Take another look.
Think about what many people are looking for a in a job these days… more and more it is about freedom, flexibility, work life balance, the culture, the enjoyment, the hours etc. It is not just about money. We all know this. In so many surveys, job satisfaction and flexibility win hands down over the dollars.
I recently read an article about a “Professional Housesitter”. This is not a job title you would see every day or see advertised to the general public. However it is more and more prevalent throughout Australia. People want or need housesitters when they travel. This is in most part because they have pets and they don’t want to relocate their pets for either such a short time or long time. The disruption and resentfulness upon return is not worth it!
Housesitting is not for everyone. There are many factors to consider. You need to have a lot of freedom and flexibility before accepting this task. The person must also enjoy taking care of cats, dogs, birds, fish, chickens; whatever it may be. They must have the time to clean up after them, clean them, walk them, feed them etc. This is a job for a single person, a single, trustworthy, honest and clean living person.
The subject of the recent article I read, Lonny, is all of those things and does not take his housesitting duties for granted. He is one of the lucky ones who has a great network of rather well off people of whom trust him. He is their regular housesitter; so the pets know him, and he knows them. It has become a simple transaction and word-of-mouth is the only way Lonny can be found. He is not on social media. He does not advertise what he does. This is a unique role and he has kept himself exclusive to his network; for now!
Lonny created this job himself. He undertook one job for a friend and it has turned out now he has not paid rent for 3 years through his large network, which keeps him in demand.
So, can we create jobs ourselves to suit our lifestyle and needs? Do we always need to be paid if the job we have his actually saving us money? There’s always another way of looking at things.
Joey Cooney