I'm in the enviable position, for some, of being in a recession proof profession. There's always kids to educate. Here in Australia a teaching wage is quite good, though we are underpaid in proportion to the work we do. But no amount of money can persuade me to go back to the job I quit last December - teacher burn out is real, and I have never regained my mojo. A combination of exhaustion, disillusionment with the education system, and anxiety forced me to quit, and I couldn't think of anything worse than going back. I'd rather tighten the purse strings and have less money.
I'm very aware that for some, it's not a choice. People have kids to feed, mortgages to pay, debts to wear away at - and the dream of a fat retirement pension. Here in Australia we have superannuation, where an amount is taken from our wages to save for retirement and which sits in a fund which goes up and down with the economic climate. One if the questions people asked when I quit is whether I had ENOUGH to retire. As a woman, no. Woman traditionally have earnt less due to staying home to care for kids, and my sister and I agreed that if our darling husbands left us we would be one of the increasing numbers of old homeless woman on the streets.
The only way I could leave my job and stop being miserable is if my husband kept working. If we budgeted a bit better and didn't enjoy meals out or the thought of overseas trips, I wouldn't have to work at all, but luckily enough I can do emergency teaching at his school for a great daily wage. I can only handle around three days though before getting anxious and miserable, and there's weeks with no work at all. Still, I think I've saved myself an early death and am far happier for it.
There's a lot of people making similiar decisions about their work since COVID. Less money, we have learnt, is more important than being miserable. But again, if you are educated in the right field or work in an in demand profession here, it's not as scary to quit as you can go back to a similiar wage if things get tough financially.
Thing is, the future isn't assured. I could work and save and die tomorrow, or the world financial system could collapse entirely. By working my ass off how I did I was missing out on family and doing things I really loved, or even found worthy, like community food resilience.
Yes, we aren't as well off, and we will struggle when we do retire officially at 67, but to me it wasn't worth being miserable. And we can always sell our property and downsize or live in a caravan if that's what it came to. We are lucky to have options and we don't care about being rich financially.
My unpaid work is far more inspiring and worthy to me. I'll find a way to monetise it in small ways like mushroom growing workshops but to me there's more currency in people and community skills that will see us through. And let's all hope for a crypto moon in a few years, right? But we have faith in the universe.
And none of us can take it with us when we die.
Written in response to the Weekend Community question about whether you rather work in a job you totally hate but pays you well or work in a job you love and find inspiring but the pay was low and you had to strictly budget your financial matters.
