So Many Changes
– By Josh Warburton –
While some things mostly seem the same, so much has changed in the last year!
My life is remarkably like the way it was before COVID hit. I’ve been working from a home office for quite a few years now. My desk is in the same spot it was a year and a half ago. I’m still calling on mostly the same businesses and organizations, mostly. A few closed shop last year, ne’er to reopen, and a few more closed this year as well. And if you’re in the restaurant business here, you’ve got a whole ‘nother set of problems, principally more customers than staff to serve them. Good problems, they say, but some bad always seems to come with the good.
So, while business was way down last year, and thankfully it’s back up considerably this year. Not all venues have reopened. Some never will. Marketing budgets are tight as many organizations struggled this last year just to survive. Many performers haven’t performed or have very little. And that’s the case for me. I played one gig in 2020, Trailfest in Kanab, their last year doing it here. And then I just played for a grand opening in May, which was fun, but it feels different to me now. At the end of 2019, I decided to take a break from performing for a little while, I couldn’t have known at the time that a break in performing was about to happen to everyone. Then, last spring I was invited to be part of a statewide political campaign, my first time working at that level. The compensation was good, if for a short time. I calculated I made as much in one month doing that as the prior two years performing. It put it in perspective.
Gigging is a lot of work. Beyond the 10,000+ hours I’ve spent mastering my craft, giggin’ means hauling gear and I typically show up to a gig with a few thousand dollars worth of gear, to make a couple hundred bucks, maybe. Because of that math, many performers say “you have to love it” as some gigs you’ll actually lose money on after travel, lodging, and if you’re unlucky enough to break something during a show, as I have. And I think a lot of people working in a lot of industries had similar experiences.
You hear a lot right now about a “labor shortage” but I think it could be more aptly labeled a “cheap labor shortage.” Given a break and a chance to maybe do something different, many people have not gone back to the “crappy” jobs with the “crappy” pay they had before the pandemic. Some have just pulled themselves out of the workforce to stay home with kids or take care of the household. Some (many) have gone back to school to improve their job prospects. And many, like myself, have just had enough space around what they were doing to decide they don’t want to go back to that life. I don’t see myself performing much moving forward. It stresses me out. I worry about congestion or getting a sore throat. I worry about being out of practice and not performing at the level I once did. And just like many workers, the pay largely just isn’t worth my time anymore.
My dad used to get paid $500-$600 to perform in southern Utah with a 3-piece band. In the early 1980s. In 1980’s dollars. You can’t get that now at any venue in the area. Wages have not kept pace with the cost of living, not for performers, and not for many workers all over. I believe we’re seeing a paradigm shift where many are reprioritizing what’s important to them, what they want to spend their time doing, and what they want to get compensated for their efforts…or, they are moving onto something else. It’s an opportunity really for a better life if sometimes a painful transition. Here’s to your new life! Happy reading.
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