BUT
It's been 7 months now, and there is a list of things which I miss about not working for someone else:
2. Paid Holiday. That lovely feeling whilst you are on holiday, that you are still clocking up the hours. It's a tough life - relaxing.
3. Office Banter. Nothing beats a Monday morning catch-up session with your work mates over a coffee or 2 [free of course], or to share a juicy bit of gossip. It's good to share ideas and your worries.
4. Work Parties! Get togethers, Christmas Do's and lunch-times down the pub. Socialising is a great way to get to know your work colleagues, and of course feed the rumour-mill.
5. Holiday and Birthday Cakes. It's only free if you don't go on holiday or have a timely 'sickie' on your birthday, every year. Swings and roundabouts this one.
6. Professional/Institution Fees Paid! More free stuff for us engineers and technicians.
7. Protection from the Crowd. If you surround yourself with less than competent staff, you can look ace, and it's funny when others c0ck it up... and not you this time ;-)
8. Training and CPD. You are given countless opportunities both on and off company time to learn and to grow. Lunch-time CPD seminars with a free lunch! Who cares if you have no interest in what is being presented. It's paid for by the business.
9. Expenses Paid. Travel, meals and safety equipment, all paid for by the business you work for.
10. Being Thanked. My favourite one this. I miss being thanked for doing a great job and seeing, and hearing appreciation from colleagues, bosses, and graduates for the hard work that I put in.
If you can think of anything else to add, then please comment below.
Look out for our Friday Blog Post as usual tomorrow.
Engine[er]
![Starting up an Engine[er]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_48ubt0myJl9Kc2av_Yix8HwEpZTit9DLMrmiRI2LjDYLbqNtxNz6VTsBNTgpDxOGErtF-SRLInkC-wRWFeM-LRL0N0VvpgtHxCBKGnpQ1CZBb5-wXP76Y-of8pZkYpAOR7iTm1OOE6c/s435/newblog.jpg)
The thing is, most of those things you say are "free", aren't: they get paid for out of profit, the firm protects its profit by paying its staff less. Your holidays are paid for by factoring in your time off into your salary; effectively, it's like a Christmas Club stamp that you're buying into.
ReplyDeleteYou'll find as you grow and employ your own staff, your views do an about turn and you will hate the idea of being ragged by staff out to get what they can out of the business, of spurious "sickies", of endless chit-chat, social media updates (oops!), rather than working...
Call me old and cynical! :o)
Thank you for your comments Baz. Please understand that this is just a bit of fun ;-)
ReplyDeleteI miss the banter - but substitute for it by commenting on LinkedIn/facebook etc!!
ReplyDeleteActually I've just been doing some contract work so have had to get used to working in an office again for a few weeks.
Paul
Thanks Paul for the comments. If you are not getting enough work email me!
DeleteGood luck with the contract, hope it's not yr birthday soon ;)
I miss the short skirts :(
DeleteHahaha. You could always wear your wifes?
DeleteAs Baz says not really free. Also a lot of the stuff you mentioned is replaced by regular clients, and members of the public. Not every hour spent with them is billable its sociable. Get thanks, letters of appreciation. Either they take you to Christmas dinner for help provided, or you take them for the work directed your way: if the latter then probably doing something wrong.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting set of comments Conrad. Thank you!
DeleteIt's great to see that engineering [types] are incredibly helpful, wanting to solve life's problems for one another.
It is hard to resist isn't it ;)
I was also lucky to have an appreciative, thankful boss when I was employed, but that's pretty rare I reckon. Either way, I'm sure we'd each remember to show appreciation to our staff as we build a team for ourselves.
ReplyDeleteSocially: After a while I killed my facebook as it was too much of a distracting window on the world when working so much on my own (best thing I ever did!).. Also, we are lucky in our jobs as consulting engineers - even if working solo, we are always moving around, meeting new people, drinking THEIR coffee! It's one of the best aspects. Better than being a solo architect, because they have much more solitary time and fewer numbers of projects therefore less interaction.
As for free stuff - at least our erasers and staples are tax-free!
:D
Have a smashing day sir.
Paul L
You too! And thanks for dropping by to comment.
DeleteTax free stationary is a great perk of working for yourself!
When coming from a large company, you initially miss what appears to be access to an unlimited knowledge base and specification resources (i.e., online databases, libraries,subject matter experts, etc.,). Specifications that use to take 10 seconds to find, now require a credit card, billing address and, on occasion, shipping, handling, and storage.
ReplyDeleteOf course, you always miss good, positive, and/or inspirational people.
I definitely miss cool and inspirational people. Good call James.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice when clients thank you, although if your doing repeat work, they only tend to thank you the first time you work with them. Also it can be isolating working on your own, always good to see what other people are up to.
ReplyDeleteCheers for the comments Kevin. I totally agree with you.
DeleteGood day! Do you use Twitter? I'd like to follow you if that would be ok. I'm absolutely enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.
ReplyDeleteMy web page ... ERROR: The requested URL could not be retrieved
Hi! Thanks for the comments. You can follow me @StartEngineer and @AvatarEngineers
DeleteWoаh! I'm really loving the template/theme of this blog. It's
ReplyDeletesіmple, уet effeсtivе.
А lot of timeѕ it's challenging to get that "perfect balance" between superb usability and visual appearance. I must say that you've done a
superb job with thіs. Additionally, the blog loads
extremеlу faѕt for me on Сhromе.
Outstаnding Blοg!
Also visit my web site ... Unlimited Mobile Broadband
I've had to do the reverse going from being self-employed to working for a company once again, when business could no longer support myself and my wife. All really good points, the only other one I'd add is that working for a company has the benefit of a stable salary. It's nice to not have to worry about how you're going to pay for rent this month.
ReplyDeleteHi Ian, are you connected to me on LinkedIn?
DeleteHow long did it take for you to stop running your own business and did you see this post by me? #
http://buildingmadesimple.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/turbo-boost-your-cv-start-your-own.html
Many thanks for the comments.
Hi Glen,
DeleteJust send a request on LinkedIn and I did happen to read your earlier blog post. One of the reasons I got my current job was the fact I was self-employed. My business is still running in a kind of zombie mode, still makes some money each month but not a huge amount. Due to my current living situation I need some form of stable income, but I do very much want to return to being self-employed again in a couple of years time.
Hope to see you at the London bloggers meetup next week.