Is Self Employment a Real Job?
Working Alone Can Be Thankless
It’s a valid question and a true concern for those who routinely work at home, work for themselves and work all alone.
Lone Professionals
Friends and family, those closest to self employed professionals, often take a very narrow view of career choices. If criticisms such as “well, you don’t have to get ready and go to a building to work every day,” and “all you do it sit as home” sound familiar, the question which follows is perfectly natural. Many people look down upon self employment as easy, cushy and comfortable - easy money, right?
Is Self Employment a Real Job?
For lone professionals, being self employed can feel every bit as challenging, tedious and time-consuming as any other traditional form of employment - if not more so. It is, in fact, incredibly easy to indulge oneself in the guilty pleasures of loafing around all day long, becoming enraptured by daytime TV, snacking endlessly and chatting on the telephone. But if such were the case, professionals who work at home would find themselves changing careers very quickly.
It seems a ridiculous question to ask when it seems obvious that any task which yields payment (be it from a consumer, customer or employer) can indeed be labeled a job. But self-doubt is natural for any professional whose daily tasks seem routinely looked down upon by others.
Work at Home Can Be Thankless
The real problem isn’t the cold treatment of others or a natural friction between different types of work forces - the real problem is the lack of positive reinforcement in self employment. It’s easy for self-doubt to creep in when there is often little praise associated with one’s chosen career. Work at home can be thankless, and this often leaves room for work at home insecurity.
Employers and clients are less apt to praise work well done than they are to criticize work they find less-than-excellent. Having to re-do assignments, make changes or withstand the negative comments of others can begin to take a toll on any working professional - it’s enough to undermine the confidence of even the most successful worker.
In self employment, such criticisms and workplace problems are even harder to swallow because the professional is so often all alone. This means there is no one with whom to blow off steam, no one to offer feedback on projects, no one to help take the edge off. Couple this with a few disgruntled employees who seem vocal in their opinion that self employment is somehow less important or less difficult than their own careers, and soon the terrible question can become a burning personal battle. …Is self employment a real job?
Being Self Employed
Despite the somewhat uncomplimentary nature of the job, self employment is work. Maybe it’s conducted at home, maybe it’s done out in the field - but it’s definitely not something to be looked down upon as being too easy. Withstanding the criticism, the rejection and the constant instability itself is difficult - not to mention, the job itself and the work it entails. Self employment is a real job, and in some respects it’s much harder than many other career choices out there.
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