Websites and marketing, like Lisa. Though it is less a passion tax and more of a skill tax for me. It’s possible I have avoided the passion tax to the point of unemployment. Since none of my internships helped me get jobs, I’m unwilling to do free work or extra work in hopes of an eventual payout. I mostly don’t believe I missed an opportunity, but the programming is strong.
I also used to get a “good at my job” tax, where my coworkers would give me the harder to deal with clients and make me do the side work because I was good at it and wouldn’t half-ass it. But when I asked for time off or whatever I was denied.
My first jobs were just regular jobs delivering mail bring college had a wonderful internship lined up at a museum and instead worked for my brother doing scut work at a copy shop. But he dealt with lots of different businesses and one was looking for a proofreader and editor at a geotechnical engineering firm. I was an anthropology major. But everyone was flexible. And I ended up working there after college.
The sector where a school admin role has 45 bullet points on one job description (versus private sector that has maybe 5-6 bullet points at most, meaning school admin are doing the work of 9 people), the last bullet point being the worst one of all, "other duties as assigned", where we work 12 hour days (open up the building at the crack of dawn and wait until the last child is picked up as the families squeeze free childcare out of us rolling in at 6:30pm when they were supposed to be there by 6pm), we supervise night events, weekend events, summer events, but yet it's still not enough for an American society that is obsessed with treating the female dominated education sector poorly.
Why doesn't society scream out their car windows "I pay your salary" at construction crews on the highway who fail to produce pothole free roads, year after year? Why doesn't their "ineffectiveness" make the evening news, year after year? Why doesn't society ridicule unionized construction workers who continue collecting their handsome checks during a furlough? Why aren't they called "lazy bums" and other ugly language?
Why don't we take away their equipment, make them produce results with just a single hammer and some Elmer's glue and further compromise their morale and their financial wellbeing by disinvesting in their pensions, ensuring their demise into old age? Oh, and why don't we also let armed maniacs open fire onto them and continue to psychologically attack their emotional wellbeing by sensationalizing these attacks for entertainment in movies, TV shows and on social media?
Why do Americans think it's okay to abuse the female dominated education sector?
Louder for the people in the back - far too much of what we are able to accomplish in education is in spite of the system and at the direct personal cost of our educators.
My father was a great teacher who taught high school English and he would be so shocked by the abuse so many teachers are getting. Sorry that you are dealing with this. And he was a school union leader, too and he went into the administration for a few years before he died.
Yes, I learned that I am far too motivated by positive feedback when I was on a school fundraising board. To the point that the praise outweighed my personal and family needs. It took some time to realize that unless it’s a “hell yes” or something that may lead to paid work or something satisfying, it’s a “thank you, but no.” “No” has become my default and I’m far happier.
Yes, as the "secretary" of an organization, I have all the new obligations: I get paid to take minutes, but I am also in charge of a scholarship committee, to write and edit a newsletter that comes out at least twice a year, plus archival storage and organization, plus web design, plus I must speak to management for members. I am elected, and I run every two years and I liked the job at first, but when I found out that a male person who is actually called the "webmaster" who doesn't care for the site, he doesn't care for the archival material, he sends only emails using "mailchimp": all correspondences that I edit or write, and he gets paid the same as I and is actually appointed, so he never has to run for this position.
I am not resolved with this disproportionate division of labor. In fact, writing this comment has made the reality too painful to continue.
The person who appoints the "webmaster" who sometimes is called "the communications officer" teases him for his "laziness", but this person (who is actually a nice guy) is also a male person and the teasing is harsh but the "webmaster" never takes on more work. Then. well, the work doesn't get done or I do it. I won't be picking up new responsibilities. Thanks for giving me the word of this shit.
I’m a journalist and was an editor when they called publishing the pink Ghetto. But I did love most of my jobs. One magazine had a “crazy “ head who I liked but he didn’t pay us as much as he should have.
Although I know you were referring to work, passion for a romantic relationship with a man/men works the same way. Women are at what, estimating, 50X more likely to be physically abused by a male romantic partner, than the man is to be abused by the woman. Then there is the huge wage gap, as she is more likely to be pressured to give up her job outside the home. She is biologically 8X more likely to catch an STD from him, as he from her. Then there's the work of pregnancy, which is unpaid, and the enormous risk at which it puts her -- physically and loss of income. Yet do men pay women for ANY of this, do they pay them in any manner, to take all these risks of a romantic relationship? Or do they just prey on the woman's natural desire for sex, affection, etc, with a male? It's an inherently predatory relationship, if there is no concrete compensation.
Found out I have Huntington’s and that we as a family did not have any idea of her troubles. One doctor said Empty nest syndrome. Another discovered slight problems in her brain. She grew up in Providence, RI and raised her family in Springfield, MA, when it was still a great place.
