Employee Habits Die Hard - Four Observations

I'll be marking the formal 12 months as an official limited company next month, but I have been actively trying to be self employed for just over a year in reality.  I had a three month handover from my last job, so I don't have a real start date.  But I can look back on my transition away from being an employee with a bit of detachment now.  I think I can begin to draw some conclusions. Four main ones emerge.


1. Employee habits are deeply rooted.  I still find myself doing things that only make sense for someone who has a job, not for someone who needs to make a living.  They say it takes a month to form a habit.  That might well be true.  But I think you can only eliminate on old habit by building a new one across it.  There are so many in my brain that it is going to take years to get rid of them.

2. Employee habits are usually time wasting ones.  For example today I have scheduled a call with a potential new client.  I am 90% sure they are time wasters.  I should ruthlessly cancel the call and get on with something productive.  As an employee I would have taken the view that this was an entertaining break from the routine which I could easily justify if challenged.   A part of me still doesn't realise that I no longer have anyone to make a case to any more.

3. Status doesn't matter any more.  A lot of what motivates people in a hierarchy like a company is status.   This is not at all irrational - the status you establish for yourself does have a big bearing on how you get treated.  As a contractor it doesn't matter - all people want to know is whether or not you can solve their problem.

4. Employees don't care about money.  They care about how much they are getting, but aren't bothered about the monetary return on their activities.  The habit of assessing how much cash what you are doing right now is going to net you is the crucial one for surviving on your own.

So the main thing I need to do is remove all the habits that rest on my now false belief that I have an organisation behind me that will look after me as long as I fit in with it.


 photo credit: Lars Plougmann via photopin cc