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.
Clarissa's Blog 
I totally agree with you! For this exact reason, I am thinking of coming in to campus one day a week from October to December — like you, my maternity leave ends in January — even if it is just to talk to students and colleagues about research. My plan is to get a mother’s helper by October, or even bring the baby in for a few hours, if that doesn’t work.
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I think I should do the same. Being isolated with a baby must be even harder than being isolated alone.
What are you planning for when you go back to work?
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For now, I am thinking of a nanny until summer, and then we will start day-care from April or May. By then, the baby would have gotten the necessary vaccines. I am told by experienced mothers that starting a young baby in day-care in winter is a nightmare, and they get sick all the time. Summer is a little easier that way. My baby is also due in mid to end-August, so it’s a little earlier than yours.
What are you planning for when you go back to work?
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I have the exact same plan as you do. 🙂 🙂
Great minds. . .
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That’s funny! 🙂
When do you plan to start looking at day-cares? Or have you started already?
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No, not yet. Maybe we should start because you never know how fast the slots fill up.
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What I find significant is the apparent inability to distinguish between normal requirements of getting along with other people at work and being a zombie.
I shouldn’t be, many moons ago when I was doing office work I was surprised at how many otherwise intelligent and pleasant people took any kind of instruction from a supervisor as some kind of personal attack.
Many seemed to have trouble distinguishing the following two sample sentences:
1. Okay, there are new state regulations and I have to intial all widget reports before we send them off, so remember to send them to me instead of straight to the widget management office.
2. You moronic idiot, can’t you do anything right?! From now on I’m not letting anything you do out of the office unless I check to see that you haven’t made any of the stupid mistakes.
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The capacity to work within a hierarchy is a sign of psychological health. Of course, nobody should put up with abuse but a hierarchy does not need to be abusive. As you say, people need to know how to distinguish between the two.
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