Tuesday 9 April 2013

What's the Definition of a Proper Job?

One thing that has really stood out for me since quitting office life, is how other people judge what a 'proper job' is!  It seems unless you're in a 9 to 5 daily commute to an office, anything else is just not proper work!!  Has anyone else found that although you run your own business, the fact that you work from home instead of at a corporate office, you feel judged, or it's even been commented about 'when are you going to go back to do a proper job!?'  The cheek of it!!! 
As if running one's own business is just some silly little game to while away the time!!  There's always something to do, even if for example, I'm not actually out doing training - the accounts, marketing, answering the phone and emails, doing the admin and filing (yes! even a dog trainer has admin and filing!!), researching my subject and keeping abreast of new developments, ordering in stock that I need, following up with recent behaviour case clients! etc.
So when the sun is shining, no I'm not in the garden sunning myself, nor watching daytime TV - I'm actually working as if I were employed in a company - I even give myself a short lunchbreak and then back to the computer I go, or off out to see a client.  I also find that the nature of my job(s) isn't taken too seriously either - dog training is still widely thought of as something that people do as a hobby on a weekday evening - because they like dogs and charge their clients next to nothing. 
Yes I love dogs and helping people train and build a great relationship with their family pet, but I studied long and hard to get myself qualified, so my 'hobby' is actually my 'bread and butter' business that I do on a full-time basis. 
I've even heard a fellow greeting cards business owner say that an acquaintance, referred to hers as a 'silly little cards business'!!  So it seems that there's a bit of snobbishness when it comes to working for yourself and an assumption that if you're about in the day, well you must be unemployed!  I doubt a self-employed neurosurgeon would attract any criticism or judgement-more likely admiration. 
Well all our businesses and jobs count for something-we're all contributing to the grand scheme of things with our goods and services.  At the end of the day, happy people doing what they love doing and earning enough to live, is surely a good thing!!