They Can Take It All Away From You

The perils of employment

Greetings from the shadowy depths of my bedroom, this dreary November evening. I am writing to you from under the blankets, having decided that lying down is more in keeping with my subdued mood, than sitting at a desk. This week’s article is similarly a little flat, and contains the unhappy aftertaste of a run in with the powers that be.

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Gentle Reader,

This week, I realised they can take it all away from you.

In the course of my usual business, I was casually informed by my regulating body that my medical indemnity is no longer valid, due to a quirk of the particulars which follow from a peculiar political anomaly called Brexit.

I therefore found myself not able to practice. It was, admittedly, a temporary situation, but the sensation of finding yourself superfluous all of a sudden wasn’t a pleasant one, especially since these governing bodies can promptly move you to the non-practicing register, if you don’t get new insurance quick. Then, it might not be so easy to get back on the horse.

Many situations in life are similar. The bird in the hand is truly worth two in the bush, but the man with the bird in the hand forgets this. In this case, soberingly, I was without an income. Granted, I had taken prolonged sabbaticals in the past, but they were planned intermezzi of a gentelmanly nature, during which my finances weren’t coming under scrutiny in order to satisfy the brokers that I could qualify for a mortgage – even a small blip in income could prove fatal to the present writer’s housing prospects, and a further pain in the neck which I do not need.

Last week, I wrote about fatigue. Well, the night before I got this news, I slept a solid nine hours. The next morning, having received the tidings and having then spent the next three hours on the phone trying to rectify the situation, I soon felt a little strange. What was wrong? It was almost one o’clock in the afternoon and there was some class of a sensation rearing it’s head. Could it be…fatigue?

I was so tired from the stress of the affair that I had a solid ninety minute nap immediately – an interesting data point. It seems that stress does take a silent toll on me, even if I did not really feel hugely anxious or worried – I guess it manifests in a more insidious manner, albeit it was marked enough this time to be noticeable.

When I woke up, I felt a little better. After all, there are many books to read and podcasts to listen to and places to visit. But the reality is that one cannot devote one’s life to leisure without first…securing the bag. And so, I could feel the creaky cogs in my head beginning to turn and I could sense the animations of the little angsty shrews which like to nibble fervently at my amygdala in times of trouble – did I have another way to make money?

The short answer was no. Were there things I could try out, to make money? There were. Did I have any confidence whatsoever in them? No.

I have heard people talking about losing their job as a great motivating animus to start a company or begin dropshipping or buying nursing homes on leverage or whatever it is that people do in the name of commerce. I can only conclude that these people are made of sterner stuff than I am or that I had too much secret confidence that my ouster would be temporary.

And temporary it will be. But, like an alcoholic who, having laboured long under the mesmerising influence of spirituous liquors, I oneday found myself without, and was delivered a sudden sharp dose of sobriety.

Skulking underneath, all along, was the reality that They Can Take It All Away From You. Generally, They don’t, but They can.

The German for “employer” is Arbeitsgeber, which literally means “work giver.” And if you find yourself being given something, you must be aware it can just as easily be taken away, and I don’t just mean employment, but any of the privileges or even responsibilities which we even see as burdens, which can be taken for granted.

If you are unlucky, you can very quickly get confronted by the stark reality that there is a less-than-pleasant underbelly to life which many are fortunate to not ever get a glimpse of. From what I’ve seen in the world, the dividing line between success and failure, between wealth and poverty, between distinction and disrepute is, in many cases luck, timing, fortune…whatever you want to call it, but those who get the other end of the stick are in a position to tell you that life, presented with all of its sharp edges fully intact, can be less than palatable.

It reminds me also somehow of The Lord of The Flies, insofar as the veneer of civilisation is very thin and we are all one inconvenient happenstance away from discarding all of the mores, conventions and usances which imply a polite and fair society…but that is another newsletter.

I concluded viscerally and experientially what I had already known on a factual basis: that it is not good to be reliant on just one source of income. It turns out, once again, that intellectual and experiential knowing are very different things. This can also be illustrated by the stock market dropping 40%.

The reality, however, is that even though many would like to think they can turn their hand to anything, most of the humble men and women of this planet only really have one viable source of income, and even those with hidden or well-known talents cannot monetise them at the drop of a hat, when the wolves come to the door and the bank manager adopts a less friendly tone.

Many industrious people run a successful side gig, and I particularly admire them after going through this debacle…it makes the present writer wonder whether he should start looking for opportunities himself, perhaps by dabbling in various Ponzi schemes or multi-level marketing or other illegitimate, zero-sum games?

Alas, the energy for such enterprises, be they lawful or otherwise, is likely to be found lacking once I am back in gainful employment. I am, after all, a rather passive creature, and even picking up my pen can be sometimes an imposition…except of course when writing to Beloved Readers of EdwardSays, who this week might have grown a little bit wiser, without the unwanted byproduct of the new grey hairs which often accompany the more stringent lessons life has to offer.

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Many thanks for reading this week’s column. Next week, I will possibly complain about the short days and long nights which winter and the changing the clocks has imposed upon us. Or it might be something else. If you wish to catch it in your inbox, be sure to subscribe below, if you have not done so already.

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