After hearing the term “lazy girl jobs” of course I had to look into what that meant since I am A) a girl; and B) quite lazy on occasion. Turns out the phrase was coined by an influencer who wanted a catchy way to describe jobs that offer a better “work-life balance.”Personally, I think the ideal work-life balance would be getting paid a full-time salary for showing up for part-time hours, like the auto workers want. Not to be rude, but it seems to me that the people who have the best chance to achieve a good work-life balance are the ones making the big bucks.Many other folks have to pick up a side gig — or two — and side gigs tend to bite into downtime significantly therefore making the balance out of whack before you have your first sip of coffee in the morning.
I was disappointed that there wasn’t a specific list of lazy girl jobs along with websites accepting applications, but it did give me something to ponder: What would qualify as a lazy girl job? I’m thinking along the lines of not having to dress up, not having a specific break time, and never having to bring in treats on birthdays. In other words, working remotely.To be fair, I’ve worked remote jobs that required a LOT of output but those were of the paid-by-the-piece variety where the more you worked the more you earned. I’ve also worked remotely where all I had to do was check my email and attend webinars but that was during the pandemic when no one knew how to work from home very effectively.There’s a lot to be said for working remotely from the employee’s point of view — not having to drive to work on icy days, being able to crochet while attending Zoom meetings, and wearing the same clothes three days in a row.However, rumor has it that remote jobs are beginning to look not quite so rosy from the employer’s viewpoint. Recent studies have shown that remote workers tend to produce less at home than from their cubicle.This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone as most of the time the only creatures watching you work at home are your pets and they don’t give a darn what you do on your laptop as long as you remember to walk and feed them. Bosses aren’t cut from the same piece of cloth.
Remote work also breeds vague resentment from the people who can’t work remotely because their jobs require warm bodies onsite.While you can say that’s just the way the cookie crumbles, it seems to me it would be smart for management to reward the in-person employees with perhaps a freebie day off per month or a break on parking fees or even a gas card to pay for the gas they’re using to get to work while their remote colleagues use gas only for the “life” part of the work-life balance equation.Enough bitterness. Let’s get back to the lazy girl jobs. (Sexist much? I know plenty of lazy boys who’d like a less stressful, remote, work-life balance too.)What would make an ideal lazy person job? For me it would be something along the lines of writing reviews of items purchased on Amazon or counting how many red cars drive down the street per hour.Maybe getting your pets into modeling and acting as their manager, although that would be tough to pull off remotely.Sadly, the facts of the matter are as follows: Lazy girls/boys and work do not go hand in hand; the work-life balance idea sounds good but is not necessarily realistic or equitable; and finally, if you want to sit around and do nothing while getting paid for it, better keep buying those lottery tickets.I know I am.Nell Musolf is a freelance writer based in Mankato, Minn. She can be reached at [email protected].
https://www.meadvilletribune.com/opinion/column-still-waiting-patiently-for-my-lazy-girl-job-or-at-least-better-life-work/article_ee6db5cd-29e7-5bb1-a61d-64ae7b765ed9.html
