Blog /Everyone Wants A Piece

November 04, 2009 07:02 +0000  |  Employment Scrubby TheChange.com Work [at] Play 3

I'm tagging this one as "Employment" for lack of a better word, but frankly, that's not really accurate. My work life appears to be rapidly branching away from the employer/employee relationship and into running the show myself. The question is becoming one of "how much time do I have?" rather than "with whom can I find work?"

That's right, I'm bringing back the old-school "don't start a sentence with a preposition thing. You're just going to have to deal ;-)

The details: three months ago I was just working at Work [at] Play as a senior software developer, and for all the griping I do about the neighbourhood and the office, it's really a pretty cool place to work. The truth of it though is that I felt like I was stagnating, not doing anything useful with my life, and what's worse, I was rotting like this in Vancouver. I was ready to get the hell out of here at the drop of a hat -- to go anywhere really, just as long as it was sufficiently urban, interesting and wasn't here.

That all changed when Melanie forwarded an interesting "job" posting my way. A young, local entrepreneur was looking for a technical co-founder for a new company wanting to encourage business to do the Right thing by making it profitable to do so. To use an idea from Paul Hawken, our company would help other companies grow like trees, with deep roots, rather than like grass with no sustainable future. The details are complicated, and still a little secret, so I can't share them here, but the point is that I've signed on to make this thing happen. It may implode, but I don't think it will, and in the mean time, I'll have the opportunity to Use My Powers For Good... and that's all I've ever really wanted anyway.

But now things are getting crazy. Less than a week since I've entered into this partnership, I've been contacted by two separate parties wanting me to serve in a senior technical capacity for their enterprises as well. All three ideas sound promising, two of them are Good companies, the third, while run by a good, honest, person I trust, is more about the money and less about Making the World Better. All three are offering very little if any money to start.

The truth is, I can't do all three and keep my job at Work [at] Play. I probably can't even do two, though it'd be nice since one of the other two can pay a little. As it is, I've talked to the brass at my current employer and asked them to figure out a way that I might be able to work 4days/week for them so I can devote two days each week to my new partnership, and while they're currently mulling it over, I'm reasonably confident that they'll find that it's good for everyone if we can make it work.

But for now? things are CRAZY. I honestly don't know what my situation will be in a few weeks. And strangely enough... I like it this way. Who knew?

Comments

Taavi
4 Nov 2009, 4:38 p.m.  | 

It sounds exciting! :D Keep us posted. :)

Isis B.
5 Nov 2009, 12:04 a.m.  | 

Careful not to get into the situation I always get into which is:

1) they tell you, "we want you", "you're brilliant"
2) "we don't have the money...yet"
3) essentially they want you to work for free under the guise that one day they'll be able to pay you, telling you it will be good experience. Undervaluing the talent they know you possess, and desperately want to access.
4) they never will pay...even when the money comes.

It's abusive. It's happened to me so many times because I have a big heart and want to work on projects that I care about with good people. Honestly, I've had more experience and had to learn so many things running by the seat of my pants than any of my peers or friends in the last couple of years...but I've also been broke and ripped off more times than I care to mention. My family has been devastated watching me flounder financially, while working constantly. My friends feel sorry for me, and tell me stupid shit like, "Join us, it feels like in the midst of our success, you've somehow been left behind", "you're so smart you could be running companies and organizations by now, why are you making it so hard on yourself?" It's frustrating. Frankly the next person/ organization that asks me to do work pro bono, I'm going to tell them to "go shove it", I'm not interested. I've volunteered myself into major debt.

CM
12 Nov 2009, 2:31 a.m.  | 

Oh geez Dan. Though I'm happy that you're gettig all these offers, I'm also worried at the same time. I mean, is it really worth it to work 2 jobs and feel seriously bogged down? Right now, it sounds very exciting but please think of the long term effects of working 2 jobs and being happy about it. Sometimes I think it's better to have a job that's sometimes boring but it's stable. Also, having 1 job to just concentrate on leaves you time for yourself to do something that's not work related. Often times people think that the grass is greener on the other side but once they get there they wished they never left the other side of the fence. With that said, please, please, please think things through thoroughly before signing yourself off to something you might later regret. Anyway, I hope things have gotten less crazy since this post and take it easy!!! *Hugz* :)

Post a Comment of Your Own

Markdown will work here, if you're into that sort of thing.