In a two-year field experiment, researchers found that self-employed individuals who sought company jobs scored significantly fewer interviews than peers who were employed by companies.
I’ve worked with people who were self-employed and then gotten corporate jobs. They are far, far less likely to just take corporate bullshit handed to them on a platter and pretend it’s filet mignon. That’s why corporations don’t want them – they are no longer fully zombies.
No, the real reason is that people who have been away from a regular workplace for over 6 months find it extremely hard to reintegrate themselves into an environment where they have to work with colleagues, be part of a group, control their moods, etc. They work more slowly and less effectively, they are more likely to have emotional outbursts in front of colleagues, they get distracted more easily, they get tired very fast.
I’m going to be working at home because of my maternity leave until January and I know I will have to take measures to reintegrate myself into the workplace after all that time. I’m really good at working at home but after the year I was writing my dissertation and not teaching, I had such intense difficulties with reintegrating myself into the work I love that I thought I was losing my mind. There was weight gain, depression, nightmares, etc. And nobody had warned me I would encounter these difficulties.
So let’s all keep in mind that coming back to the workplace after an absence of over 6 months requires intense psychological hygiene.
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