By Kevin M
Over the past week I’ve been writing about the often negative consequences of various jobs and income situations. Today’s post is on the same topic, but it centers on my own personal experience with a job I probably would have been better off if I’d never taken it.
When ever someone has financial problems, there’s a strong tendency for others to suggest “why not get a part time job?” As well intended as that advice may be, I’m here to report that such advice isn’t always the way to go. Some jobs can actually cost more than they bring in…
A few years ago, in the middle of a time of significant financial distress, I took what I thought was a part time job with a local newspaper doing delivery.If you haven’t noticed, the days of the newspaper being delivered by neighborhood kids is long gone and being performed entirely by adults in cars.
On the surface, it looked like a perfect situation: an income of over $1000 a month for early morning work. I’d be done by 6:30 or 7 in the morning, so it wouldn’t interfere with my regular work. Or so I thought!
But some jobs can’t be fully understood until you’re actually in them.
Early morning meant 2:30 a.m. Monday through Thursday. Toward the weekend it was even earlier; 2 a.m. on Friday, 1:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. If I came in for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon to assemble the Sunday ad supplements beforehand, otherwise there was no point even going to bed Saturday night – I’d need to be at the shop by midnight!
If you’ve never been involved in newspaper delivery, you probably have no concept of the magnitude of getting the overstuffed Sunday edition of your familiar major metropolitan newspaper delivered to your doorstep each week.
