soapbox sunday is where i take off my artist smock and just blurt out whatever’s on my mind at the moment, art-related or not. I also eschew capitalization. sometimes. They ain’t no Rules TodaY.
Something’s been on my mind a lot lately (besides digital illustration school, scbwi presentation on friday, animating that :30 spot, alpaca shearing, and corporate marketing videos?).
Layoffs.
I avoided the subject on twitter and on my blog for the most part because i’m one of those freaky people who spits in the eye of negative news. not that i’m blind to it, i just don’t feel like keeping it hanging around my own private universe.
But it has affected me. sort of.
Some people in my family have been laid off recently. Also, the company i used to work for had two big layoffs in december and april. A few people (that i know of) in my old company that are still there are shaken up, kinda lost, and wondering where their ship is headed. they had to make big, life-altering decisions really fast. not fun.
My family people are close to retirement age. so these are two very different groups; beginning of career/end of career.
So the thoughts going through my head lately are this. obviously some it is “how does this affect me?”
i’m an independent business dude. i’m doing pretty well right now. my business is growing and it’s fun.
I had long shed the concept of working for the gold watch when i started working for the last company i was with. i had no illusions about “job security” – an extremely useless and damaging term, in my opinion.
the concerns from both groups of family and friends seem to be this:
• i was on a career path for a long time. what happened?
• i need health benefits.
• my choices are: pay my bills by doing whatever job i can find that will pay me, or being homeless in a bad economy.
My first, reactive thought about all three of these is, “where have you all been lately?”
Being laid off sucks. Having to choose between looking for a new job or staying with the company and making a big life change sucks, too.
What sucks even worse is the perception of limited options.
If i’m completely honest with myself, i know that i am influenced heavily by my current state of independentness. i’m not scared, so why are they?
okay, that’s a lie. from time to time i am scared for my business and my family for all the reasons other people are. i’m not special in that way. i have bad dreams and days filled with doubt.
But i do think that my view from “the outside” has made me less fearful of financial stability or career progression. i’m certainly not worried about interviewing for a job or pleasing my boss (just my clients, but that’s a different feeling).
i do have a unique outlook on life, i know that.
we don’t have health insurance. not to belabor that point, but when we had insurance our medical care ended up costing us more. so we’re not sold on health insurance being the answer to our health care. Other people have different needs. We don’t have any chronic conditions, so we’re fortunate. i get that.
i think that to lessen the fear of layoffs or nail-biting career decisions, people need to start acting like independent businesses. consultants. freelancers. hired killers. whatever.
if you work for a company and you think of that company as guiding your career path or having a say in your future job stability, you just locked yourself into a potentially fear-inducing situation.
Some things you can’t control. the company goes under. they change their structure and eliminate your position. they decide to move operations to India.
by placing your health care and financial well-being in the hands of the company you work for, you’re asking them to make sure your life works out okay.
even if you work for a company, you should operate every day as if you were unlocking your own store every morning. you should also have other stuff happening that will keep you going if that company doesn’t need your services anymore.
if i relied on one client to keep me in food and diapers all year, i wouldn’t make it. so why would someone working for someone else put all their faith in that one company?
moonlighting gets a bad rap. “how can you focus on your job every day if you have a foot in another world?” yeah, i’ve heard that pile of bullshit from a boss or two. “we’re… concerned.”
screw that.
those weekends you get hammered and watch football? that’s when you should be running your other gigs.
if your company wants to control your “time off,” then why do you work there?
and don’t say, “i work there to pay the bills, you just don’t get it.”
dudes and ladies, i get it more than you think. i have bills.
my kids need fillings. $400 that i have to pay out of pocket.
my car needed new tires and a brake job. another $400.
my daughter’s birthday. xmas. the lego convention my son wanted to attend. money.
my AT&T bill. internet. car insurance.
the credit cards we charged up so we could move to Portland. huge interest rates. insane.
