In the 1970s and
'80s, my family led an educational revolution; our
children learned at home, instead of at school, and without the
trappings, expectations, competition, lack of respect and trust, and
coercion that is part of school. I call this "life
learning" but some people call it "homeschooling" or "unschooling"
or variations on those words.(You can learn more about it here.) There is a similar term for the
way I choose to make my living; it's called "unjobbing."
Unjobbing can be thought of either as the
process of leaving a job you don't like to work independently, or the actual state of
living and working that results from leaving a job. (Or for many
people these days, it is the reality they face after their job has
disappeared.)
But it is more than that. In the same way that
life learning is about more than education, this so-called "unjobbing" is about
more than work. It is about aligning all aspects of your life,
including work with your personal values. It means living without the competition,
outwardly-imposed structure, lack of respect, expectations, greed,
and so on that characterize many conventional workplaces.
For many
people, one of the biggest unjobbing transitions involves removing
the credentials from behind your name and disentangling your
identity from the job you have. And because it includes the philosophy of living simply and consciously,
it usually means working less than full-time, and devoting the rest
of the time to family and home, community service and volunteering,
travel, or leisure. (Working less is another challenge for
many...you don't need to jump from one treadmill to another!) What
I'm talking about here is following your passion and using your talents to make
enough money for your and your family's needs
without having a job, rather than trying to be a millionaire
entrepreneur.
In this lifestyle, revenue might come from self-employment,
possibly as a
consultant providing services under contract to businesses or
individuals. Unjobbing might involve occasional freelance work. It
might look like a micro-sized business selling a product. Or public
speaking, writing, film-making, blogging, crafts, art, market
gardening, inventing green technologies, or doing odd jobs around
the neighborhood. Or it might involve managing previously acquired assets.
Most likely, it will involve
a variety of activities in a patchwork of income-generation. Many unjobbers do
work similar to what they were doing when they worked in a paid job;
others use the opportunity to follow an entirely different, and more
fulfilling, path...one by which they never thought they could make a
living.
My work involves writing books and articles
(for newspapers, magazines, and my blogs); editing magazines and
books (some of which my company publishes); publishing niche
magazines and websites, as well as a very small line of niche books;
public speaking; and a small amount of coaching and consulting. The
proportion of my time given to each has shifted many times over the
past 45 years. I consider it my life's work, rather than a job. My company could be more profitable than it is, but I
am big on ethics and refuse to capitulate to a variety of corporate
interests; I am, instead, focused on social change.
I chose this lifestyle for a number of reasons.
Originally, it was a way for both my husband and I to work flexibly at home in order to
allow our daughters not to attend school, and to provide them with
a role model of self-reliance and what is now called social entrepreneurship. It allows me to
use my talent as a writer and editor and it fits my short attention
span. Working for myself means that I don't ever have to compromise
my ethics and principles, and that I can integrate work and fun. And it allows me to work for
change in the way we educate, work, and live, to move toward a
non-hierarchical, egalitarian, cooperative, convivial, peaceful
society. I believe that it is almost impossible to change our
organizations and institutions from within because those on the
inside have vested interests that outsiders, like unjobbers, don't have.
So I work on the outside.
Some of the change that I envision is already
happening in the workplace as a result of current world economic
circumstances (paradoxically, at the same time that there is a move
in the opposite direction too!). Some experts believe that unjobbing
may become the norm, even though many see it as a glass-half-empty
scenario. Others, like me, believe it is positive part of a
sustainable living solution.
For some perspective on this, check out
the work of authors like Juliet Schor (Plenitude), Richard
Florida (The Great Reset), Seth Godin (Linchpin),
Daniel Pink (Drive), Shannon Hayes (Radical Homemakers),
and Chris Guillebeau (The Art of Non-Conformity). There are
also books and blogs about unjobbing, but if you are reading this
you probably already have some familiarity with the idea.
Of course, as wonderful as it is to follow your
passion, enjoy a flexible time schedule, work from home, be your own
boss, and try to change the world, unjobbing does require a bit of
organization, some planning, and doing some things you might not
love to do. (For me, that is bookkeeping.) It is also handy to have a
calm and risk-tolerant perspective on life, and a relatively laid
back personality. And, despite what the work-at-home, get-rich-quick
ads say, you will need to sell ... if not a product or a service, then
your own talents and abilities. So knowledge about your subject, as
well as some confidence in yourself and your chosen direction, is
also important.
The rest of the articles on this site are based
on my own 40+ years of experience as an unjobber before the term was
invented, as well as on my
book Bringing It Home: A Home Business Start-Up Guide for You and
Your Family (now out of print), my ten years as a weekly small
business columnist, and my 15 years as a workshop leader and
micro-business coach. All the articles
won't all apply to every situation, but I encourage you to learn as
much as you can about the basics of starting and running a business,
That knowledge will allow you to concentrate on having fun (and
making some money) without
having a job.
