While deciding to work for yourself or joining a startup is definitely an exciting venture, you might find that you sometimes miss corporate America.
Corporations offer many perks and benefits that you may have forgotten about if you’ve moved away to do something on your own or with a small group of fellow entrepreneurs.
Take retirement planning, for example. It’s nice to be able to go walk into a Human Resources office and have someone explain to you exactly how a 401 (k) plan works and how you can retire in comfort if you take advantage of your employer’s contribution matching plan.
Or take holiday season, for example. It’s nice to be called into the boss’s office and be handed a Perfect Feast Corporate Gifts certificate for a Thanksgiving turkey.
With that in mind, here are some of the nice things about working for a corporation that you may have forgotten.
It’s Not All Up to You
You don’t have to worry about creating and sustaining profitable growth in a corporation.
When you’re on your own or working for a startup, you spend most of your time plotting and scheming, worrying, and fretting about what to do to make a profit or to hang on to the profits you’re now making.
In a corporation, this burden of figuring out profitability is shared with a large number of people, which makes the whole issue less personally stressful. It’s not all up to you. You’re part of a team. It’s more of a game now, less of a personal crisis.
The Burden of Freedom
You aren’t your own worst enemy in a corporation.
The biggest enemy to your success as an entrepreneur or part of a small group is your freedom. It’s easy to get distracted by your rumbling stomach, your thirst, or your desire to see what’s happening on Facebook or if there’s any breaking news that you can catch on your favorite news channel or on YouTube.
At a corporation, where you’re expected to show up for work at a certain time and are expected to be able to produce some results by the end of your shift, you learn to self-monitor your urges.
A World of Technical Frustration
In a corporation, you get to use the best computers and office equipment and stationery.
You won’t panic if the icon bars show that you’re not getting a good Internet connection.
You won’t fret over how much it is costing you in expensive ink to print out a colorful infographic.
You won’t freak out if your stapler jams and you don’t have the time to go to the office store to buy a new one.
All the technical stuff that you need is maintained by an IT team when you’re working for a corporation. All you have to do is pick up the phone if things aren’t clicking the way they should and someone will be at your desk in minutes to fix it.
The High Cost of Education
Corporations want you to know what you’re doing. If there is no-one to train you, then you will get compensated for taking an online course.
On your own, you will have to shell out hundreds of dollars for online courses that will get you up to speed on some of the things that you need to know.
The Loneliness of Self-Reliance
You can talk to someone on your breaks. Ultimately, loneliness is the biggest issue when you’re working on your own or if you’re the only one in the office at the time.
Even if your small business is flourishing, you have no one who is interested in learning about your latest hard-won victory. Sure, you can always call your sister or spouse or mother, but chances are that they won’t be able to fully appreciate the full extent of your accomplishments. It will be like trying to explain a touchdown to people who have no clue about football.
In conclusion, working for yourself or for a startup does have its rewards, of course, but there may be times when you wish you didn’t have to do so much with so little.
Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash
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