We haven't come as far as we'd like to think, when male drs. suggested removing a woman's uterus to treat all her problems. She was "hysterical," hence, "hysterectomy." Since I learned the derivation, I will never ever use that word, for removal of the female reproductive organs.
Lol I've been a Biology teacher and edtech coach in public schools for 18 years. It's basically baked into the job description. Because the system is misaligned with actual resource needs, it is the expectation for educators to fund materials for their classrooms out of their own pockets, be at school to assist students outside of contract hours, sponsor student clubs and supervise their activities outside of contract hours, and complete grading/feedback and lesson planning at home on weekends/evenings. And that's not even a comprehensive discussion. AND it doesn't even take into account the massive emotional and mental load educators absorb from their students' and communities' needs, or the debilitating levels of decision fatigue at the end of every single day. It is just assumed that it's part of being an educator, that you will just be ok with sacrificing your wallet, your time, and your wellbeing for your students ("but it's for the kids" gets people every time). I left education for three years and worked as a contractor for NIH - while that job wasn't ultimately for me, I learned that IT.IS.NOT.NORMAL to work all hours of the night AFTER your contract hours just to be able to meet minimum standards and, ya know, keep things afloat. So, now that I'm returning to education as an assistant principal (just appointed! OMG!), my principal and I are already talking about expecting our teachers to care for themselves first, and restructuring their schedules and planning time to facilitate getting the work done AT WORK. Just because we're in "the system" doesn't mean we have to keep enabling its broken parts. I'll be damned if I'm going to ask anyone else to pay a passion tax.
Yes, I’m an artist and it’s hard for me to know what to charge for my artwork anyway. I’ve gotten a little better lately about making my prices higher, but it’s taken a really long time to get there and often people will try and talk me into lower prices because they don’t understand the amount of work that goes into what I do. Someone recently wanted a family portrait of twenty people, when I quoted her the price, she was shocked!
Yes, I pay a passion tax for my authoring. Novels, and regular comments on Substack and FB. I love my stories. It's not like I'm expected to write these novels or essays. Five novels now. Working on number six. They're well crafted. I write them because I am passionate about authoring, not because I make a living. They don't sell. I don't charge for my Substack. Recently I read for a friend a scene from the current novel, LANIAKEA. It was so moving I teared up. There's the reward. I'll pay the tax of poverty because I reap the reward of passion.
Yes. Being a web designer means every school wants a free new site. (And every club, every team, etc.) 🫠
Websites and marketing, like Lisa. Though it is less a passion tax and more of a skill tax for me. It’s possible I have avoided the passion tax to the point of unemployment. Since none of my internships helped me get jobs, I’m unwilling to do free work or extra work in hopes of an eventual payout. I mostly don’t believe I missed an opportunity, but the programming is strong.
I also used to get a “good at my job” tax, where my coworkers would give me the harder to deal with clients and make me do the side work because I was good at it and wouldn’t half-ass it. But when I asked for time off or whatever I was denied.
My first jobs were just regular jobs delivering mail bring college had a wonderful internship lined up at a museum and instead worked for my brother doing scut work at a copy shop. But he dealt with lots of different businesses and one was looking for a proofreader and editor at a geotechnical engineering firm. I was an anthropology major. But everyone was flexible. And I ended up working there after college.
You mean like the entire K-12 education sector?
The sector where a school admin role has 45 bullet points on one job description (versus private sector that has maybe 5-6 bullet points at most, meaning school admin are doing the work of 9 people), the last bullet point being the worst one of all, "other duties as assigned", where we work 12 hour days (open up the building at the crack of dawn and wait until the last child is picked up as the families squeeze free childcare out of us rolling in at 6:30pm when they were supposed to be there by 6pm), we supervise night events, weekend events, summer events, but yet it's still not enough for an American society that is obsessed with treating the female dominated education sector poorly.
Why doesn't society scream out their car windows "I pay your salary" at construction crews on the highway who fail to produce pothole free roads, year after year? Why doesn't their "ineffectiveness" make the evening news, year after year? Why doesn't society ridicule unionized construction workers who continue collecting their handsome checks during a furlough? Why aren't they called "lazy bums" and other ugly language?
Why don't we take away their equipment, make them produce results with just a single hammer and some Elmer's glue and further compromise their morale and their financial wellbeing by disinvesting in their pensions, ensuring their demise into old age? Oh, and why don't we also let armed maniacs open fire onto them and continue to psychologically attack their emotional wellbeing by sensationalizing these attacks for entertainment in movies, TV shows and on social media?
Why do Americans think it's okay to abuse the female dominated education sector?
This is the patriarchy in the flesh.
Louder for the people in the back - far too much of what we are able to accomplish in education is in spite of the system and at the direct personal cost of our educators.
My father was a great teacher who taught high school English and he would be so shocked by the abuse so many teachers are getting. Sorry that you are dealing with this. And he was a school union leader, too and he went into the administration for a few years before he died.
