How much freedom do you have in your job?

Pretty much carte blanche . . .

 

I've got it about the same. My managers are pretty laid back about everything. I mean, of course we have dress codes and codes of conduct and all that crap that she's obligated to say every once in a while, but really as long as I take care of my **** and look busy enough, she doesn't say anything. And as long as I don't blatantly abuse anything, I'm golden.

Though it wasn't like this 3 months ago. 3 months ago I had the psycho-manager from hell.

 

Except that you're never really the boss...because you have clients...and they're the boss.

 

Being the boss means you have TONS of more bosses.

While you get to decide when to deal with them, you still HAVE to deal with them.

But, I would not trade it for anything.....

DD

 

That's very true. I'm a co-owner and I work harder than I have when I was someone elses employee. The problem is that as an employee you're a cog in a larger system so you are somewhat insulated from the success and failure of your company. As an owner though every good and bad thing that happen to the business comes to you so you are more invested in it.

 

i currently have a lot of freedom, much like you xerobull. but in about a couple of weeks, i'm about to change departments (although for better pay ) and everything will be teh opposite. strict dress code, hours, and lunch.

 

sounds like a nice employer. congrats

desk job, not much supervision, good freedom level

 

completely agreed.

 

I'm a full time IT employee at a local chemical company and I also have my own company that I do remote IT contracting through. I hate my full time job. My boss and his boss are assholes and hound me constantly. I've contracted the vast majority of my career and I'm used to doing my own thing and not dealing with office politics. I'm just waiting to get my bonus for last year and then I'm quitting to do my own work full time. I. CAN'T. FREAKING. WAIT.

 

I have no dress code or fixed hours. Heck I don't even have to show up to work. I can just work from home. SO I think I have it pretty good, but I like to go to work since I figure I am getting paid, but the office is usually so empty.

 

Very true......

When I was a student waiting tables at a Japanese Restaurant, I was pretty cool with the owner and I told him that it must be great to own your own place and that I would like to have my own restaurant in the future and having people working for me.

He says, you won't survive in the restaurant business if you think like that. "Everyone" is your boss. You can't survive w/o chefs, cooks, servers, and you definitely cannot survive w/o dishwashers. He pretty much said you're screwed without their help.

That helped me put everything about starting a business in a different perspective.

 

I work at HQ so there are no blue collar workers here and the problem is only with my loser team. The WAN team and some of the other teams that I know are really cool. My boss has always brought in college kids and molded them in his r****ded image and I do not fit that mold at all so we really clash. It doesn't help that they do not keep me busy and then b**** when I don't have anything to do. I've asked for training (which I've received some), more work\projects, and even to go cross train or just help out with other groups. I've been repeatedly told no. So when I'm bored, I surf Clutch BBS. This pisses them off ridiculously. I've been told I'm banned from surfing the net. This doesn't matter if I have work to do or not. He literally told me to stare at the wall if I didn't have anything to do. **** you. You stare at the wall. I only have 2 more months until bonus time. Then it is peace out. I. CAN'T. FREAKING. WAIT.

edit: We are actually putting together a joint venture with Dow.

 

Xero,

If you had total freedom you could have just said.

"Ah, clean it yourself"



DD

 

...work for the state

 

a lot of freedom, but seeing as though it's my uncle's company it kinda comes with the territory i suppose. on the other hand, i dont get paid jack **** and typically work very long hours and saturdays.... so there's definitely a trade-off.

 

That sounds like a very bad trade-off.

 

Complete freedom owning your own business. But if it's a small-scale business in a small-scale industry, you have to really train yourself to maintain the business growth. You have to always keep on top of trends, competitors, the market, etc.- and marketing is an everyday, 100% necessity. But the fun part is that you can steer things the way you want- and if you position yourself as the field expert to your clients, they tend to be not so demanding and defer to your judgment.

I've also worked in corporate and educational environments, and depending on the situation, you can have a great deal of freedom. When I taught at Dulles High School, my principal allowed me the freedom to create lessons the way I wanted, as long as I met the TAAS goals.

When I waited tables at the Original Pasta Company, I had the freedom to approach my customers the way I knew best because I managed to be a reasonably dependable employee. The example I use is that I once refused to honor a customer's request because she had an extremely overweight son and would always get him 2 kid's meals. One day, no idea why, I just told her, "No, ma'am, I can't do this. You may take offense to this, but your child is dangerously overweight and I just can't contribute to it." Waiting for her to call the manager and get me fired, I was surprised to hear her agree with me, and from that point on, the kid only had 1 meal per visit. I always remember that being an example of when I felt complete freedom working under the private industry umbrella.

Then again, I got fired from my first job because I went on the wrong floor to get a soda, so so much for freedom there.

 

I've been working in a sweat shop here in malaysia since I was 9 years old. Not much freedom here.