Work is work, no matter how you spin it. But after several years busting my butt at a Fortune 500 company, the corporate grind finally started to take its toll, and I became resentful of the evil overlord to which I reported. After an incredibly modest amount of careful thought, I decided to move in a different direction: I quit working for ‘The Man’ and instead began working for several men, none of whom are as powerful as the metaphorical one. Here’s why I took the plunge.
My old boss never respected the fact that when five o’clock rolled around, I was entitled to go home and forget all the pressures of the day. Now, as a freelancer, I can work whenever I want, though the fellas I answer to do have a concerning habit of emailing me with urgent assignments at 1:30 in the morning, which in turn has me on the clock at any and all hours of the day. But hey, anything’s better than a grueling late night at the office, even if you would be pulling in time-and-a-half and receiving benefits and lunch on Fridays.
At your garden variety mega corporation, there are all kinds of intangibles to worry about on top of your daily workload, from whether you mesh the company culture, to remembering to throw your away your K-Cup, to getting too lit at happy hour and weirding your coworkers out. Now that I work for a bunch of random, faceless dudes, I am enjoying a no-strings-attached professional arrangement. The only things I have to deal with are health insurance, retirement, monitoring my own taxes, following up on unpaid invoices, following up again on unpaid invoices, and crippling isolation!
Also, did you know you can actually make just as much money freelancing for some guys as you can as a true-blue full-time employee? All you need is an inhuman degree of self-motivation and discipline. Okay, full disclosure: my bank account may not be what it once was, but on the bright side, it keeps my ego in check and my lifestyle from becoming too comfortable. Gotta stay hungry! But for real, I’m so, so hungry.
So yeah, those are the main reasons why I decided to stop working for The Man in favor of part-time employment divided across a sampling of internet men who, while nowhere near as powerful as the CEO at my previous place of employment, are every bit as controlling and miserly, and could really give a hoot about my wellbeing. Goodbye corporate America and cheers to freedom!
