Don�t give up the day job
March 04, 2002 ~ 6:49 p.m.
I have just been offered a job. A day job.
The salary that I have been quoted is substantially higher than the one I�m earning now. The job is at a university that I have worked for before (probably a factor in me getting the position), so I am already familiar with the place. I can go swimming in the sports center during lunchtimes, and I do love to swim. The university is located just across the street from the lovely Hyde Park. And best of all, my wife also works at the university. If my hours are the same as hers, we could come home together (or, this being London, wait around hours for a train to catch home together.)
But wait a second. What about the nightdragon? One would expect this scenario to be causing me a major dilemma, right? Not exactly.
I can tell you this much: My heart will always belong to the night. I can still indulge my night tendencies during the weekends. But at the moment, I literally cannot afford to be a creature of the night. At no time since I worked at a supermarket during my college years did I ever make as little money as I�m making now. Even then, I had supplementary income from the college newspaper that I worked and wrote for. But this is the here and now�I have no second job and I am living from paycheck to paycheck, and I desperately want a savings account again. By the time I�ve paid for the mortgage and the groceries and other assorted bills, I�m left with just barely enough to make it for the rest of the month. If you think that�s bad, I was scandalized to learn that day staff at the company I work for make even less than I. At this stage, I want to leave the company based on principle. How can any company be so tight-fisted? (I passionately believe that if you cannot afford to pay your employees what their positions are worth, then do not go into business.) I�ve managed to survive six months living this way, but I cannot manage for much longer. I�ve had enough.
Furthermore, I do miss central London, as frustrating as it can be, and would like to work in the heart of the city again. This was just as true for me when I lived back home. Work somehow never seemed as real or as satisfying whenever I worked outside Boston. I needed a trip into the city every day in order to feel as though I�d accomplished something. It would appear that central London has just as strong a magnetic force on me as downtown Boston did.
This much is pretty clear�if I ever get the chance to work nights again at a salary high enough for me to live on comfortably and doing work I really enjoy�such as graphic design�I will jump at the chance. Watching television commercials at the equivalent of $7.50 per hour ain�t doing it for me. I love the nights, but I love job satisfaction and a reasonable salary even more. I will survive.
Also, on the plus side, within a month, I�ll be able to watch TV again without wincing at the commercials because I won�t have to encounter them at my job. I�m sure the wide, wide world of advertising can get along fine without me. I know for sure that I can get along without them just fine. In fact, good riddance.
� M.E.M.
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Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
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