Not Feeling Like A Person At Work?

A woman in one of my business circles recently asked the group for advice on her position as a contractor for another company.

She isn’t feeling “like a person” because she’s hybrid in more ways than one:

• she’s part remote, part in-house
• she doesn’t have a desk/space in-house
• she has no say in company decision-making
• she doesn’t have benefits
• she doesn’t have time off

Here are my recommendations:

1. Don’t put all your “person” eggs in the work basket. Build fun relationships outside of work and consider yourself your own business, in more senses than one.
2. You don’t need Paid Time Off, you need to make more money per hour/project, and you need time off. They’re separate.

   Think about having multiple higher-paying clients instead of just this one. Then you’re in charge of your chain, and no one client can jerk it. 

   There’s a lot of freedom in having your own business.

3. As things continue to change in our country and around the world, having your own business is more secure than depending on the old models which don’t exist anymore. Women doing business with each other is better.
4. You have a well-loaded personal plate: moving — not just yourself, but also your dad — is very stressful.  Can you build in some time for Fun for yourself? With friends outside of work?

Many people are going through big work changes — are you one of them?

Let me know what’s going on for you and if you have a “Dear Abby” kind of question I can answer here.

Cheers!

Heather