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Princess of Sovereignty
It’s been a while since I’ve posted. And I continue to think about the concept of sovereignty in the workplace.
When I was in the big corporate world, I became convinced that the entire culture conspired to get us to voluntarily give up our sovereignty and control in exchange for a “steady” paycheck and benefits.
Now that I’m on my own, I see those years in corporate America tainting my experience of my chosen career/life. It stints my ability to move forward.
In the corporate world, I felt that anything that went wrong would rest on my shoulders – deserved or not (part of this was my own baggage from “team grades” in school, where one slacker could ruin your GPA (unless you ended up doing all the work thus giving him a good grade as well) in a heartbeat, but part of it is standard management practices. Nothing I accomplished was ever even acknowledged, because management was discouraged from giving outstanding reviews because that could/would trigger merit raises that would lower the bottom line. (Note: This does not apply to the early years at my last company… They were great about this type of thing, but like all other companies, I think the “recession” scared them.)
Now that I’m working for myself, I am fully responsible for anything that goes on – as Truman said, “the buck stops here.” On the other hand, I find myself falling into the trap of not giving myself credi for my innovations and accomplishments. This has to stop now. I am failing as a manager by not rewarding my workers (me) and finding ways to make her (my!) life easier.
I think if I had had this inspiration back in the corporate world, I could have grabbed hold of my sovereignty even then, maybe. Right now I need to become my own best boss. I’ll be more productive, and the business will be better and more profitable for it.
As for my business… have you seen my weekly inexpensive and immediate embroidery patterns? Some are counted, some aren’t, and they’re all 99 cents!