Over at Quofda (Question of the Day) each day a question is asked (clue being in the domain name there). Today’s is ‘Why do Mondays suck?’. I thought I’d take a little bit of an alternative route to answer this one as it brought to mind a few comments I’ve had in the past with regards to the fact I work freelance.

The illusion of being your own boss

I used to and most people who ‘work for the man’ probably do have dreams of working for themselves. There is this sort of haze around the concept that usually ends up being quickly shattered when the reality of working for yourself hits home. The buck no longer stops a fair way away it now stops right in your lap and usually hurts when it hits. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying it’s all woe is me, it’s just when you aren’t working for yourself and looking to do it you can tend to rose tint the possibility.

The cold fact is you can even see freelance as having many bosses depending on how many projects you have going on at the time. If you think about that with your clients as your boss then you really are only making choices about which boss you want to have for the duration of your project. If you are answerable to a project and that client then really are you even your own boss? I feel you are but with a lot of cross over feelings into that answering being a little more grey around the edges. The notion of being your own boss really does entail you are answerable to nobody - so who really can be said to be their own boss? Many companies have investors, boards, partners they answer to so can you even see these as being their own boss?

Monday isn’t a Monday

The harsh reality for me and most who work for themselves is that Monday isn’t always the start of your week. I can remember a fair few weeks and even months where there was actually no ’start’. Even now I probably do some form of ‘work’ most days. Being your own boss means not just doing the work but doing the administration it take to run a business no matter what size and those little jobs that when you work for someone else get done for you. From accounts to buying office supplies, all those little bits add up and need doing. These all add up to time you are working. These are often factors nobody at the start adds to the equation when working out their hours and costs of working for themselves.

The good flip side of this of course is you can in many respects select your working hours. Of course, this is partially dependent on your client base and type of work. I’m lucky and so long as I’m reachable and ‘do the work’ I have nobody saying I have to be available from 9-5. Often I even find that those out of office hours are better for focused work, the phone doesn’t ring and emails don’t come in. Saturday still for me has to be my most productive day by a long way.

So do Mondays suck being a freelance web designer?

For me, Mondays don’t suck anymore than other day - you can have a ‘Monday’ on any day of the week. No matter what you do for a job sometimes it just sucks. Working for yourself though and doing something you love is priceless and gets you through those head on desk moments. No matter who you work for be it ‘the man’ or if you are ‘the man’ and you work for yourself - the plain and simple truth is work can suck sometimes. Ultimately if you are doing something you believe in and are passionate about those sucky days are just that little bit less sucky.