Escape the Cubicle

A job it is! Create your dream job working from home. You will find that self-employment is the answer to happiness. Escape the Cubicle is your trusty guide to self-employment.

I was a cubicle dweller too. My last cubicle-dwelling job was that of a webmaster at a downtown Chicago bank. We were the 36th largest financial institution in the United States at the time. We had a server room larger than a tennis court. Entering the server room and building $90,000 servers was fun.

Times were good: I lived 26 floors above downtown Chicago. I paid off my student loans three years early. I took scuba diving vacations to Caribbean islands I could not find on the map. The paycheck was a sure thing. All I had to do was play the political games.

That was the tough part. The political climate was venomous; my boss’s boss had a very open disagreement with his boss and was reassigned. This drama dragged on for months and was the primary topic of discussion at our staff meetings. I thought that I could not get myself fired. Instead, I feared my boss’s boss would get his entire team fired. Looking back, I cannot recall why these bosses disagreed.

Maybe you have a similar culture at your cubicle job. Someone you have never met may read a report tomorrow and fire your team because it would be a good “business decision.” Stockholders and money managers want profits. If that means firing people in the U.S. and hiring people in Malaysia for 1/6 the cost, most companies would do it. Your employer has to reduce staff; your name is on a short list.

Maybe you’re already unemployed. Great! This is a blessing in disguise. You are free to read all the job-hunting and self-help books you can find. Tell the world you are free. Interview and network at will. There is no shame in being unemployed or self-employed. Make building your new career your primary activity. You are so free and fortunate. Rejoice.

Everybody should be self-employed. Anything else is a sacrifice of the soul. Welcome to Escape the Cubicle.