Redefining Worth Outside the 9-to-5
I took the day off yesterday. Built a fire pit in the backyard.
Not a sad little ring of bricks either: this one’s got carved rocks and a metal rim. Respectable.
I’m still trying to figure out what I am without a 9-to-5.
Sometimes I have to just be a Husband or a Friend because if I'm a Creative Director, then I’m just a guy who’s out of work.
That’s the weird liminal space of freelance and entrepreneurship.
You live in that “technically unemployed” place.
You’re not Batman. You’re Bane.
You've embraced the darkness and started building in it.
There’s power in being nimble enough to dance around traditional employment.
That’s not just a coping mechanism - it’s a muscle. And it’s one we’re all going to need as the job market continues to spiral.
I talk about this a lot, not just as a personal recalibration, but because I think it’s becoming part of the broader American work story. The zeitgeist you never wanted!
Most of my moves are still centered around a career - taking meetings, building pitches, writing posts like this - but you have to split the difference when the jobs market is in free fall.
Full-time jobs weren’t exactly bastions of work/life balance to begin with.
So if you’re feeling burnt out, buried under rejections, or wondering what the hell to do next?
Part of your identity building is going to have to be about the rest of your life.
When my freelance was really blowing up, I was afraid to take a vacation. Afraid to fall out of rotation.
But when people are applying to 600 jobs and getting 4 interviews?
Take a frickin day off, friend.
The job boards will still be there on Wednesday.
Not a great time to be an out-of-work middle manager.
But an excellent time to be:
Husband. Wife. Son. Daughter. Friend. Partner. Cousin. Collaborator. Home DIY-er. Museum goer. Fire pit sitter.
