farmdoc's blog post number 360

On 2 April I quoted, and agreed with, Malcolm Gladwell’s list of the three qualities work must have to be satisfying – autonomy, complexity, and reward connected to effort. Intuition tells me Gladwell’s three work qualities are, on average, more available to the self-employed, and less available to the employee whose remuneration’s likely fixed and autonomy’s less. In economics writer Ross Gittins’s article in last Wednesday’s Age, titled ‘Happiness is…your own business’ he asks: ‘Why do so many people want to run a small business?’ His answer: They find it more satisfying. He quotes a Government-sponsored survey comparing 500 small business owners with 7,000 employees, and finding the self-employed more satisfied with their work. In his subsequent discussion, Gittins agrees with Gladwell’s three qualities without explicitly stating, let alone listing, them. Interestingly the survey found employees more satisfied with their non-work time. To me this is unsurprising, because to the self-employed, work is an end in itself; but many (or most) employees view their non-work time as central, with work a mere means to earn money. The message? I think that in general people suited to be employees are employees, and likewise people suited to self-employment. Though undoubtedly some – mostly employees – find themselves in the wrong category.