August 20, 2009

From self-employed to someone's employee

• 2 Comments |
• E-mail |
• Print
• • Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

In her recent Wall Street Journal column, Alexandra Levit makes the fantastic point that returning to an office job after working for yourself should not be viewed as a step backward. Besides benefiting from the steady paycheck and company perks (hello, health insurance!), employees often have the opportunity to acquire new skills and responsibilities -- all on someone else's dime.

Of course, switching to employee status after you've been running your own show for several years doesn't work for all solo professionals, as many of us can attest. But for those who opt to give it shot, returning to office work may take some getting used to. I'm not talking about dressing and commuting and playing nice with others. I'm talking about something that's not discussed as much: learning to deal with bureaucracy all over again, or in some cases, for the first time.

A decade ago, I took a year-long contract position in a corporate office after working from home as a freelancer for seven years. Until then, I had only worked in the offices of small businesses, niche book publishers, and newspapers -- never a large corporation with tens of thousands of employees. On my first day, the department head stopped by my office to welcome me and deliver the "It's sink or swim around here" speech I suspect he gave to all new hires.

A week into the job, that pep talk fresh in mind, I took it upon myself to solve a couple of problems with my projects without consulting anyone else, initiative I figured would impress my boss. Instead, I quickly learned that there were protocols, chains of command, and myriad other hurdles I had to jump through in order to get through much of my workload.

But the bureaucracy wasn't the only thing that took getting used to. The constant interruptions from coworkers were a bit of a surprise, too. (It's been said that between their colleagues, their computer, and their phone, the average cubicle worker is interrupted at least 70 times a day.) 

Sometimes the interruptions weren't even intended for me. For most of that year, I shared an office with a generous programmer who quickly became known as the go-to guy for any type of computer issue that flared up on our floor, even though tech support wasn't part of his job. On many days, there would be a line out our office door three people long, all waiting to ask him a question. I quickly learned to save the work that required heavier concentration for the one or two days I telecommuted a week and to reserve most of my lighter work (e-mail correspondence and collaborative tasks) for the days I was in the office.

Readers, how about you? If you've gone from self-employed to employee status recently, how did you adjust your mindset? What were some of the obstacles you had to overcome?

Michelle Goodman is the author of "My So-Called Freelance Life" and "The Anti 9-to-5 Guide." E-mail Michelle at mgoodman@nwjobs.com

• 2 Comments |
• E-mail |
• Print
• • Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Read more

2 Comments

theantibush on August 23, 2009 9:03 AM | Reply

The one thing I found most constraining about working for someone else was not being free to completely explore my field more deeply. For one, I was in awe of the individual or individuals that created companies to begin with. Whats that like? How did they do it? How does an idea become a company? I also couldn’t fathom how any one person could write a thousand pages long technical book. It seemed almost super-human. I simply had to slay these and other dragons, so I departed my lead position and grabbed the bull by the horns. I have worked days straight at my former employer before, sleeping in my office usually as needed to pull the rabbit out of the hat. It was a lot of fun, and the work rewarding. But its nothing like the workload you place on yourself when you are on your own. I went back after six years, and working for someone else again was exactly like a vacation by comparison. I didn’t stay long, though. Parallel computing, molecular biology, DNA motifs, and pattern-matching algorithms dragged me off again. I do enjoy working for large companies for the collaboration opportunities. But around the castle, in the deep dark forest beyond its protecting yet constraining walls, there be dragons waiting for my spear.

Alexandra Levit on August 26, 2009 10:04 AM | Reply

Thanks for sharing my column with your readers, Michelle! I'm so glad you found this one useful.

Leave a comment

* required field

Your name: *

E-mail address: (Will not be displayed)

Your comment: *

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.