Since graduating in the spring of 2015 with a Spanish major and Portuguese minor, my life has certainly taken some unusual and less-than-expected twists and turns. For me, that’s been completely fine. Even before I graduated, I never saw myself becoming the typical “careerist” type. At least not right away, and definitely not until I found myself in a fulfilling position working for a company with a suitable ladder to climb, so to speak.  So what did I choose to do instead? Teach English abroad of course. This was quite fun while it lasted. Probably the most memorable two years of my life to be honest. But looking back, it wasn’t the English teaching aspect that really made these years stand out for me. It was more the fact that I had this amazing opportunity extend my foreign language education for two consecutive years. Each time in completely new, yet equally engaging and exciting international environments.

Fast forward to 2017, and I’m back in my hometown of Amherst Massachusetts. At this point, I’m at somewhat of a crossroads. I still didn’t know exactly what my dream job was, but I was fairly certain I wasn’t going to find it within the sphere of traditional K-12 education.  Nevertheless, in life one must make some sacrifices. And travelling throughout much of Europe on an English teacher’s budget can burn a hole in your bank account, even if you did it on shoestring budget such as I did. So, I took the highest paying job I could find based on skillsets and experience I had. This led me to my year-long term as a bilingual para-educator in the Amherst Regional Middle School. In many respects, this was the most logical and predictable next step for me. I didn’t have my teaching license, and I still wasn’t sure a full-time teacher was something I wanted to be anyway, so this would prove the perfect testing ground. Could I handle a forty-hour work week in a traditional school setting within the U.S? The short answer was a HARD NO. But in reality, it wasn’t so black and white. There were many aspects of this job I did enjoy. I was able to connect with students one-on-one in a way I never had the chance to in Spain.  I was working alongside a strong team of educators who were whole-heartedly committed to developing a program that focused on bettering the behavioral, social and emotional well-being of our cohort. I was earning a fair deal more money than I ever had before. Nonetheless, I’d often times feel burnt out even before hump-day had arrived. So, as rewarding as this job was, I felt it wasn’t going to be right fit for me in the long run.

This led me back to the drawing board, and once again I was on the hunt for a new job starting in the fall of 2019. Ruling out traditional education settings, I set my sights on public and private study abroad offices across New England. Given my language and travel background working as a tour guide for teen-based language-immersion and adventure trips throughout college, this seemed like a sensible direction to move in. A study abroad office would have had some nice benefits. Not only would it have provided some decent financial stability, it would have given me some valuable work experience, and a chance to learn from others who were equally as passionate about travel as I was. But with limited administrative experience, a highly competitive job market, and a pretty narrow scope of companies located within the borders of New England where I was willing to relocate to, my chances of slipping into this industry were slim. That’s when I stumbled upon my dream job. And I found it on Craigslist of all places.

An interesting job

The company I now work for is actually a cooperative, based out of Northampton Massachusetts  founded in 2002 that goes by the name of Pedal People.  We are A worker-owned human-powered delivery and hauling service. In short, we use a combination of bikes and trailers to perform a wide range of tasks otherwise traditionally reserved for trucks and cars. The bulk of our business comes from residential and commercial waste removal. Yes, you read that right. Though the thought my sound ludicrous at first– “How is it even feasible to replace a dump truck with a bike and trailer?”  And even so- “Who in their right mind would want to ride a bike 10-40 miles a day for work, let alone one loaded with hundreds of pounds of trash, recycling and compost?” The answer is not simple, but I will try my best break it down into a condensed version as best I can, both objectively and personally. The business model works because we offer competitive pricing (similar to those of the trucking companies), and we do so on a much more flexible and personal level. We are also much more environmentally friendly than our competitors, and we market ourselves as such. Heavy diesel trucks used for the stop-and-go style residential trash pickups are responsible for a disproportionate amount of pavement damage and greenhouse gas emissions, which end up costing the city and its tax-payers money to fix, not to mention the damage being done to the atmosphere.

But is this really my long-term dream job? After working here for nearly a year, I’ve been struggling to find the answer to this question. It certainly does tick a lot of boxes for me.

– Get paid a fair wage($20-40/Hour) to do something active outside all day. ?

– Work within a cooperative model of likeminded individuals with no boss ?

– Amazing flexibility to make my own hours, take vacations, pursue other interests ?

– Create a more socially and environmentally just community. ?

But there are certainly just as many boxes that remain unticked as well in regard to my work life with Pedal People. The three greatest challenges for me have been – 1. The solitary nature of the job: We do all of our work alone, and rarely get the chance to collaborate or talk with other members except for once monthly meetings. 2. The lack of income based on the fact that it is too physically demanding to work over 20 or so hours a week. 3. The lack of creativity involved with the general hauling work.

To combat these shortcomings, I’ve been forced to get creative with my part time hustles. Over the past three years, I’ve come to fully “embrace” the emerging digital gig-economy through driving apps like Uber and Doordash. And the reason I’ve put the word “embrace” in italics above, is that I see it more as a relationship of mutual exploitation. But not in the traditional sense you might be thinking. As you might have already heard, working for any of these colossal digital companies can place you in quite a precarious position. One of the biggest challenges we face is our classification as “independent contractors”. First off, this protects these firms from having the legal obligation to provide any sort of benefits whatsoever. Secondly, it means that if there isn’t enough demand, we aren’t guaranteed minimum wage, or any wage at all for that matter. So often times it is the case that the multi-million dollar businesses end up benefiting at the expense of the workers. What I’ve tried to do is flip this relationship on its head entirely, and think I’ve managed to do so with a relative degree of success. Let me explain…

Since we live in a town with a relatively high demand for ridesharing and delivery services like those I’ve described above, it’s often times possible to make well above minimum wage in the Amherst Northampton area. But, I figured why stop there? When all you have is an algorithm for a boss, it’s really hard to be hold yourself accountable. So I’ve done everything in my power to try to cheat the system and milk as much as I possibly can from it.  To do this, I’ve   had to employ some borderline shady practices; these include cancelling rides on the Uber app to accept direct payments from customers, and riding around with two phones on Doordash to double the meager wages they offer. Employing these methods, I’ve been able to make anywhere from $25-$80 dollars an hour. Although this might seem wrong to some, I see it is rightfully justified, especially when you look at the shady track records of these companies regarding worker’s rights. Couple this with the fact that I’m just one person struggling just as much as anyone to pay back their student loans, and I almost feel like a modern day Robin Hood.

So, do I want to be trash hauling and Ubering forever, HELL NO! Am I ashamed to be doing so even though I’m five years out school with a four-year college degree,  NOT AT ALL. I’m still not exactly sure what long-term career I want going forward, but the important thing is I’m beginning to narrow it down more and more. Pedal People still challenges me physically and mentally every single day, which I’m very grateful for. I continuing to learn new things about myself and the company every time I hop on the saddle or partake in our monthly meetings. But my long-term goal is to start doing some social media outreach and graphic design work for them until I can build out a portfolio of work.  I’d like to then use this portfolio and experience to land a job with some sort of brand within the outdoor adventure space, or a media production company with a similar outdoor/adventure focus. I’ll check back in another five years to let you know how that plan is going!