The Good Job

In the past, when households were more likely to have just one wage-earner, the idea of “the good job” would have referred to a job that was just better than some previous less desirable jobs. These days, when it’s far more common to have two employed people in a household, the good job often refers to the one that is providing the health insurance. Of course, the quality of “goodness” can be attached to many traits, and many of those are crucial to the functioning of a relationship in which one or both of the workers are also artists.

This issue came up at the International Wood-fire Conference at Waubonsee Community College in 2016. It was part of an overall discussion about the gender imbalance in wood-fired ceramics, and the degree of privilege required for anyone to attempt to build and maintain their own wood-fired kiln and shop. To put it bluntly, men can build these shops when their wives have a “good job” that provides a steady monthly income and the ever-vital health insurance. It helps too to have the down payment for land and materials.

For a few years now I have been the one with the good job. Not a great job, mind, but a steady paycheck, health insurance, paid leave time, and no need to bring any of that work home with me or even think about it past five o’clock. That last part can be vital because I’m also still a working potter and I very much need my evenings and weekends to do all the things that get inventory made and sold.

I’ve also fielded questions about whether or not being a full time potter would be a good job. I did that, for six years, and for most of that time my wife had “the good job” that provided the health insurance and the regular rent money. When she no longer had that job, our “health insurance” was MasterCard and Visa, and our rent payments were sometimes tardy. It was not good.

Being a full time potter can be a great job, but it’s also always TWO jobs, or as many as twenty-two jobs, all rolled into one life. The major split though is the half of you that makes the pots and the half that does the marketing, transporting, and selling. Even if you only sell your work through galleries, some part of you will have to handle the paperwork with those galleries, recruiting those galleries, and re-supplying those galleries.

And then there’s the part of you doing the accounting. Well, maybe you can hire an accountant. Or if you are very lucky, and very privileged, you’ve got a spouse that can do the accounting for you. Love them extra for their help.

Any job can be a “good job” compared to one that’s worse. Ideally, every job would be a good one, but that doesn’t seem to be how things work. Good luck with yours.