In 2010, I had the best-paying job I’d ever had. It was an awful work environment. High stress, bad managers, and unfair work distribution, but it paid the bills.
Then, on my birthday, I slipped on some wet stairs while leaving my condo to meet some friends. I broke my ankle in three places and injured my back.
My parents moved into my apartment to help me while I was unable to walk or drive. Months later, when I was supposed to go back to work, we had an ice storm and after a frustrating experience trying to hobble to the car with my boot on, my mom talked me into leaving my job and moving back “home” with them.
It was a shitty job and I was physically and mentally exhausted, so I agreed, which was probably my first mistake. I thought when my ankle healed I’d be able to go back to life as it was before, but once I could walk around again, I discovered that the back pain I thought was temporary had not gone away.
Unable to sit or stand long enough to work even part-time, I applied for disability benefits, but as most people are, I was denied. For years, I subsisted on whatever my parents could afford to give me.
Then, I found a shitty job rating webpages for Google that I could do from home on my own schedule for $10 per hour for a max of 20 hours per week. While working that shitty job, I discovered a company called BKA Content that paid people to churn out SEO content for pennies per word.
It was also low paying, but I was able to earn a bit more doing that work than the Google job and I also liked it better, so I switched. I continued to do that work for the next several years, earning $33,000 in my best year.
But then, ChatGPT happened and suddenly the businesses that were buying the shitty SEO content from BKA were generating shitty SEO content with AI. The available work dropped off the table.
I scratched out $12,000 last year and my earnings were down even more this year. At the end of May, the company went quiet. No new work posted and no word from the company.
Today, they e-mailed us to let us know that they decided to change their model to be a “boutique SEO consulting firm” and they would no longer produce content “at scale” or work with independent contractors. In other words, they fired us all.
Now, if I were an able-bodied person, I could just go looking for any kind of job, but I’m not. I can’t stand more than a few minutes at a time, so any kind of physical labor is out.
No McDonalds or Walmart for me. Unfortunately, I also can’t sit in a normal office chair for more than about 20 minutes at a time without severe pain.
This means, most office jobs are also out. So, what about work-from-home jobs? Well, those aren’t easy to come by and also there aren’t many of them that don’t expect you to work 4-8 consecutive hours, which is something I can’t do.
To add insult to injury, my hip pain has flared up again, so now I can barely sleep due to constant pain. That makes it very hard to stay on a set work schedule.
So, I applied for disability again. Will I get it? Who knows. If I do, it will probably be months to years before I get approved.
So, I’ve got about $170 to my name and no property or income. Fortunately, I do have family members who are willing to help me out, but I hate draining their bank accounts because I can’t support myself.
I’m looking for any kind of work I can do. Scratching out $20 here and there doing user testing. I even tried some of those survey sites.
It’s looking bleak though. Need someone to write some content for you? Hit me up, or if you’d like to help a gal out, contribute to my GoFundMe.
Wish me luck. BTW, I hope you enjoyed these amazing AI-generated images. Impressive, no?