Yes, I learned that I am far too motivated by positive feedback when I was on a school fundraising board. To the point that the praise outweighed my personal and family needs. It took some time to realize that unless it’s a “hell yes” or something that may lead to paid work or something satisfying, it’s a “thank you, but no.” “No” has become my default and I’m far happier.
Yes, as the "secretary" of an organization, I have all the new obligations: I get paid to take minutes, but I am also in charge of a scholarship committee, to write and edit a newsletter that comes out at least twice a year, plus archival storage and organization, plus web design, plus I must speak to management for members. I am elected, and I run every two years and I liked the job at first, but when I found out that a male person who is actually called the "webmaster" who doesn't care for the site, he doesn't care for the archival material, he sends only emails using "mailchimp": all correspondences that I edit or write, and he gets paid the same as I and is actually appointed, so he never has to run for this position.
I am not resolved with this disproportionate division of labor. In fact, writing this comment has made the reality too painful to continue.
The person who appoints the "webmaster" who sometimes is called "the communications officer" teases him for his "laziness", but this person (who is actually a nice guy) is also a male person and the teasing is harsh but the "webmaster" never takes on more work. Then. well, the work doesn't get done or I do it. I won't be picking up new responsibilities. Thanks for giving me the word of this shit.
Sorry to hear. But you will get through it
I’m a journalist and was an editor when they called publishing the pink Ghetto. But I did love most of my jobs. One magazine had a “crazy “ head who I liked but he didn’t pay us as much as he should have.
Although I know you were referring to work, passion for a romantic relationship with a man/men works the same way. Women are at what, estimating, 50X more likely to be physically abused by a male romantic partner, than the man is to be abused by the woman. Then there is the huge wage gap, as she is more likely to be pressured to give up her job outside the home. She is biologically 8X more likely to catch an STD from him, as he from her. Then there's the work of pregnancy, which is unpaid, and the enormous risk at which it puts her -- physically and loss of income. Yet do men pay women for ANY of this, do they pay them in any manner, to take all these risks of a romantic relationship? Or do they just prey on the woman's natural desire for sex, affection, etc, with a male? It's an inherently predatory relationship, if there is no concrete compensation.
Found out I have Huntington’s and that we as a family did not have any idea of her troubles. One doctor said Empty nest syndrome. Another discovered slight problems in her brain. She grew up in Providence, RI and raised her family in Springfield, MA, when it was still a great place.
We haven't come as far as we'd like to think, when male drs. suggested removing a woman's uterus to treat all her problems. She was "hysterical," hence, "hysterectomy." Since I learned the derivation, I will never ever use that word, for removal of the female reproductive organs.
Lol I've been a Biology teacher and edtech coach in public schools for 18 years. It's basically baked into the job description. Because the system is misaligned with actual resource needs, it is the expectation for educators to fund materials for their classrooms out of their own pockets, be at school to assist students outside of contract hours, sponsor student clubs and supervise their activities outside of contract hours, and complete grading/feedback and lesson planning at home on weekends/evenings. And that's not even a comprehensive discussion. AND it doesn't even take into account the massive emotional and mental load educators absorb from their students' and communities' needs, or the debilitating levels of decision fatigue at the end of every single day. It is just assumed that it's part of being an educator, that you will just be ok with sacrificing your wallet, your time, and your wellbeing for your students ("but it's for the kids" gets people every time). I left education for three years and worked as a contractor for NIH - while that job wasn't ultimately for me, I learned that IT.IS.NOT.NORMAL to work all hours of the night AFTER your contract hours just to be able to meet minimum standards and, ya know, keep things afloat. So, now that I'm returning to education as an assistant principal (just appointed! OMG!), my principal and I are already talking about expecting our teachers to care for themselves first, and restructuring their schedules and planning time to facilitate getting the work done AT WORK. Just because we're in "the system" doesn't mean we have to keep enabling its broken parts. I'll be damned if I'm going to ask anyone else to pay a passion tax.
Yes, I’m an artist and it’s hard for me to know what to charge for my artwork anyway. I’ve gotten a little better lately about making my prices higher, but it’s taken a really long time to get there and often people will try and talk me into lower prices because they don’t understand the amount of work that goes into what I do. Someone recently wanted a family portrait of twenty people, when I quoted her the price, she was shocked!
Yes, I pay a passion tax for my authoring. Novels, and regular comments on Substack and FB. I love my stories. It's not like I'm expected to write these novels or essays. Five novels now. Working on number six. They're well crafted. I write them because I am passionate about authoring, not because I make a living. They don't sell. I don't charge for my Substack. Recently I read for a friend a scene from the current novel, LANIAKEA. It was so moving I teared up. There's the reward. I'll pay the tax of poverty because I reap the reward of passion.