Why do some people seem to like working in companies? | Hacker News Reader

Why do some people seem to like working in companies?

9 pointsaway14 comments

I've always wanted to be free...to work as an entrepreneur...yet I always seem to meet people who want to work as employees for corporations. I would say the majority of people in society are like this.

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Funny. After 12 years of working for myself, I'm back to working for someone else. I wasn't good at operating a company that was much more then myself an 1 or - in the good times - 2 other people. I felt trapped by the job, as if taking a vacation would leave everything in shambles.

Working for someone else I don't have to:

  * Deal directly with complaints
  * Chase after money when people are late in paying
  * Be an accountant
  * Be a salesman

Working for someone else I do get to:

  * Leave my work at work.
  * Keep mostly to a 35-45 hour week
  * Collect my paycheck every two weeks
  * Go on vacation knowing everything will be fine while I'm gone
  * Focus on what I'm good at, and what I enjoy
  * Work flexible hours
  * Lead a generally less stressful life.

So ... the real question is -- why do some people want the stress and uncertainty of being self employed?

These are pretty much the exact same reasons for me.

Ran my own business for 5 years, and went back to working for a big corporation for the easier hours, reliable/consistent pay, and only having to do what I do well, without all the extra side-tasks distracting/annoying me.

I'd consider running another business one day, but i'm in no rush... I see this as a cruisy period where I can save up money, enjoy a social life, pay off a house, etc.

One answer I've gotten from a mathematician was more or less: I like solving mathematics problems, and working in a company means I get a never-ending stream of mathematics problems to solve, where the question "why are these problems worth answering?" is someone else's job to solve. There's something liberating (for at least some kinds of jobs) about being able to just solve problems "for their own sake", because it's someone else's responsibility to invent and justify the problems, and you can treat them as magically justified problems that fall from heaven. This probably works better for people who like focusing on specific aspects of problems (e.g. treating something as a pure mathematics or engineering problem), and less well for people who like more integrated/cross-cutting problem solving (which working for yourself both allows and demands).

I personally find the bureaucracy/procedures a bit stifling, though. The paycheck is nice, but meetings and standard software and performance reviews and whatever is a drag, even in relatively freedom-loving academia.

For some people, work is solely a way to pay bills; those who work to live, not live to work.

I also think it's reasonable that while some people do like to be their own boss, others may prefer to be soldiers in an army (those on the front lines, doing the base work), as opposed to the ruler. Others want to be generals (management).

Maybe they're not comfortable in the responsibility, or just feel their abilities best align in a different work structures than those you may prefer.

Marketing, accounting, and business development have less than zero appeal for me. Like someone said in a recent thread, I employ my employer to take care of that stuff.

Some people find employment attractive because they have run their own business. Some people find large corporations attractive because they have worked in small offices. Finally, some people place less value on being their own boss than elsewhere.

And if you think being self employed/an entrepreneur/owning a business is going to make you free, you're confusing hard work and stress with Fuck You money.

I don't think that being free as the opposite of hard work.

My reasons:

   * Benefits
      * 401K matching
      * Health insurance
      * Stock options
   * Perks
      * Food
      * Special discounts with corporate partners
      * Training/classes/conferences
      * Transportation
   * Wide-scale impact
   * Salary 
   * Stability
   * Brand recognition

Simple:

1) Some people like following rules, not making them. 2) Financial stability and job security.

My personal observation: I think the set of people who like working in large corporate structures overlaps significantly with the set of people who really enjoyed the structure and orderliness of school.

That's not coincidental, the modern compulsory school system is designed to create 3 things: nations, worker drones, and soldiers, and pretty much in that order of priority.

Read the 6 lesson school teacher by John Taylor Gatto. http://hackvan.com/etext/6-lesson-schoolteacher.html

excerpt:

I teach the lesson of dependency. Good people wait for a teacher to tell them what to do. This is the most important lesson of all, that we must wait for other people, better trained than ourselves, to make the meanings of our lives. It is no exaggeration to say that our entire economy depends upon this lesson being learned. Think of what would fall apart if kids weren't trained in the dependency lesson: The social-service businesses could hardly survive, including the fast-growing counseling industry; commercial entertainment of all sorts, along with television, would wither if people remembered how to make their own fun; the food services, restaurants and prepared-food warehouses would shrink if people returned to making their own meals rather than depending on strangers to cook for them. Much of modern law, medicine, and engineering would go, too - the clothing business as well - unless a guaranteed supply of helpless people poured out of our schools each year. We have built a way of life that depends on people doing what they are told because they don't know any other way. For God's sake, let's not rock that boat!

You may also want to read Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society if you're interested in a more in depth critique of these themes in society at large.

I disagree with point (1) and only somewhat agree with point (2).

For point 1 - I definitely don't like rules, and I have found that if you create enough value, you get away with making your own rules and can come very close to having a feeling of running your own business.

For point 2 - in the high tech industry, you can make as much, or more, income without the uncertainty of self employment/own business. Running a business is HARD. I tried it, for many years, and ultimately failed (well, I failed financially, but learned a hell of a lot - so not a complete failure). Perhaps I was in the wrong business, but I simply didn't enjoy the non-technical aspects of it, which consume the majority of your time. The ROI wasn't there - not for me. Not every business is going to make you rich - in fact, most of them will not. I can't say I've given up permanently, but I have gone back to the corporate world for now and do not regret it. I disagree with the job stability portion of this point - you have ZERO job stability when you work for someone else. I firmly believe you have more stability working on your own than for a vast majority of companies. The concept of job security is a false sense of security.

I apologize for being somewhat flippant with the wording of point #1.

It's late in Chicago, where I'm writing from, and I have to hit the hay, as it were.

I'll rephrase/explain tomorrow.

I've done both. Currently I'm working for a company. The one awesome, amazing thing is that on the 15th and end of the month I get a paycheque, and it's always the same. After taxes, that money's all mine, to do anything I want with. Also I get _paid_ to take vacation, and it's strongly encouraged.

I've done both. I liken entrepreneurship to owning a race team. I'd rather "drive the race car" and let the team owner deal with everything else.

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