Wage Slave: Introduction to the ‘Unpaid Overtime’ edition

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I wrote Wage Slave right after I quit the job for which I attended university.

I was a nervous wreck. Each year I would use all my allocated sick leave on my mental health, and then some. It wasn’t sustainable to say the least, but I had a dream. A dream to write, create, and live a life where work felt like play— or at least didn’t make me want to kill myself. Harsh words, but it’s no understatement. The connection between work and mental health is undeniable. If your foreseeable future consists only of unmanageable drudgery for the next 30 years, followed by retirement having never really lived, you quickly begin asking yourself if any of this is worth it.

At least I did.

So, I sold my house and quit. I tried and failed at business, losing thousands of dollars in the process. I changed careers to something with which I could cope. Not something I loved, but something I could at least tolerate. I had a kid, and then another. I wrote and I wrote some more. Then I started sharing my work.

Growth was painfully slow. For years no one read my work. But as I practiced, I improved, and my audience grew. I started to make some sales. Then came some (very small) royalties. The $ per hour return was pitiful. I did the math and worked out that I was writing for less than $2 per hour, a significant reduction in income to say the least, but it was proof of concept. It showed me that I could make money doing something that I not only didn’t hate, but that I could make money doing something I loved.

Years later and the money improved enough to be a significant amount of what I needed to live off. I wasn’t there yet, but I could see the goal approaching. I knew that soon, perhaps that year, I would be a full-time writer. That I would be living the dream.

Then catastrophe struck. For reasons outside my control, the income from my day job halved overnight, this combined with post Covid inflation and raised interest rates, my financial situation plummeted.

I got scared.

Despite the very real success of my writing, the old demons of fear and self-sabotage returned. I stopped believing in myself. I started doubting the support of my family. Even though I had savings in the bank, I started to freak out. I convinced myself that I needed to return to my old job, the job that I hated. And that’s exactly what I did.

My creativity dried up, which compounded the feelings of hopelessness. If I can’t create I really am trapped. Forever.

A month later I was a nervous wreck once more. I had such severe anxiety that I was vomiting in the mornings, struggling through panic attacks all day, and inebriating myself to get to sleep each night, all so I could do it again the next day.

Thankfully, I had a breakdown. One significant enough to make me reach out for help; both personally and professionally. This support I received gave me the confidence to double down on my writing. To do the things necessary to really make it pop and to turn it from a side hustle into my full-time work.

I am not there yet, but it is coming, I can feel it. All I need to do is to keep working towards my goal and eventually it will happen. How can it not? As long as I have the humility to learn from my mistakes, improvements will come.

Suffice to say I won’t ever be returning to my old job again. In fact, once this book is released, I plan on ritualistically burning my professional membership card as a symbolic goodbye to that aspect of my life. I am grateful for my brief return, however, as it has inspired me to re-release this book, with a bunch of additional content.

Part 1: Widgets & Worries, is the original Wage Slave Anthology; interconnected short fiction pieces occurring with a fictional firm that could easily stand in for most every soul-sucking corporation you’ve ever had the displeasure of working for.

Part 2: Rumination & Reimbursement, contains a collection of additional poetry that my most recent return to wage slavery inspired.

I’d like to end this introduction with some semblance of hope. If you resonate with this book and want to make a change, please know that it is possible. I am doing it and so are many others. No, it won’t be easy. In fact, it will likely be the hardest thing you will ever do. Why? Because you will have to believe in yourself enough to try. You will have to have hope. You will have to push back against the norms of society and the judgements of family and friends. You will have to leave the well-paying job you studied years for. And yes, you will have to work. Most likely for free, until you figure out how to monetize your passion. Thus, the title of the new edition. You will have to work many hours of ‘unpaid overtime’ while you are building up. But you won’t mind, because every single one of those hours represents hope for a future you actually want to be living.

No matter your dream. I know it is possible. Why? Because people are doing It. And if they can, so can you. Follow leaders in your new chosen field. Read their books and listen to their podcasts. Figure out how they did it and apply those lessons to your life. Reach out to them and ask them for guidance. Listen with open ears and the belief that you can also escape wage slavery. If they offer it, pay for their coaching, books, and courses, and then actually implement their advice.

I offer books, courses, and coaching for this very reason. I want to give people what I have, so reach out if you would like to work with me.

Just remember to push through the barriers, internal and external, that arise with patience and persistence, and don’t stop until you have ‘made it’, whatever that means for you.