Having made the decision to leave the nice safe world of working for others you sometimes wonder if you have done the right thing. Usually days when there are bills but no work, they always focus attention on the lack of a regular pay cheque. Today was not one of those days. Today in fact was quite the opposite. I went up to my local quilt shop, to drop off some work and to pick up a couple of pieces of fabric I needed. While I was there I got to meet some interesting people who may be able to help me further my business,. It was all very friendly and relaxed though, not an office or conference room in sight.
On the way home I decided to catch up with a friend. This meant I needed to walk past one of those big open plan offices. All these people crammed together at little desks, looking so miserable. Lots of shirts and ties, and 'proper' office clothes. There were a couple of people in one corner who had managed to kick off their shoes, but they didn't look any happier. I watched the people chatting outside, then seeing their faces drop as the break came to an end and they had to go back to their desks. OK they are secure (ish at least) but then so are caged animals. It was both depressing and uplifting. It reassured me that I have made the right decision, I don't want to be caged in an office. I don't want to be doing pointless jobs for people who don't know what they have just asked for but think it might make them money. I certainly don't want to be working silly hours to make someone else into a millionaire.
I love what I do, OK there are days when I wonder where the next months bills will come from. There are days when I need to work 18 hours to get everything done, but at the end of the day I am doing it for my future not for someone I don't even know. People have told me how brave it is to start a business, nope I am just more scared of being stuck in a normal job.
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3 comments:
I'm glad you're happy in your life decision. Please be aware that the people you are looking down on in their office "cubicles" are somehow supporting your life-decision. They may be pushing papers to file your insurance claims or processing your last phone bill or writing the news articles you read in your daily newspaper. Even though you are not "caged" in an office you are living a lifestyle that demands that others are "caged" as you call it. Your observations are interesting but narrow and demeaning to a large number of workers who support you by working at "their little desks, looking so miserable wearing lots of shirts and ties, and 'proper' office clothes." Creating art is important but so are the millions of other jobs out there. As an artist, you are no more important than any other worker out there. Accountants, lawyers, computer programmers, janitors, secretaries want to know who you are to judge us this way. Oh, yeah, Nude with Rope.
Is it really essential for those jobs to be done in that environment? I am not convinced. Maybe I am rather idealistic but I see no reason why office jobs could not be actively fun jobs to do. That was my chosen career path after all. I hope that there are offices where the staff are happy, where all level work well together and co-operate to earn everyone a fair living. Those who have the ideas and teh drive to start these businesses are welcome to earn more than those they employ to help it all work, but the people I saw were not happy, they were not content to get back to their desks, and I do think that is wrong. Peoples lives should not have to be made miserable to earn a living.
The best thing about your comment, is you are angry. If you're angry you care, if you care maybe you will change things, and in so doing change my point of view.
Sorry you took it as looking down on these people, I don,t but I do have a lot ask me how I am so brave to stop doing it. I'm not I'm just far more scared of where they are.
Volunteer opportunities at our school are broken down into "time, talent and treasures" categories because not everyone wants to, or has the means to, or is willing to do the same thing. Parents who have gobs of money to pay other people to do the actual work are just as important as the parents who have the time and energy and skills to donate. Some people love the security of a 9-5 in the same place, doing the same thing, day after day after day. My husband is one of those people. I'm not. He doesn't understand how I can get up every morning and create something from nothing out of my head any more than I can understand his rigid routine at his office. That doesn't make either one of us better or worse than the other though.
The world could no more exist with nothing but office workers and no artists than it could with nothing but artists and no office workers.
I didn't detect any condescension in the original post, just an observation of different working styles as applied to a specific person and specific circumstances. I sort of feel the same way. Really, really thankful I'm not stuck in an office all day.
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