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It’s been a while since I made a mental health/work-from-home post so I’d thought I’d do that. I chose to work from home for mental health reasons. Sometimes, you have to do what’s best for you even if people don’t agree or you lose friends. It’s the harsh reality. I am here, to be honest with you. I chose to work from home due to mental health reasons.
Therefore I class this as mental health.
How am I helping my mental health by working from home? Well, I am not constantly going into an environment that will tank my mental health. I have been torn so much from the bullying
I went through in school. Do you really think I have the strength to go through it on a job? Everyday. With no escape?
I see YouTubers post they have to take a break, some people complain but their loyal followers will understand. I wouldn’t be able to do that on the job my mom wants me to get without them
threatening to fire me. My mom wanted me to work at Walmart and we all know how infamous Walmart is for firing their workers especially for calling out sick. I made a blog post breaking down an article I found regarding ex Walmart employee’s experience. I applied to Walmart so my mom would shut up and I didn’t pass the survey and was disqualified.
I dodged a bullet. I didn’t fail on purpose. Autistic folks struggle with those assessments for various reasons. I had to see my therapist every 2 weeks. I doubt they would allow me to take off that many times if the people in the article got punished for missing one day.
Like me for example. I couldn’t find a job I could handle. I mean something my mom didn’t expect me to be able to handle. I chose to work from home by posting content on my cryptocurrency sites. My earnings have picked up lately.
Now I get it, back in 2018/2019 I was only getting 3/4 cents a post on my Steemit blog. It took 3/4 months to get 1 dollar. However, I had to use the resources available to me.
My mom sees me wanting to work from home, building my skills, etc as not wanting a job. I want a job, the job I’m aiming for, she doesn’t agree with. I am worth more than being a slave to capitalism.
Also during the pandemic people took the stimulus check or their unemployment to invest in starting a business. And was able to make that their job.
Her reason for not agreeing with my working from home ‘a job where I am guaranteed a check’ I told her how so many people who lost their jobs to COVID all thought the same thing. Turned a blind eye. She forgot when, without warning, her hours were cut for her caregiver job and she struggled. She could barely pay our phone bill.
However, she claims real jobs are so safe and you’re guaranteed a check. Say you get 200 dollars you are promised that vs YouTube where you can make 500 dollars one month but made 300 another. She made X on her job and could at least afford clothes, food, etc. Then her hours got cut and she could barely get buy. She tried looking for another job but couldn’t get an interview. Wait I thought you said these jobs are so promising?
I chose to work from home because it’s better for my well-being and my mental health. Also, I can easily accommodate appointments. I schedule my YouTube videos. Just post them to my crypto blog sites when I get home.
Share a blog article etc when I get home. It just seemed like she didn’t agree with my choice. At least it seemed so, my mom didn’t agree with me working from home because I’ll be in the house.
Now let’s say I had a job, I’d be so burnt out I’d be in the house anyway. Chores will never get done because I am too burnt out from work to do them. If my friend wants to hang out, I’m too burnt out to hang with him.
My mom expects me to drive her around, I’d be too burnt out to do that even. I’d be in the house, sleeping until noon because work burned me out so much. I get burned out easily so I have to pick a light load.
I can tell my mom about working from home until the cows come home. She will never understand where I am coming from and always label my reasons as ‘excuses’ because she doesn’t wanna hear it.
She doesn’t understand getting a job while having a disability is not as cut and easy as she thinks. Employers discriminate against disabled people. Look at this thread. Most employers don’t follow the ADA. “At-will’ laws render the ADA useless.
They can hire disabled people just to cover their asses but pay the disabled worker less than the non-disabled workers. They could hire me and then fail to properly communicate with me and fire me over that. My mom says I am listening to these people on Facebook. No, these people are a wake-up call as to how they are actually treated.
I will be at the job, not her.
I will be treated like shit, not her.
I will have to constantly fight to keep a schedule that allows me to accommodate appointments, not here.
I will have to deal with bullying and ableism, not her.
I will be fired from jobs due to my autism, not her.
I thought when she was fired from her job due to her learning differences would make her more understanding regarding why I needed a specific job. Nope.
I will be putting myself at risk of COVID and the Delta(as of editing this) then there is the new variant, Omicron), not her. So it’s easy to speak when you’re not in the situation. If I was supposedly exposed I gotta isolate how can I do that if they threaten to fire me when I call off? If I am exposed to the COVID how can I get tested and isolated if the job offers no off days? Working from home, I don’t have that problem.
One reason my mom didn’t agree with working from home is that, in her eyes, a job is when you’re guaranteed a paycheck. I mentioned how her job cut her hours without warning. I mention this above. Look at how many people
filed for unemployment last year when they lost their jobs due to the epidemic. They all thought their jobs were ‘safe.’ Running a website or a blog, social media marketing, and SEO are skills you can apply to real life.
Say you start a business, having a website is paramount especially when you are small and starting out. Knowing how to market yourself, SEO is important for people to find you. I learned about SEO from Youtube.
If Youtube fails and I start, let’s say a service training teachers on how to deal with autistic students, I can take the marketing skills I learned from YouTube and apply them to my business. Since I rebranded my blog, maybe I can start a service testing games or reviewing games.
