I was a child of about nine, when one night my father overheard me talking in my sleep. It was so peculiar, he told me afterward. You were talking about getting a job, and you seemed quite anxious. I tried to encourage you to speak more on the subject, but you weren’t responsive.
I don’t remember the dream, but I’ve often thought back to that conversation with my father. It’s occurred to me that my nine-year-old self − who was completely unconcerned with employment in her waking life – may have slipped out of time and into her future as a chronically underemployed person – a person who lacked the privilege of thinking about much else beyond employment.
I graduated from university into a recession and have been underemployed ever since. In addition to this, I had been a magazine journalism major, and my entire field was about to dissolve. In addition to that, I soon discovered my personal politics had not set me up to fit easily into any for-profit company. For the 23 years since, I’ve been underemployed, primarily as an independent contractor. As such, and along with many others at this time, I’ve developed a perspective on life heavily influenced by underemployment.
“Since then, I’ve noticed the work that tends to bring me the greatest financial reward is work I’m not formally trained to do. It’s as if this “outside of the society” fingerprint impacts me at the multilevel.”