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Today I received an email touting a career seminar in my area that would address the issue of problem employees. Namely, ones with attitude. And I had to laugh, because as my own boss, I deal with all of these issues in myself as my own employee. You know what I'm talking about. The two sides of yourself that have to work together when you're self-employed.

They ask~
Do you have employees who:
*don't meet deadlines?
doesn't happen often, or at all really, but its always there, threatening
*make excuses?
hmmm...does being tired or really needing to watch Project Runway count?
*refuse to learn new skills?
you mean like CS2 InDesign or Dreamweaver?
*drain your time and energy?
like with all the useless "why do I bother" soliloquies?
*have a bad attitude?
like grousing about how this doesn't pay enough or I don't have enough time...
*are chronically tardy?
I can sleep another hour because heck, I'm self employed!
*get derailed by personal problems?
you mean like life in general?

I thought it was funny, but it also made me do a reality check about some of these issues. In order to be successful illustrators/designers/artists/art licensors/business people we have to have discipline and a good attitude going for us. We have to be good bosses as well as good employees. We have to manage ourselves well. And its not easy at times. I know I tend to let things slide a bit (like updating that mailing list or sending out samples or letting the excuse that my cats didn't want to get up in the morning be the reason I stayed in bed too long). And I can get pretty grumpy. OK, really grumpy.

On the other end of the spectrum, you can't do everything in one day, and can't beat yourself up for not being superhuman. You can't update your portfolio, send out samples, redo your website, make all those phone calls, weed the yard, do all the laundry, cook home made meals and shampoo the carpets all today. (Unless you have staff, then they can pick up some of those chores, but even so, you'll have to have a meeting with them about how you want the yard done, the amount of starch to put in the linens, the week's menus and which carpets should be done when so you don't have a house full of wet carpets since guests are coming, etc.)
And even if you have assistants for your work you have to go through the same thing with them.


So I guess the trick is to keep things balanced, and try to have a good attitude to go with it.
I'm going to try to be a better employee for my own business and keep my attitude properly adjusted. But also not beat myself up when absolutely everything doesn't get done all at once.

And eat more vegetables.

And stop watching the news altogether.

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