Before I started working from home, I never really thought of myself as a lone wolf. In fact, I fancy myself to be quite a social animal. Recently, though, I have been hearing stories from friends which have solidified my opinion that working for myself, by myself is really the way to go.
The things that people experience as a part of their employment never cease to amaze me. Talented people being let go suddenly, other talented people being placed in situations that show their employer’s total lack of regard for anything personal including family, the list goes on. I am sure that some people love their traditional jobs and their jobs love them back, but it seems to me that there are many out there who give their jobs their all and who get treated poorly in return.
When you work for yourself, the only person who can treat you poorly is you. That certainly limits the potential for being mistreated, but it does not eliminate it entirely. People can be very good at mistreating themselves, and home – based professionals are no exception. For example, the home – based professional who takes on more work than they can comfortably handle mistreats himself by placing himself in a situation where he must work like crazy to get it all done or let his clients down by coming up short or completing the assignments late.
I have to consciously remind myself of this sometimes. While I am in charge of what I do, for whom, and when, it is also my job to make sure that I make choices about those things that work well for me. Usually, I do a fairly decent job of that but it does require effort. If you have recently started working for yourself because you were being mistreated in the world of traditional work, it can be a tough pattern to break. Just because you are used to being mistreated does not mean that you must continue on in that way. Remember, you made a big leap to get to where you are. You can choose to create a home – based work situation that works for both you and your clients.
Photo by cohdra on morguefile.com.