Outside Job
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essays

Outside Job

working where the sun does shine

 

 

   As societies urbanize, people’s occupations migrate from the outside world to the inside of factories, stores, and offices. Cornered by walls, work takes place in the workplace where the workforce is forced to work. But nobody robbed us of our freedom – it was an inside job we signed up for. Outside jobs, by contrast, are not always a deliberate choice and oftentimes harder labor, but they come with a certain spatial freedom: the people portrayed here are space-billionaires amassing such a wealth of space that they can fit the outside world into their lives and make their living under the sun, amidst green, or at sea. 

 

A manufactured, artificial opposite of the natural world, the workspace is a peculiar invention. It has the outside wrapped all around it, separated by just a few inches of wall and yet fully out of reach for eight hours a day. And those working in it are always ready to put their pay towards a vacation escape to the other side, while those working outside of it never dream the other way around, never fantasize about vacationing inside an office. 

 

Of course, outside jobs don’t pay as well as inside jobs, but they do offer benefits of an undeniable nature.

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