When Does Your Day Job Become Your Job?
Sep 16 2008

A friend of mine, Robb Lanum, recently sent me a link to an article on The Onion called Day Job Officially Becomes Job.  For those of you who haven’t heard of The Onion, it’s a hilarious publication that makes fun of everything and everyone.  Most of the articles I’ve read from them make me laugh or say repeatedly “eww, that’s gross!”  Take for instance a recent, funny article called Woman Always Really Excited To Be In Whatever Relationship Status She’s Currently In. 

Robb did an impromptu guest post on my blog a while back about the writer’s strike.   He blogs at The Robblog and has been trying for years (probably over a decade) to make it big in the California screen writing scene.  He’s made progress and slowly but surely moves his writing career forward or at least makes it more visible by blogging about his experiences.  

Robb sent me the link to the article on The Onion because he himself took a day job over four years ago, and he knows the plusses and minuses of having a day job and trying to build your business, your brand, your writing career, etc.  He knew I could relate.  I’ve been at my day job for not yet 3 ½ months (seems longer) and so far overall it has been a good decision for a variety of reasons, one of which being my husband struck it out on his own to consult and someone had to have the stable job with benefits in the family. 🙂  

But this day job article by the Onion is not funny.  It was written back in February 2004 and begins with “Another human dream was crushed by the uncompromising forces of reality Monday, when the restaurant day job of 29-year-old former aspiring cartoonist Mark Seversen officially became his actual job.”  

It then goes on to say “When I was younger, my attitude was ‘Never give in,'” Seversen said. “Nowadays, my attitude is ‘Get real, dumbass.’ If I have any advice for all the young aspiring painters, novelists, and rock musicians out there, it’s probably that they should quit following their dreams before they rack up a lot of credit-card debt. The sooner you accept your real job, the sooner you can start to build up seniority and get on board with the pension plan.” 

I expected to be laughing at the end of the article, but found myself frowning instead.  Then I thought, “Phew, I’m sure glad being an entrepreneur trying to build a web business after hours is not like trying to be a writer, painter, rock musician, or actor on the side! And working for The University of Texas at Austin isn’t like working in a restaurant.”  

Or is it?

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