Smarty Pants: Is Staying Home Foolish in a Recession?

note: smarty pants posts are my responses and reflections on current events, and the questions they stir up.

Fair Questions:
Will the stay-at-home lifestyle become an inevitable casualty of the recession? This is the question I asked myself when I read a recent article in Time Magazine about women scrambling to get back into the workforce after leaving it to raise children.

It is a fair question. Other fair questions include: is it foolish to be home right now? should women try to get jobs before it gets too late? is staying home during a recession a financially irresponsible choice?

The answers to those questions, of course, are relative. What might be responsible for one person would be unwise for another. Nevertheless, I think that there are some themes and trends worth pondering about stay-at-home living and the current recession:

Worth Considering...
* Fear influences our perspective and decisions. For many of us, this recession is scary. The notion that the “window is closing” for employment might cause some of us to pursue a conventional job even when we don’t want or need one, usually for fear that someday we might.
* Furthermore, staying home--a choice that on its own incites cultural resistance--becomes even harder when the focus on dollars and cents is intensified. The day-to-day activities that don’t generate income, or generate small income, are more tempting to eschew in favor of traditional work and payment.

But:
* There are ways that you can be proactive about work while staying home. Many women manage to launch small companies from their homes that provide either living or supplemental incomes for their families. Furthermore, women staying home can prepare themselves to enter the workforce if needed by taking steps to heighten their employability now. Read below under “previous posts” for more information.
* Also, working and income are not the only safeguards during this recession; home management helps too. Strong community ties, disciplined budgeting, creative resourcefulness, and the like can all fortify a family against the throngs of recession. Paychecks are not the only solution.

A Defense
Certainly I would never council someone to stay home if they weren’t making ends meet at the end of the month. But I do think that home-based lifestyles are particularly vulnerable during recessions, and I find myself wanting to defend them. Not just because I work from home, but also because I think they provide tangible (dare I say quantifiable?) value.

Thoughts?
What are your thoughts? Are you staying home and feeling heightened pressure to hit the pavement? Are you currently searching for work? What do you think about stay-at-home living during a recession? Post your comments here.

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Previous Related Posts:
Smarty Pants: Jobs vs. Livelihoods
Overcoming Objections
Building a Resume that Rocks
My Recession-Proof Plan for the Work-from-Home Life

Smarty Pants: Jobs vs. Livelihoods

note: smarty pants posts are my reflections on current events, trends, and perspectives.

I wrote this morning that as a society we tend to gravitate toward utilitarianism when we are stressed out about money. So I thought that this afternoon I would give you an example of what I mean by this...

I was reading last week's issue of Time magazine where they featured a series of short articles on "world changing" ideas happening right now. The very first idea that they listed was titled "Jobs are the New Assets," and I was curious. On the surface this article seemed to make a lot of sense. The basic thesis was that right now our jobs are the most important thing we have going for us. Since our investments are in the toilet, and our homes are losing value, our jobs have become the one nugget of security we can, and should, hold on to.

A Burr in My Saddle:

Underneath the top layer, though, something about this thesis bothered me. I mulled it around for awhile, and came to the conclusion that it was precisely this "utilitarianism" I've been writing about that bugged me. Let me explain.

One of the key points of the article was that our human capital translates into our economic output. In other words, our skills and knowledge can be "invested" into our jobs and earn "interest" in increased economic output. Now that's all fine and well, but I'm not sure I like being defined into categories like "capital" and "output." And therein lies the burr under my saddle: in a recession, particularly when our incomes are threatened, it is easy to start thinking of ourselves as little more than worker bees. The "bottom line" become a primary measure of value. Now this may be a practical (aka utilitarian) and helpful way of looking at things if you are an accountant, economist or banker, but it does not figure as well for stay-at-home moms, artists, writers, and caregivers.

An Unfortunate Temptation:

What I am finding is that during this "economic crisis," the temptation is to look at everything through the lens of "output" and "interest." Unfortunately, day-to-day life is not so easy to quantify. What "output," for instance, do we assign to raising children? What "interest" is earned from creating something beautiful? And do we really want to start measuring everything from that perspective anyway? I certainly don't!

To be fair, the article ended on a higher note, touching on the virtues of finding meaningful work that reflects who we are as individuals. Which leads me to my final thought: "jobs" are truly an important "asset," but I much prefer the term "livelihood" because it implies a better measurement for value: life. I want the work I do to impart life, not just "output." And I want to resist the temptation to start viewing the value of my work under and artificial register of "assets" and "liabilities."

What are your thoughts?

I'm curious to know what your thoughts are about this "recession perspective" of seeing everything in terms of capital and output. Do you find it helpful, or stressful? How do you view the work you do daily, especially during this time? Please share by commenting below!

Previous Smarty Pants posts:

In a Time of Economic Proposals, Here's Mine

Econ 101

The Middle East: steps to forming an opinion

Small Steps Pave the Way

I was talking to my friend this morning about conversations we recently had with other women who were looking for opportunities to make money part-time or from home.  And if it wasn't too much to ask, they also wanted to enjoy and be challenged by the work too.  

It's a pickle in this day and age to find those type of jobs.  I mean, most of us are intimidated to start our own businesses.  And we don't love the idea of turning our home office into a call center where customer complaints are routed to us all day.  And we aren't thrilled with being a waitress or a secretary, even if it does help to make ends meet.  But...we do need to make ends meet.  So what are we to do?

Well, the reality is that our current economy isn't very friendly to the kind of arrangements we're looking for.  Small, flexible, "home-based," or part-time businesses just don't fit well into the "big is better" globalization model that is so popular these days.  If you are anything like me, though, you're still hoping for an alternative, in spite of the obstacles.  

The reality is that we have to create our own alternative economic culture where the employment opportunities we want can thrive.  Because the global economy isn't interested in our type of businesses, we have create the environment for them on our own.  We have to create our own SHEconomy.

But how do we do that? you ask.  Good question.  I think we start small, first by encouraging each other.  Whether we work or stay home, here is a short list of things we can do to get the ball rolling:

1.  support micro-business: whether you run one, want to run one, or are willing to buy from one, supporting small, flexible, community-based businesses is so important.  The more support these mini-enterprises have, the more they will succeed.  And the more they succeed, the more other enterprises like them will be able to follow.  

2.  get out of debt: not having debt frees us up to work in the kind of way we want to--not the way we have to.  It gives us more control over our economic choices because we aren't making choices based on bills.  Fortunately, there are A Ton of resources out there to help us create a debt-free plan for our lives.

3.  share resources: sometimes the new little black dress we need for our friend's wedding isn't at the store--it's hanging in our friend's closet.  Sometimes we can trade our talent (like tutoring Spanish) for a neighbor's talent (like planning killer parties), and both win without spending a dime.  I call this the "relational economy," and think we would be great at it!

4.  stay connected: the more we get together and talk about our ideas for businesses, share our struggles and fears, and encourage each other, the more successful we'll be at creating and sustaining the SHEconomy.  If we try it alone, we're doomed to fail.

I know that these steps do not automatically and immediately open doors for real, tangible, wage-earning jobs.  But they will plant the seeds for those jobs to sprout.  The SHEconomy isn't a business model--it's a lifestyle.  And it is one I think is worth living.