Right now, I am looking for temporary work, and it has made me think quite a lot about the complicated relationship between our ethics and the realities of making a living.
After more than 16 years of being Fat Gay Vegan, organising events, writing, promoting businesses, working in media, and supporting charities, I am currently looking for paid employment to see me through the next few months. It is a strange position to find myself in, particularly because I am trying to navigate the working world while staying as true as possible to an ethical framework like veganism.
Read more below.
One of the things we sometimes forget when talking about ethical living is just how much compromise is involved in being a decent human being. Most of us don’t have the luxury of opting out of work that doesn’t perfectly align with our values. We have rent to pay, food to buy, bills and debts to manage and, if we are fortunate, a little money left over for something enjoyable. We need to earn money because we need to survive, and that can make some ethical decisions considerably more complicated than they might appear from the outside.
For me, this becomes particularly difficult when I think about wanting to reduce my participation in systems that contribute to animal suffering and exploitation. There are millions of jobs in the world and only a tiny proportion are specifically connected to vegan businesses, charities, or organisations. If you need to earn a living, the chances are extremely high that you will encounter a workplace that doesn’t align with your personal ethics.
I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have experienced the other side of this. My time working with Made In Hackney, the vegan food security charity, was incredibly meaningful because the organisation’s purpose was so closely connected to my own values. I also worked with BOSH!, a vegan media company that has helped introduce plant-based food to an enormous audience. It is satisfying knowing the work you are being paid to do is also contributing to something you genuinely believe in.
But opportunities like those are rare. For every vegan-friendly job that exists, there are countless others that aren’t. That doesn’t mean vegans working in those environments are failing at veganism. Everyone has different financial responsibilities, circumstances, and levels of flexibility. Most of us need to work but not all of us can have vegan jobs.
I am curious about how other vegans manage this tension. How do you reconcile wanting to minimise your participation in animal suffering while also needing to work in a world where so many jobs are connected to systems you would rather not support? Do you try to find the least harmful option, compartmentalise your working life, or focus on what you can change outside your job?
It also makes me think about why supporting vegan businesses and organisations matters so much. When we support a vegan restaurant, bakery, food company, or charity, we aren’t simply protecting animals. We are helping create an ecosystem where vegan businesses can survive, grow, and employ people.
I don’t have a grand conclusion to this. I am simply sharing where my head is at right now because I suspect I’m not the only person who has struggled with this. I want to work, earn money, and contribute something useful, but I also want to do those things in a way that feels consistent with the reasons I became vegan in the first place.
Click here to see all my upcoming events and book tickets. You can also join my FGV email newsletter online here.
If you appreciate these blog posts and the work I do to support vegan business, please consider making a one time small donation of a couple of quid online here. You might also be in the position to sponsor my work on an regular basis via Patreon.
You can order my book ‘Fat Gay Vegan: Eat, Drink and Live Like You Give a Sh!t’ online now. It has been out a while now but is still a good read. You can also listen to the Audiobook read by me!
You can watch/stream my weekly podcast Tell Me Where I’m Going (Wrong) on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
Follow me on Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Facebook, and Blue Sky.