When Is A Job Not A Job?

An acquaintance and I were chatting over our cups of coffee this morning, but that casual conversation somehow turned into an argument. Maybe not exactly an argument, more a heated discussion in which neither of us wished to buck down.

No idea now how it started; I think it's when he asked me what's my job and I said that I didn't have one. No job? ... Normally a friend who is not exactly a friend would just leave it at that, or perhaps with a non-committal remark like I had heard before: "How nice. A lady of leisure!". Instead he pushed on. The conversation went something like this:

He: "What do you live on then?" (I won't have asked that of someone I don't know pretty well, would you?)

Me: "I do occasional work as a translator for a construction firm, with contracts and correspondence with their English speaking clients. Spanish to English and vice versa."

He: "Then you do have a job. You translate." He retorted

Me: "Well, I work but I don't consider it a job, as it's not a fixed employment."

He: "You get paid, don't you?"

Me: "Yes. On piece work, or on time spent I guess"

He: "That's a job my dear. You work for some company or someone, and you get paid."

Me: "If what I do is considered a job, then I ought to be paid regularly even on certain days when I am not given much to do, I should still get paid, right? But I don't. If I am sick, or not available when called, I don't get paid. Nor do I have any right to claim compensation or redundancy benefit should they suddenly decide they don't need my service any more. Similarly, if I don't feel like it, I can just say no any given day without having to worry about giving notice or wait till they find a replacement."

He: "Anybody who work for or render service to someone or a company for payment is doing a job."

Me: "Yes I work. Some days work very hard too for many hours. But it's not my job. I do it without any contract or specified conditions, and the people I work for are happy to pay me. But they haven't given me a job. I don't have to log in and stay in the office for certain number of hours whether I got anything to do or not. I don't have a job."

It went on and on like that for a while, both sticking to our own guns. I was more than glad when another acquaintance passed by and stopped over to chat for a bit too, thus closed up the argument.

Now I am not as sure as I was whether I have a job or not.

Tags:Job,Work,Employment

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