Jarrod_Uncut

After having been an escort for 7 years by 2006, I responded by becoming a certified masseur.
 
And now, for the last 14 years, I've been both. Many guys I see come for an hour of massage followed by an hour of escorting, The Combo. :-)

That is something everyone should be doing regardless if you are in this business or not. No one is guaranteed tomorrow which is why one should always be saving encase something unexpected happens.

Are you a resident of France or New York? Because the stimulus checks apply to all under $99,000 and the unemployment is being extended to gig and independent contractors, who are typically not eligible for unemployment:
 
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-stimulus-package-questions-answers.amp.html

So what you’re saying is, all the people out of work right now...should have had an exit strategy or back up plan as well?
 
Every person I know is out of work right now, except for factory/industrial type workers. Some can work from home, others are just wealthy by portfolio or other means. But I met a guy the other day who is a wedding planner. He saved over $300,000 in 10 years. He’s out of work and all his biz is being moved. I can’t even get a haircut because they shut the hair salons down. The vitamin shops are closed. It’s touching everyone, and like I said: only things weathering this is sex, liquor, and drugs (medications included)
 
People I know who have had 2 and 3 jobs are also out of work. I don’t consider myself “stuck” in the business. I consider myself grateful to be able to still have a demand, that’s not determined by an employer’s need to lay-off or an order pertaining to large groups of people.
 
Society right now has not taken into consideration the fact that there’s many people who were quasi-homeless prior to this situation. Where do people think all the people who lived in their car, or lived on the road traveling most of the month, or had no “permanent” address? Did they just vanish into thin air? Or are hotels opening their doors with free rooms and food to help people “stay in”? Not so.
 
People need to realize you can’t plan for everything. Hind-sighting at guys who use escorting as their sole and reliable income, is a false sense of security. When I was in the hospital for 5 days last month, the only people who helped me out were 3 clients. 1 came to visit, 2 sent deposits for future sessions. If I were working a “side” job, I may or may not have even gotten sick pay, since this has been an issue even prior to COVID.
 
 
I don’t consider relying on escorting to be a disadvantage. I feel it’s a valuable resource I’d like to hang on to for as long as I’m able to. I remember I had a client couple years ago in Orlando who suggested I get into the Vacation business. In order to “secure a better future for myself.” Well guess what. All that’s dead right now. All of Orlando and Las Vegas is dead right now because both economies rely heavily on tourism.
 
What’s happening now is likely more than anyone could have truly planned for.

“.......ok.”

I think stuck refers most to only having a certain field as a job prospect, and not having a secondary option when for whatever reason that option is involuntarily taken away. I have lamented before during your absence that the lack of accrued paid time off and a structured raise system across numerous jobs, especially entry level, is atrocious. There are system problems and overlooking of issues for sure. Those things an individual does not have direct control over. What we can have the most control over individually is fundamentally what we do for work.

https://m4m-forum.org/forums/escort-travels.29/
 
For some is business as usual...

Indeed they are not, and the situation of others is not to be minimised. But this thread is about sex workers. Many of their challenges are shared by others who are marginalised, but many others are not. Their work can't be used in a resume for other jobs, unemployment payments in the US, unlike many other countries, are contingent on having been in recognised work. Even the best prepared workers, and not just sex workers, can easily be knocked over by force majeure like a pandemic, so 'they made their choices', while correct doesn't capture the nature of the difficulty they may be in. When we're talking about one set of people on any subject, the fact that other separate groups may also be affected is a separate issue. The groups are not in competition for sympathy or anything else.

Truth of the matter is, there always have and always will be diseases and viruses manifesting themselves, as this list from 2003 shows (which was around the height of the gay hookup and escort sites debuting such as rentboy, adam4adam and men4rent:
 

 
 
It’s nothing new. I don’t think now is the time to point the finger at anyone, who is doing what they can to get thru this. Part of the reason I came into this profession, is because I didn’t have to be concerned with being let go like other jobs I’ve had in the past. And as we can see now, a lot of people have been let go thru no doing of their own.
 