Even if my earnings fluctuate. I would rather have that than put my faith in someone who could fire me whenever they want. Or at any moment, something happens. In this case. No one saw it coming. The governor of my state closed all non-essential businesses. Those ‘guaranteed’ jobs were gone. YouTube, Twitch, this blog, and my crypto sites are still here.
IN a doctor’s case, we are always going to need to know about medicine and such. People sought Youtube, Twitch, etc when their job closed.
People are opening their eyes are realizing they are worth more, they deserve to be paid more and treated right. So they took the time they were out of work to study and practice new skills.
I put that first.
My mom thinks it’s because ‘i’m afraid.’ I am not afraid, I am simply putting my mental health and my wellbeing first.
Of course, any disabled person would be ‘afraid’ to get a job because
- They will be discriminated against
- fired due to their disability
- bullied
- ableism
The job description even weeds out disabled people when it has things like ‘must be able to lift X LBS, must be able to stand for long periods of time.’ This makes job searches while disabled difficult.
Or the person knows the more visible their disability the slimmer chance they have of getting hired.
I have a reason to not want to go back to being bullied for being different. I chose to work from home because I’m putting my mental health and my well-being first. If I had painful monthly cramps, I can take time off without having to worry if I will be fired for it. If I have to schedule an appointment, I won’t have to worry about being fired for it.
If the weather is bad, I don’t have to worry about putting my life at risk for someone who only cares about making money. For those who live in hurricane county, most of their employers won’t let them leave early for evacuation.
These employers want their workers drowning in a flood to fill their pockets. Money is important, however, if you chose money over human lives, etc that’s where I draw the line. If I work from home, say I lived in Florida, I can get the hell out of dodge if they’re talking about a hurricane.
Nothing I say will get her to understand. I have to accept it. Folks will turn deaf ears when it comes to mental health or your wellbeing in the first place. After all, I said working from home is better for my mental health.
I want to explore. I want to have freedom.
Some folks are not going to agree with you when you have to make changes for your mental health or your well-being and that’s OK. At least you know their true colors.
It’s how life is sadly. Folks can easily speak about things without knowing the full context. My mom can see a disabled person working and assume I can handle the same job. Maybe that person doesn’t have sensory issues like me.
Maybe they don’t need direct instructions like me. Maybe they are fighting so hard not to lose that job. We don’t know beyond what we see.
If you quit your job to improve your well-being and your folks don’t agree. Remember this, no one knows the demons in your head but you. No one knows what you go through besides you
My mom is a boomer, the only job she believes in is a job you go to. Me, being a millennial, I’ve opened up to different types of jobs. During the epidemic, folks found they got more done at home than in the office. Working from home helped disabled people when going to a job was a struggle for them. My mom and I come from a different generations and nothing I say will change her mind.
The money you spend on gas or public transit, think about what they can go towards if you decided to work from home. Better yet, when your company lets you work from home, look at how much money you saved on gas and public transit.
The point of this post is, that only YOU know what you go through. Only you know what you can tolerate. I know what will be too much for me, not my mom. Retail and fast food will be too overwhelming due to the pace and pressure.
Posting on my blogs. I can go at my own pace, and take time off when I needed. I don’t have to ask permission to take off. I can understand telling the job you will be taking off so they can plan while you’re gone. Some folks have their time denied. If this person earned the time, give it to them!
Working from home, I can take as many days as I want off, I can go as slow as I want. If I am feeling under the weather, I can take as much time as I need with no one threatening to fire me or penalize me.
I believe what I am doing is best for me. My mom likes to holler I need to make my own choices and think for myself. I believe this is the best decision for me and she doesn’t agree.
Making my content does take a lot of time. If I want people to reward it, I have to give them a reason. I have to reel them in. I have to show them I am serious about YouTube.
Those are all skills and responsibilities. If someone hires you to paint their room, they are not gonna pay you if you half-ass it. They are going to pay you for a nice clean job.
My mom and I are opposites. so it seems. If telling her how working from home is better for me isn’t working, I need to actually show her. I made 300 bucks the first time I turned in my blog earnings.
If I keep it up I can turn my money in every week. 300 bucks. Way more than what I’d probably make on the job she wants me to get because employers can legally pay disabled people less.
My mom says I am stubborn. She can believe whatever she wants. Those jobs she thought were ‘safe’ were gone overnight when the lockdowns happened and even that didn’t get her to understand.
We are learning that no job is safe if you didn’t make it yourself. We want to work for ourselves not work for the man. We want to turn our passions into a job.
This epidemic opened our eyes and served as a wake-up call that those ‘real jobs’ aren’t as safe as we thought. Even when the old normal ends, you will never know if your company is one misfortune away from having to file for bankruptcy.
If people had more time (and money) to study new skills (like coding, sewing, etc) then they can take that and make a job out of it
A job should be something you enjoy, that you want to do every day. I want to create content on YouTube, Twitch and my blog every day I get up. The skills I’ve gained can take me so far.
Like I said above, I can take the marketing skills I learned from Youtube and apply it if I were to start my own thing.
If telling her won’t work, I need to show her. As they said, actions speak louder than words. The pandemic opened our eyes and we are now realizing no job is safe. Even if there is no pandemic, the job can face hardship and have to make some cuts.
I decided to do what was best for my mental health and my well-being. My mom hollers we need to watch our stress levels but wants me in a job that will put my stress in maximum overdrive.
To my mom, a job to her is 9-5. A job to me is anything that makes you money and allows you to do what you love.
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