Showdown 4: Stress

This is part four of a series exploring factors in self-employment and traditional employment. For more about this series, read the opening article.

Stress

How stressful the position is

Self		Boss
Pros	Cons	Pros	Cons
Working for yourself is directly rewarding and satisfying You choose your hours and environment You can eliminate the office politics, ridiculous demands You can pick your customers and policies	Sometimes politics and ridiculous demands come from your customers The success (or failure) of the business is on your shoulders You have to deal with problems yourself – you can’t pass the buck You wear a lot of hats, so you have to learn quick and do work you may not care for (e.g., bookkeeping)	You wear relatively few hats You can seek help with difficult situations Not worrying about the overall success of the company means you can focus on your work	Office politics and unreasonable demands can take a major toll Sometimes the only recourse for a tough situation is to find a different job – which is highly stressful You can’t always take a vacation or break when you need one the most

Conclusions

Working for yourself is very satisfying. As stressful and demanding as self-employment may be, your freedom and the reward of a victory are enough to temper the stress. They keep you going, even when business is tough. But a regular job is stressful all the time – and you rarely have the freedom and flexibility to adjust to your own personal work habits. On a Friday afternoon when you’re just not productive, being able to start the weekend early is a huge perk.

Winner: Self-Employment