it's the word other people use to make you feel bad about your freedom and success?

I'd say: Get the upper hand in these conversations with jerks. You're lucky not to have to work for somebody else in the structured position known as "a job" (to use the narrow definition of the word you'd prefer to stretch). You're an entrepreneur.

When did the job become the standard of a worthy, successful life?

ADDED: I'd say more about the word "job," but it was only a couple months ago that I wrote "5 things about the word 'job.'"

33 comments:

jr565 said...: It's not a job but it does require work.; 3/26/15, 7:35 AM
rhhardin said...: It sounds like he's out of material.; 3/26/15, 7:52 AM
Tank said...: And he looks like a girl.; 3/26/15, 7:56 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Who in their right mind plasters a giant tattoo of a sewing machine across their chest?; 3/26/15, 7:57 AM
rhhardin said...: Jobs are clingy things, like ivy.; 3/26/15, 7:57 AM
Tank said...: Donald Trump doesn't have "a job" either. This is just the difference between working for yourself or someone else. Most people need "a job." They can't, or don't want to, work for themselves. Althouse now has both (although I don't have any idea what the blog brings in).

Try making a living as a freelance writer. Tough.; 3/26/15, 7:58 AM
Phil 314 said...: She has mainly a female following.

Comments so affirming.

You go girl!

Yugo girl.; 3/26/15, 7:59 AM
Larry J said...: In one sense, a job is when you work to earn the money you need to survive. If you start your own business, you've created a job for yourself and you're working for your customers. If someone can earn enough income by blogging, that's his/her job.; 3/26/15, 8:11 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: "When did the job become the standard of a worthy, successful life?"

Althouse, that is summed up in Rule #47 of Pimping. Pimpin’ Is What You Do, Not Who You Are.

I am Laslo.; 3/26/15, 8:25 AM
Curious George said...: "When did the job become the standard of a worthy, successful life?"

More importantly, why did it STOP!??; 3/26/15, 8:28 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: Pimp rule #25: Grind for Your Shine.

I should point out that this advice is available through the Althouse Portal: Pimpology: The 48 Laws of the Game.

I am Laslo.; 3/26/15, 8:32 AM
jimbino said...: A job! As Mark Twain noted, God ruined it all at the start by not forbidding eating of the Serpent instead.; 3/26/15, 8:37 AM
chillblaine said...: The interesting/curious/fascinating thing to me is that a blog head like Althouse visits other blogs, including one by a tattoo gal who uses forward slashes.

It's like finding out that Wes Anderson likes to watch chick flicks.; 3/26/15, 8:41 AM
sinz52 said...: Work is what you do when you'd rather be doing something else.

If someday you don't feel like doing it, but you just gotta do it either for pay or to maintain your reputation, then it's a job.

If it's something you do when you really, really want to do it, then it's a hobby or an avocation.; 3/26/15, 8:46 AM
Lewis Wetzel said...: I wish Paul Reubens had a blog. Oh, wait, he does!!!
http://peewee.com/
Is Dainty Squid Bjork's sister? If so, they could get married and blog about it.; 3/26/15, 8:46 AM
Ron said...: A job stopped being a standard when employers found it better for their business to give it to someone in another country or a robot. Why connect your identity to something so capricious?; 3/26/15, 8:53 AM
CStanley said...: But why do you want that? Because it's the word other people use to make you feel bad about your freedom and success?

One might ask a similar question to a group of people who want "marriage". All of these folks enjoy nonconformity but at the same time want to destroy the idea of conformity itself, which doesn't make sense. During this period of social change it is the conformists who are unhappy but it's hard to imagine that the nonconformists will ultimately be satisfied with the changes they've wrought. What do you do when your identity is built on rebellion but there is no longer anything to rebel against?; 3/26/15, 8:53 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "She has mainly a female following."

Women read more than men do, so if you want success as a writer, writing for women is the better strategy.; 3/26/15, 8:58 AM
rhhardin said...: Men comment more.; 3/26/15, 10:17 AM
jimbino said...: Men are much less risk-averse, which makes Obamacare especially galling, since it subsidizes female breeding, childbirth, contraceptives and STD treatment at a great cost to young, single, childfree men, who hardly ever go to a doctor, much less want to pay through the nose for insurance to cover risk.; 3/26/15, 10:31 AM
Bilwick said...: In my experience, jobs pretty much suck. I think of a line in RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, wherein a wife complains to her husband that her new job is awful. "They're all awful," he tells her: "That's why they have to pay you to do them."

