20: underemployment is like a high-stakes puzzle game

december 2nd, 2024

it’s my jobs! I have so many of them. I honestly kinda like having so many, because the diversity of tasks is quite nice and all my coworkers are wonderful in their own ways, but some of the workplaces are definitely sketchier and more stressful than others. I’m hoping that over the next few years I’ll be able to continue ramping up the ones I like best (working with kids, making comics!!!!, etc) and phase out the ones I like least!

in behind-the-scenes commentary news, I’m very proud of how my comic production skills are growing — in the past this page would have easily taken me a week of work (amidst my aforementioned four other jobs) to make, but I was able to make it almost from scratch today!

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transcript:

in recent years I’ve been working 2-5 different part-time jobs at the same time (or more, depending on how you count them)
[a calendar overflowing with tracking jobs A, B, C, and D]

some of the jobs are emotionally lovely, but very limited or inconsistent in what hours are available
Blobic, waving farewell: bye y’all! have a great day!
a coworker, waving back: bye Blobic!! tell Chris we say hi!
Blobic: will do! see you, uhhhhh,,, sometime this month, probably!

while others are abundant and dependable — so long as I don’t ask too many questions or request better working conditions.
[Blobic, wearing an apron and leaning on a broom handle, reads on his phone, “results for: is it legal for employers to keep all tips“]

I’m now successfully juggling enough income streams that I’m financially stable for the first time in a while, and it’s a huge weight off my shoulders!
[Blobic and his unnamed giraffe friend, who is now wearing a tank top and has slightly longer hair, are sitting together at a restaurant table.]
friend: want me to pay?
Blobic: no, I’ve got it this time!
friend: oh, nice!

but at the same time, I dread the possibility of being fired from my most consistent jobs for being “ungrateful,” and I don’t want to keep returning to those sorts of environments forever.
friend: what’re you up to today? you have work later, right?
Blobic, slumped on the table with his head in his arms: hnnnnghhhh, yeah,,,,,

I don’t want to quit anything now and fall back into economic uncertainty, but I’m crafting a plan to gradually shift into sustaining myself on only jobs where I feel comfortable expressing and advocating for myself!
[Blobic stands next to a teeter-totter loaded with weights of varying sizes, each marked with US dollar signs. the side of the teeter-totter that’s currently more weighed down is labeled “unhealthy work environments,” and Blobic is adding several small new weights to the “healthy work environments side.”]

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