When I Need More Money, I Just Work More
Why I’ll never, ever, ever go back to working for a company.
In 2012, I got laid off from the last “real” job I ever had.
I’d worked at a small branch of a relatively large law firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I was the receptionist, and my responsibilities were few. To be honest, they probably should have just moved the HR manager to the front desk and had her do it, because her responsibilities were also few.
Mostly what the HR manager did was fire people. There were only 9 people who worked at our branch. During the year I worked there, 3 people were fired and replaced. Then I was, too.
I’m not sure why any of us were fired. A few months later, I heard, the HR manager also got fired. They were pretty fire-happy at that firm.
Anyway, getting fired turned out to have been one of the best things that ever happened to me. I had recently visited San Francisco to see my sister and people there kept telling me I belonged there. So I said, “What the hell,” sold or gave away everything I couldn’t stuff into my car, and took off for California.
At First I Looked for Full-Time Work
I found an apartment in Oakland, living with a punk guy and whatever girlfriend he’d date then have move in for a minute, then dump. It was a pretty good situation for me because rent was cheap and his girlfriends were always way cool.
I was collecting unemployment but it wouldn’t last forever. I began looking for work at law firms, the same kind of work I’d been doing for years. I got two offers very quickly, but they were extremely low paying for mind-numbingly boring work. I turned those offers down and decided to stop pursuing full-time work.
Instead, I took on various part-time jobs — and it almost feels like I’ve never worked a day since.
My Part-Time Jobs
Very quickly after moving to Oakland, I found three part-time jobs.
- I got paid a high hourly wage by a wealthy disabled woman to do about 13 hours of cooking, cleaning, and errands per week.
- I worked in the kitchen of my favorite Bay Area restaurant with some of the greatest vegan chefs on Earth.
- I helped cook and deliver to-go lunches for a one-woman company.
Those three jobs were each wonderful in some ways, but they all had me doing crap I didn’t really want to do. The disabled woman was the best of the three, since she was and is a super-cool person, and her need for me wasn’t profit-driven.
Then I discovered babysitting through UrbanSitter, and that changed everything.
Babysitting Totally Rules
I love babysitting. I’m good at it and most of the time, it feels more like play than work. Plus, here in the San Francisco Bay, as well as in any large metropolitan area, it pays very well as long as you get good reviews.
I quit all my non-babysitting jobs, but I do make side income from writing. Writing money isn’t exactly reliable, though it does come through in a big way for me every now and then. However, the bulk of my income still comes from looking after kids.
One of the best parts about babysitting through UrbanSitter is, if I need more money, all I have to do is open up some availability on my calendar, and the booking requests will roll in. I set my own hourly rate and I am not compelled to accept bookings I don’t want to take.
Recently, I wanted to join a fiction-writing seminar that would cost me $1000. So what did I do? I opened my availability up for two weekends (I usually only work M-F these days, with one kid that I adore, while her mother works from home) and BAM. I made that extra $1000 easily.
I Really Can’t Hack Ever Working at a Company Again
Technically, I don’t have a boss. Sure, the parents are in charge, that’s true. But parents generally have very reasonable expectations for sitters — keep their kids fed, napped, safe, cleanish, and happy for couple hours. If a parent is a jerk, I don’t have to work for them again. Luckily, that hasn’t been an issue for me.
I remember that at the law firm where I used to work, we were so excited about the free snacks they’d provide for us in the kitchen. Yay, Doritos! Cans of soda!
But during the short time I worked there, they began phasing down then eliminating the free snacks. It harmed the workers’ morale significantly because that tiny joy was the only thing we had to look forward to at work. And I was making so little money, those crappy snacks were important to me.
One of the babysitting jobs I took on to make the extra $1000 was looking after a 2.5-year-old boy while his parents went to a wedding, and his mom left us with a delicious, homemade Korean meal for me to warm up for us both. She didn’t even think twice about feeding me, and we aren’t talking about a bag of potato chips here.
That’s the kind of generosity I regularly receive from parents, and it’s in stark contrast from the greed I saw at huge law firms regarding cans of soda.
I played with that little boy all afternoon. We danced, I spun him around in a chair, I made his stuffed dog and camel talk to each other. His parents paid me very well for this. I’m so lucky.
I Can’t Do “Work”
I’m just not a person who operates well in a work atmosphere. If I was, maybe I’d be making six figures per year talking about stocks and bonds or something, but that sounds horrible to me — not like a life worth living.
I work as little as possible, and only do what I enjoy. If I need more money, I take on more gigs. Mostly, though, I don’t need more money. As long as I have enough after taxes for rent, food, and bills, I’m fine. I don’t have my own kids and never will. I spend a lot of time reading library books.
I know not everyone can make the same choices I have. I’m privileged. I’m deeply unconventional and had to find another way to live, so that’s what I did.
I don’t have advice for you. I don’t know that everyone can do the same as me. I only know, I’m happy, and I’ll never “work” again.
If you want to know more about babysitting, and how to make good money from it, click here and scroll down to the babysitting section.