I was once telling the Human Resources guy in a company I worked for how, at one time, I could happily write in my spare time while having this day job to pay the rent, but that the nature of the day jobs were starting to get me down, with feelings of depression that drained energy from my writing. I said, "And yet I hear people--even people in this company--who say they like their jobs and how much they enjoy coming to work!" "Maybe," he said; "but you have to ask yourself: if those people won a million dollar lottery, how many seconds do you think it would take them to run out the front door?" Words to ponder.; 3/26/15, 11:42 AM
rhhardin said...: I never had a job I didn't like.; 3/26/15, 12:02 PM
Mountain Maven said...: " I'd like to give is that you are free lance, you are independent, you have avoided getting a job. "

Ann, you may make more money on your Amazon royalties than your cushy prof job. So don't go bagging on the self-employed. I always liked my work better and made more when I didn't have a boss.; 3/26/15, 12:12 PM
Balfegor said...: Hmm. I'm a lawyer, and I work hard, but I occasionally say things like "I've never had a real job." Because it's mostly indoor work, no heavy lifting, not regimented 9-5 labour, intermittently interesting, etc., it's work sure, but it's not what I'd think of as a "real" job. I feel endlessly fortunate that we members of the minor scholar-gentry are able to make a living like this.; 3/26/15, 12:38 PM
Balfegor said...: Re: Wm Chadwick:

"Maybe," he said; "but you have to ask yourself: if those people won a million dollar lottery, how many seconds do you think it would take them to run out the front door?" Words to ponder.

Not too many, I would hope. Especially for a young man, idleness is a horrible thing. Saps willpower, turns men to dissipation and all the rest.

Also, one million dollars won't go all that far today -- a bunch of it will be taken in taxes up front, and then, the remainder might be enough to get you a modest house in LA. Or an efficiency in NYC. Or a neighbourhood in Detroit.; 3/26/15, 12:44 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: When did the job become the standard of a worthy, successful life?

Most people feel they need a boss telling them what to do in order to give meaning to their lives. Most people are right about that.; 3/26/15, 12:45 PM
LYNNDH said...: We went to a grommet dinner the other night. 5 courses, 5 wines, good food. Across for us was a former structural engineer. Lost his job, created a new one as farrier. He said last yr he made $90k and loves his work. Job? Maybe.; 3/26/15, 2:00 PM
Larry J said...: When did the job become the standard of a worthy, successful life?

I've met some Aussies in my travels. Great people. They often say, "You Americans live to work. We Australians work to live." It's a different attitude. They seem happy, at least the ones I've met.; 3/26/15, 3:39 PM
Abdul Abulbul Amir said...: A real job is a productive job. A productive job is one in which more wealth is created than consumed.; 3/26/15, 4:05 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Blogging, like playing baseball, is a wonderful activity -- but it's real hard to make money doing it.

Most people know this. Hence, most people view blogging as a hobby, not real a job.

That Ms. Dainty Squib is vexed by this is somewhat disingenuous.

If she were to tell us that she made $100K last year blogging, she would have a point. That would be a "real job." If she made $48 bucks and a coupon for a free ham sandwich, while her parents continue to subsidize her, well, then her blogging is not a real job.; 3/26/15, 4:47 PM
Larry J said...: Red Foreman on work.; 3/26/15, 4:48 PM
MadisonMan said...: Had to look up the word farrier. I'd seen it before, in Peter Wimsey stories, I think. But my memory is 50+ years old!

I don't get the train of thought that blogging isn't a job. It pays her bills, ergo it's a job.; 3/26/15, 6:00 PM
Bob R said...: I had this "what is a real job" argument a decade or two ago with my brother-in-law. His position (or maybe it was the beer talking) was that a real job involved regimentation of time and place. If (like me at the time) there were only a few hours of the week where your boss expected you to be at a specific place, it wasn't a real job. That seems to be a pretty common belief. Seem to mean that for a lot of people, the main part of the job description is "show up."; 3/27/15, 5:34 AM