King or Pawn? August 14, 2009

We are either kings or pawns of men- Napoleon Bonaparte

I was among 70 persons who were laid off from my job, a newspaper company, on the last day of January. I wasn’t at work, so my boss called me to relay the news. I was in disbelief because, not to appear cocky, I considered myself and was told by several persons that I was one of the best workers in my department. That department was dedicated to providing news content for the radio station owned by the paper. Anyhow, being the kind of person whose mantra in life is “there’s no use crying over spilt milk”, I quickly added up how much savings I had and how long I could afford to be without a job. My ex-boss of course gave me the story about how I was chosen to be laid off because of economics as I was the highest paid in the department outside of management ( I was recruited by the company, so they made the package attractive). I don’t know why she felt the need to explain this to me. I think it was guilt because I honestly believe the reason for my being laid off was more personal, anyhow, that’s not the point of this post.

The point is, the paper announced again last week they would be cutting more jobs today. They gave the standard, company losing revenue because of current recession, needing to cut cost, yadda, yadda, ya. Quite frankly, I don’t believe them. I think they are using the recession as an excuse to get new staff who they can pay sub-standard wages. For example, I know for a fact that someone was hired to replace me and that that person is being paid WAY less than I was being paid over four years ago, when I just started working at the company….and by the time I left, my paycheque had almost doubled.

The news that the company would be laying off more staff got me thinking about the reasons for my uneasiness even in my current job. You basically sell your skills to someone at less than market value; you get paid just enough to make it through the month; while the expenses associated with getting to your job or eating lunch or buying work clothes or renting somewhere near to your job eat up most of your salary. So, you’re not only giving away your talents to your job, you are also giving back to the job the meagre salary you’re paid for basically whoring out your talents.

It makes you wonder, if you have this talent why not try to find a way how you can get the maximum benefits from it, while reducing your anxiety about pleasing your boss or your getting fired. Solution….self-employment. of course self-employment is not easy or even feasible for a lot of people, but despite the headaches and expenses of having full responsibility for your bread, it seems awfully attractive to have the say over your own life, to decide what you spend your days doing, to be the play maker, rather than the pawn. I don’t know about you, but self-employment is looking rather attractive nowadays, in fact I’m getting a little desperate to fully be the King Queen

Achievement this week: I made over $10,000 (over US$112…again, the exchange rate is ridiculous!) just proofreading a thesis and an essay this week. Self-employment is sounding SWEET already.

Visit my other blog: http://atmycrossroads.blogspot.com

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