Sarah Jaffe

I've got, you know, I went to grad school, the whole thing, redid my life.

And my working conditions weren't that much better.

And as I joke on my website bio, like I didn't make more money at first when I was a journalist than I had been making in restaurants.

And so realizing that there was a lot in common there.

And actually, I will tell people all the time that waiting tables is great training for journalism because you have to be able to sort of keep a straight face no matter what someone says to you.

It's a really useful skill and being able to talk to people and like smooth things over when feathers get ruffled.

Like all of these things that I learned waiting tables actually have stood me in great stead as a reporter for the last 16, 17 years.

But that sense that like, oh, I'm not, my life hasn't changed as much as I thought it was going to.

I am still struggling to pay the bills.

I was living in New York City when I started work as a full-time journalist, which like...

Yeah.

And that understanding that like, oh, like this is cool and I'm glad I'm doing this.

And, you know, don't get me wrong.

I do not want to return to restaurant work.

But recognizing that at the end of the day, work is still work and we are still doing it at the end of the day because we've got to pay the rent, not because we just like woke up that morning and decided that slinging sushi to tourists in Denver would be great fun.

Like at the end of the day, I need to have other things that give me meaning and give me validation and give me the sense of doing something important in the world.

And like, look, I still do the work that I do, which like, let me tell you, there are many subjects that I could cover as a journalist that would pay better and have more job security than being a labor reporter.

But I keep doing it because I think it's important.

And I still talk to a lot of people who do jobs.

I talk to a lot of nurses.