Yes, I DO Work!!!! posted 10/18/2009 2:43:43 AM | 2 kudos what's this?     report abuse

tentfire

Oh, How I HATE that stereotype that we self-employed seem to get so falsely labeled with. And I heard the same old comment ONE too many times today!

My square dance group had two dances this weekend....our Halloween dance was last night, and our annual Fall benefit dance was tonight. Well, everything business and life-wise has been kind of a shambles lately and I have been diligently trying to get it all put back together... get back on track..... and though I still have a ways to go, I am happy to say I am making a LOT of headway. I'm not complaining-or at least try not to too much, I'm just getting it done. I am trying to strictly discipline myself to not take too many breaks, just a little one now and then to unwind so I can get back to work fresh. I had decided that I would have to chose between the two dances and only go to one of them, taking off both nights would just be too much. It's not just the two hours or so at the dance, it is the time to get ready (and I am pretty dirty by the end of the day), food to prepare to take with me, what ever else I might need, and a 30 to 40 minute drive each way. So we are talking about several hours out of the day. I mentioned today to one of our members (we will call him/her 'Gale' since that is the first gender-neutral name that popped into my head) that I wouldn't be able to make it tonight. Gale asked "why?" I said that I went last night and I just couldn't take off two nights in a row. Gale firmly exclaimed, "Take off! You don't work! You're self-employed!"..... Let me tell you! It was ALL I could do to contain my anger. I said, "I DO work and I work HARD." Gale countered, "But you don't work at night.... oh, yes, you're a night owl, you work at night." I uttered, [I]in total disbelief as to what I was hearing, "I work day and night trying to get everything done. When it isn't raining I am working outside by day and working inside by night, after it gets dark. And right now I am behind on paperwork."... I just couldn't believe what a close friend was saying to me.

Yes, I am on here right now. The more I thought about it all evening, the more the anger grew until it began to verge to tears, so I just needed to vent. Dance members may see me on here (but him/her would never say something like that to me) so what I am going to say is, I know I didn't go to the dance tonight and now I am on here, but I still spent the evening working, worked so hard I had to take pain medicine. And I can work while I am on here. Sometimes while I am working, if it is a particularly stressful day, I turn this site on and come back every now and then to either check on my blog or read someone else's blog or two. It seems to bring me a considerable amount of comfort throughout the hectic day and really knocks down my stress level. I thank God for this site and am extremely grateful for my MD friends.

So what am I talking about, work-wise? First, I have a part-time consulting job that I have had for well over 20 years. It is only occasional work, but helps pay the bills. Second, I have my little farm. I raise milk goats but this year they all dried up during our extreme summer heat spell . So there was no milk to sell or trade this year. But all the work to care for them still is. And I also have a couple dozen chickens or so for the eggs, then a handful of other critters, including the unreleasable owls I care for. And third is my shop, which started out to be a candle store but has turned into more of a variety store. And I make 90% of my products. Now, add in to the mix, towards the end of August I was tricked out of my location (maybe I will blog on that later). So I had to be out by September 1st. With the economy like it is and Muskogee being such a bad place for a small business in the first place, I made the quick decision to move my business home. I live out in the country on a small mountain (hill) and quite a few people are moving their businesses out here.... it is becoming its own community again. So, in order to do this, I have to empty out half or more of my home to fit my business into the front half, along with shuffling all of the rooms around. It also means some remodeling and clearing/cleaning my front acre, plus moving my critters further back on my property, which means adding fences. During this time my creek has backed up and flooded my house twice so I have to stop in the middle of it all to build some burms, not to mention flood clean-up (and no, I don't have flood insurance). This is just a brief overview, but as you can see, I have a lot to get accomplished. And I am set to reopen in 4 weeks. All of my supplies are packed in boxes (I unloaded the last trailer today, yea!! ), I CAN'T FIND ANYTHING (I HATE moving with a passion!) I am doing a craft show in 5 weeks or so, I am desperate to get product made up, and it takes most items 3 to 6 weeks cure time. So despite the fact that my doctor has FIRMLY told me that I am not to be working at all right now, I am working every day from the time I get up to the time I crash at night trying to get back on track. So I get really steamed when people associate my being self-employed with 'not working.'

People so ignorantly label the "self-employed" as "unemployed and lazy." They think that we can set our own hours, set ANY hours that we want, work when we want, take off when we want. Although there can be a degree of flexibility there from time to time, we put in far more hours in a day than a person that clocks in and clocks out. There are MANY variables that dictate our hours and days off are usually few and far between, especially when you are in those early years of business and trying to get off the ground. There is a LOT that goes into setting up a business, and in the beginning you just can't hire people (usually) so you cover ALL the jobs, including much time spent studying to learn all you need to know to do them. So the next time you walk up to one of your self-employed friends and consider saying "you don't work", you better hope you aren't that 'one too many' that sent them over the edge, because you will be elected the one to 'catch it all.'
If you are still reading, THANK YOU for putting up with my rant.

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