Tell Me About Your “Sober Jobs” (And More, On Work in Recovery)

I’m working on a piece for America magazine about the role of work in 12-Step/recovery culture, and how recovery movements can reshape a Christian theology of work. As part of this project, I would really love to talk to anyone who’s had a stereotypical “sober job”–that first low-status or minimum-wage job you held in early recovery, or the job which brought you back to the very beginning of your career in a kind of fresh start from the bottom, or any job which represents, for you, the changes recovery brought to your life.

I’d also like to know what kinds of questions and ideas you would like to see in an article about recovery and the theology of work. If you have experience in what we might as well call the recovery community, what role has work played in your recovery, and what are the things you think “recovery culture” gets right and wrong about work? I’m also interested in exploring the ways in which recovery culture can misuse or misunderstand work–for example, the way abusive rehabs can exploit people for their labor, which is also an exploitation of the philosophy that low-status work is humbling and therefore especially necessary in recovery. So if you’ve had that kind of experience and want to talk about it, I’d be very grateful.

You can reach me at [email protected] . Please pass this along to anyone who might be interested! I’m hoping to do something theologically rich and grounded in experience.

Picture of a cleaning-supplies cart via Pixabay.