Employment is a hoax

the one where amina is resigned to her fate

It’s not a great time to be a freelancer. Besides the two ‘job jobs’ I’ve had so far, this is kind of the only working model I know.

Recently I had the experience of not being paid my fair share from a part-time job. For some reason, this particular month an inner voice had me making estimates and documenting proofs of what I am most likely due for the work. So when the payment came and it didn’t match up to my already conservative estimate, I made a bit of a fuss. I don’t normally make a fuss (I should). Lo and behold, a mistake had indeed been made, and I was sent a pretty sizable amount when the error was corrected.

All of this had me reflecting on the times that I've just been straight up exploited. Either not being paid on time, not being paid enough, or not being paid at all.

I also noticed patterns in the types of people that carried out this kind of behaviour. I thought back and recalled one other incident from last year, where I was not compensated and subsequently ghosted by the person in question. I thought again and realized it was actually two similar experiences last year. Then I remembered something similar from three years ago, and then another in that same year.

What all these people had in common was the fact that they were mostly, for all intents and purposes, loaded. Big houses, multiple cars, family money, socialites in many cases. And I seem to notice an equally missing guilty conscience…

It’s actually almost funny to me. The amounts I stood to make from these gigs really weren’t something to brag about, in relative terms. But the fact that anyone should unblinkingly think it is within their right to not give it to me? It is rage-inducing, but also humorous in its ridiculousness.

Why are the people withholding the most petty money also the most, excuse my French, super rich?

I went to Frere Hall the other day with a friend on a morning photo walk. We saw an old man sitting quite peacefully in that gorgeously photographable warm speckled 9 a.m light, surrounded by dogs he was feeding. Upon talking to him further, it seemed like he had no home, no family, and probably just enough money to get him through each day. He had also been bitten by a dog previously. And yet here he was.

This is not to say rich people don’t feed dogs or care for animals or aren’t good, conscientious people. I am also not saying that I am a dog. The cognitive dissonance arises from the fact that these same people who apparently exploit are also nice people, with nice friends, nice families, other employees perhaps, and everyone seems quite happy and jolly in their company.

But this angry unpaid girl here has spotted a pattern and she wants to get to the bottom of it. In the meantime, she is inclined to believe all work is exploitative, freelancing is a hoax, and there is no hope in this world for sensitive creative people.

I would very much like to be (repeatedly) proved otherwise.