I may not enjoy my so-called “day job” all the time, but I do have some fantastic colleagues, and one of the best things I’ve learnt from them is the saying, “a work mi a work, a nuh chicken mi a jerk!” It has become a mantra for me, playing over and over in my head although I try not to let it come out of my mouth too often. I don’t want to over-use the phrase and end up having it lose its flavour (pun intended).
So, what does the phrase mean for me, exactly? Why has it been playing in my head over and over for the past few weeks?
Well, for one thing… because it’s true.
I mean, here I am at minutes after one in the morning, taking a break from a project I’m working on through Elance, and I’ve been reminding myself as I work that “a nuh chicken mi a jerk!”
Now, don’t get me wrong; I love jerk chicken as much as the next person — in fact, I have it for dinner every single Saturday night, bar none — but preparing jerk chicken is not my job. When I’m working, therefore, the truth is, “a nuh chicken mi a jerk.” No, not at all, because slaving over a hot “jum-pan” isn’t my idea of the ideal job. The cleaning, the seasoning, the smoke, the “facety” customers, the hours, the profit margin… none of those appeals to me. Regardless, every Saturday night I thank God it’s someone else’s vocation, and that he (yes, he, I buy from the same vendor every week) is good at it.
I might not be jerking chicken as I sit at my fabulous new desk (thank you, Bashco!), but I could be doing any of a multitude of other tasks that other people might find unpleasant.
Right now, for instance, the project I’m working on is one that has me questioning whether or not I — the “proud” holder of both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree — need to be sitting at my desk at this…I won’t say “ungodly” hour, because God is in every hour, but at this decidedly unpleasant hour, re-typing a novel of some 66,403 words. But who’s counting?
I am.
I am counting every word as I re-type someone else’s novel while my own sits unfinished in cyberspace. Why, you may ask? It’s fairly simple, really: the publisher is paying me to do it. The author’s computer crashed and the format of the file they have isn’t working for them, so they need someone to type the entire work again — “from scratch”. So, as tiring a job as it is, as difficult as it is on the wrists, the fingers and the back, for the next ten days, it is my job, and the one to which I will dedicate every hour I can find, because “a work mi a work….”
No doubt the more software-savvy among you will immediately wonder why I don’t just copy the text and clear all the formatting, and then re-format the document and sit back, wait a few days and collect the money, but the truth is, that is not what I am being paid to do, and though they may never know if I took that approach, I would. I am committed to doing the job I will be paid to do. Why? Because “a work mi a work, a nuh chicken mi a jerk.” You want to pay me to do something like this, I’ll do it if the price is right (and it is).
Many people (and I use the term ‘many’ very loosely and under advisement) read this blog because they are interested in earning money while working from home in Jamaica. Isn’t that what has brought you here? Well, the next question I have for you is this: what are you willing to do to earn that money?
Would you willingly take on a project that involves writing a love letter “from” a man “to” his wife in order to settle a bet between the two about whether or not everything (including love) can be outsourced? I’ve done that.
Would you read all the course material for something you’ve never been remotely interested in, and then turn around and write scores of test questions for the course? I’ve done that.
Could you see yourself sitting up in the wee hours four mornings per week, reading descriptions of literally hundreds of construction projects in a far-away land, categorising them and then assigning a budget in a foreign currency? I’ve done that.
Would you agree to listen to a legal hearing or a mind-numbing medical lecture and transcribe every single thing you hear, down to the “ums” and “uhs”? I’ve done that.
Are you excited about copying and pasting contact information from the Internet into an Excel spreadsheet… hundreds of times, day after day? I’ve done that.
How about agreeing to edit someone’s undergraduate paper, only to find it riddled with unimaginable, dare I say unfixable errors and easily identified plagiarism (a.k.a COPYING!) but being unable to call them out on it because they’re not paying you for that? I’ve done that.
What about marking and commenting on university-level papers for a course you’ve never taught? I’ve done that.
So when you read or hear somewhere that I’ve earned a bit of money working online, and you get all excited at the prospect of earning money, too, remember that many of the jobs that are outsourced via the Internet are only made available because qualified people in the developed world wouldn’t necessarily want to do them. You’ve got to be willing to do the work if you want to be paid. I know that for me, every time I accept a project that I feel is not using every single one of the skills I consider “most valuable”, I have to remind myself, that hey, “A work mi a work, a nuh chicken mi a jerk!”
Walk good.
Work from Home Jamaica 