I know a lot of people going thru tough times, but when those unemployment checks come out, lot of people will be handling their bills. And not everybody is out of work. People are also still going to stores to buy essentials. Think about it: how much of a risk am I posing to see 2 or 3 clients a week, than to go to a store and cross a couple dozen people, who are also crossing a couple dozen people, who are also crossing a couple dozen people? After all, new research seems to point that one can spread it by talking or just coughing and the virus stays in the air for 6 minutes:
 
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/04/02/health/aerosol-coronavirus-spread-white-house-letter/index.html
 
 
In my case, I can’t allow myself get down to $0. I have 2 vehicles that regularly need maintenance, and I can’t allow my insurance to lapse. That’s illegal. And I don’t live walking distance to anything nor are their buses/public transportation in the town I’m in an hour outside of Kansas City. I also am not living in my own place, so to stay in and allow myself to be depleted financially would essentially put a strain (no pun intended) on my housemates, because then I’d be bugging them for money in the process.
 
I know the government is doing what they can now, but it’s not going to be a permanent solution. At some point, it’s going to have to give.
 
I also am not being medically defiant either and am no stranger to a hospital bed: I have asthma, and I spent 5 days in the hospital earlier this month due to non-COVID related issues. I stayed Inside in a room for 5 days, and when I finished my treatment, I left. So I’ve already been thru it. I know what it’s like to have respiratory issues. If someone I meet contracts COVID, they could have likely got it from elsewhere.

I can understand if someone is operating in a high risk location like New Orleans or New York with lots of cases, it's likely going to crash the market, so to speak. But there is still demand in smaller markets.
 
In my case, because I had already lost 10 days of availability in February and March, I'm not in a position to turn off. That in itself left me in a difficult predicament for a whole week after that as well. Most of the people out of work right now are because their employer either let them go or whatever business within the mall closed down.
 
Truth of the matter is, some people's need to make ends meet is a matter of life and death in itself. We're hearing a lot about the corona virus casualties, but I have a feeling afterwards there's going to surface the amount of people who've taken their own lives.
 
I think where people got me wrong is where I said don't panic and that our business is resilient. Perhaps coming off as, "go out there and see clients, like me". But that's not what I was alluding to. I was saying it will bounce back, but in the meantime I have to do what I have to do regardless, even if that simply means just taking 1 or 2 clients per week so I don't end up stranded in bum fuck Missouri, up a creek and without a paddle.

Which is why I find it so disheartening when I read comments made about benefiting from potential discounted rates and stuff like that.
 
It also makes me more aware that social distancing, which I do believe is necessary, is still a luxury that not everyone can afford. I think of other parts of the world as well, where it is a necessity to go out every day to get food and water. Social distancing, as necessary as it is, just isnt a viable option for everyone. What bothers me is when people who can afford to stay home and take the experts' advice choose not to.

BUMP
 
Anybody got any recent experience with this sexy black man?

It's strange to me that sometimes it's very difficult to move the conversation off the platform, be it Rent Masseur or Rent Men.
 
I get that clients may be resistant to texting or emailing or calling due to privacy issues, but I can't imagine an escort or masseur is going to be willing to schedule an appointment without direct contact. Maybe so.

I’ve been waiting for this thread.
 
I have rentmen messenger but I’m not fond of it. I may delete it.
 
I think it’s the WRONG solution to the problem they’re trying to fix.
 
it seems the problem they’re trying to fix is the lag in communication time between clients and escorts. And they want to keep it within their platform because it means more revenue and top of mind awareness for them, even though not ideal for us.
 
but their email system is terrible. in my experience You get a notification for the first email but not any subsequent ones. Notifications by text used to have a link to the email, but after SESTA/FOSTA they say “to read it go to the site”. If they want communication to happen quicker they should have fixed their buggy email system.
 
as @MrMattBig said, the messenger isn’t any more reliable either as I’ve missed notifications from there too.
 
And quite frankly it’s another way for the power imbalance to be abused. A time waster reached out to me asking the same questions he had asked by text on my previous trip to dc. When I asked if it was his number he said no, because he knew what he was doing.
 
So as I said I probably won’t be using it widely.

I find that some guys who contact me using RM's messenger aren't following-up using private email.
 
However... I'm not changing that, as the relentless back-and-forth of an IM system is not something I'm willing to put up with.