Somehow, we get it all taken care of. Jenni and I, we figure it out.
you will figure it out.
you just got laid off. can you understand that NOW IS THE BEST TIME EVER to do your own thing.
so you need to get a job, too. sure. okay. nothing wrong with that.
did you know that Trader Joe’s offers health insurance to part-time employees?
so go work at Trader Joe’s while you figure out your thing. Wouldn’t stocking shelves and checking out grocery customers be a better day than some soul-killing 9-5 office j-o-b that you feel like you *have* to do?
jesus, buddha and hare krishna, yes!
the country is changing. economics are changing. the way we think about health care should be changing.
i’m ranting now. it’s not that i don’t have sympathy for others. i really do. health problems suck and job losses suck. i would never say, “suck it up.” that doesn’t help.
i don’t have the perfect solution for everyone, but i do know that since i went off the grid i’m less scared than ever. in fact, it seems like there are so many options out there for us as a family that it’s kind of fun thinking about them.
if i ever went to work for a company (and it would have to be the last one i worked for, they were awesome) i would still bring my independence with me.
and i still wouldn’t get the health insurance, because it was like $800 month and that’s $9,600 a year we could have socked away in an interest-bearing account as a medical fund.
people say, “what if you get (hush now) cancer?”
any insurance policy we’ve ever had wouldn’t have covered the treatment costs anyway. so what’s the difference between paying $50,000 out of pocket or $1,000,000 if you don’t have it anyway?
all i’m saying is, don’t get a job based on health insurance. don’t forget you probably want to enjoy your life while you’re working for those prescriptions.
so i have much sympathy. very much. i care.
i just don’t think we can all go on the same way anymore and think that it will just be fine as long as we have a job.
my kids aren’t going to live in that world, so why should we now?
One of my fave twitter people tweets awesome quotes that i like. one really hit me today and i retweeted it:
RT @SurrendrDorothy: No one would have crossed the ocean if he could have gotten off the ship in the storm. - Charles Kettering
that’s it. i’m stepping off the box now. have a good sunday.
— but wait, there’s more! —-
My friend Jason, Founder and CEO of gDiapers posted this video on his blog today.
I just got more height on my soapbox today. Thanks, Dude.
Aaah! Tis a fine thing to find myself in a similar boat with such delightful company aboard.
Ive gotta tell ya… I’d much rather be in my own self made leaky boat than in somebody else’s crappy old hamster wheel any old day!
Cheers, Mate!
Love, V
Much food for thought. Thank you! I am working on becoming an independent artisan/businesswoman, and you said a lot of what I needed to hear.
Hey, David. Bob and I have been “non-employees” for the past 20 years and, yes, there are those nights in bed, staring at dark walls, wondering, “How am I going to______(fill in the blank)?
But the world is changing and no one’s “job” is rally secure anymore. My friends from my teaching days, some w/PhD.s, are looking for an income sources right now.
It does bother us that we can’t afford health care, but you know what? Weighing everything, I am amazed and grateful for all the ways we have become self-reliant.
When our business was a baby, Bob had a special chair. We called it the “figuring out chair.” He would go there to sit when a crisis hit (not enough clients, business loan payment due…usually it had to do w/money). But dammit, there was always a solution.
I wouldn’t trade our entrepreneurial life for anything in the world. I wrote a blog post recently, “Shining Star for You to See,” on the awesomeness of small biz owners. Your well-written post just confirms all my beliefs. Good job!
Good stuff, this. I’m constantly amazed by so many peoples’ desperate preoccupation with – and clingin to – “jobs.” What we truly need is meaningful work, not more treadmill jobs. In this economy, anyone who doesn’t have a Plan B is deluded. You’ve got to have the resume updated and printed, and be ready to hit the ground running if your current job collapses. If you’re working for the man now, use a little bit of every day to learn something new, to improve your skills, and to make yourself better than just what you’re paid to do.
I’ve done sole proprietorship, and worked for companies both small and large. My next step is probably solo again, because I have confidence in my abilities and I trust my future best to my own hands. And if I need that stocking job to take up the slack, I’ll gladly take it. It’ll free my mind to imagine – and plan – what’s coming up next.