On Being Self Employed

While at the hair salon (a 4 week interval event) this bitch just happened to see a copy of Bloombergs' Business Week. The cover story was titled 'The Permanent Temporary Workforce'. On the cover is a picture of a female executive with a shoulder bag over one shoulder, a skewed corporate badge around her neck and a potted plant in her right hand. The picture is completed by little 'blurbs' about being self employed complete with linear pointers to each of the items in the shoulder bag as well as various body parts of this female.

I would like to respond to this offensiveness by addressing each 'blurb' and the body part or accessory associated with it. Mind you this is MY response and is not intended to speak for anyone else except me.

#1 blurb points to the females head and says 'higher rates of depression and anxiety'.

Depression? Anxiety? Hardly. As a self employed person I do not have to deal with the workplace bully or the executive that jumps up and down on a table in a client meeting. (Really happened.) I don't have to worry about some bosses nephew standing at my desk trying to have me his assignments to do and then getting PO'd and running to the boss and I end up in trouble because of his lazy ass.

#2 blurb points to a bottle of red vicks cough something in the shoulder bag and says 'pays for own health insurance'.

Health insurance? Is that what they called that rat ass plan that my husband put me on when we were married? The rat ass plan that had us going to this dentist whose office looked like a roach motel? The health insurance plan that had a 5.00 an hour customer service person tell me 'Well, you had better get this straight with your doctor, we are no longer paying for the brand name of this hormone. You are going to have to make do with the generic'. Health insurance? That rat ass plan that raises premiums every six months by zip code even if I have had no claims?

Children....please.

Speaking of doctors how about the OPTHAMOLOGIST that tried to kill me by giving me timolol when I was being treated for the glaucoma that SHE SAID I HAD, that subsequent evaluations by a real doctor that actually ran tests to measure my cornea show that I did not have? This same WOMAN doctor in Irving Texas also got angry with me for building up resistance to medications for the disease that I did not have and charged me when my husband too me back after using the timolol and was in occular migraine.

How about the GP that was SO CONCERNED about me getting a mammogram that she refused to write me a prescription for my hormones until I got the mammogram and then neglected to give me a prescription for the hormones when she sent me the letter informing me that the girls were just fine. That Miss Thang is in Flower Mound Texas.

I have no health insurance. I don't want health insurance. Since I have not had health insurance I take better care of myself and monitor my health with yearly blood work from DirectLabs.com. We have a medical investment account managed by my husband and I am able to get discounts for paying by credit card and some AA miles as well. Screw health insurance.

#3 blurb Zero sick days. How many people use their sick days for play days? Enough said. If my ass is that sick I will take my laptop to bed with me. As a matter of fact, since I am agile and mobile, I can take all my work on an external hard drive and work from anyplace I please.

#4 No Paid Vacation. See #3. I can work anyplace anywhere I want to be, that means on vacation as well.

#5 blurb 26% of US workers. Looks like more people are getting smart, to me that is.

#6 blurb No company funded retirement plan. OH!!! You mean that I don't have that crap stock that you want me to buy while you sell every share you have???? Happiness and joy that I do not have to participate in the company retirement plan that pushes under performing mutual funds and charges more in fees than interest earned if you go to cash. I get the Scottrade accounts and hubby who sits at the computer all day and trades and manages my money.

#7 blurb Easy to lay off, no severance. Oh no....it's easy for me to kick your non-paying pain in the ass client self to the curb.

#8 blurb No fixed occupancy costs (this one points to the plant). Excuse me, what part of 'I don't want to be chained to the crappy steel desk in the cramped cubicle do you not understand'? As a gunslinger I travel the world on everyone elses' money and take my office with me. Why would I want to 'clock in and out', get 30 minutes for lunch and have someone have an apoplexy fit if I posted on FaceBook or Twitter?

Bottom line. Bloomberg.....get a life. Not everyone in this employment situation is whining and crying.

Signed, Happy in Texas