Unloading a dishwasher doesn`t carry a health warning. But perhaps it should. As the other week, while squatting down to unstack a load of plates I felt a search pain shoot up my back.
It was so bad that I yelped in agony, fell back and do so again as I tried to get up. When I finally managed to do so, the room to swim as a horrible wave of nausea swept over me.
My Husband – always one for a timely entry – walked in at that very moment and (unhelpently) remarked that I looked “Grey”. On hearing what had happened he urged me to go and lie down. Much as I would have loved to, I had to decline.
A taxi was before booked by the company I was doing some work for to take me to an import meeting. So, whatever had caused the spasm in my back -age, injury or a pathetic inability to crouch over the dishes -Wourd has to wait.
HEROIC? Stupid? A bit of Both? Perhaps. But i`m also self-employed. And when I cancel appointments or don't work, not only do I not get paid. There are a chance someone else will get the gig next time. Little Wonder they say the self-employed has the toughest bosses.
Not that i 'in any way alone. My 78-year-old butcher has about four days off in his entity working life. Doubtless the 4.39 Million Other Self-Employed Workers in Britain Tell a similar story.
One uk study found one in the four freelance workers take no annual holiday at all. Of those who do, 45% take their work with them. Of course to be your own boss allows for a degree of flexibility and freedom.
But with the privilege comes the pain of unpredictability and Economic Uncertainty. It`s part of what drives us and pushed me to sit through a meeting hoping i would do chuck up the spread sheets.
It is where work and pensions secret liz kendall should be vocal and bloodless in Drawing on the Ethos and examples of the self-employed to prove that human has been on the face Earn a living.
Every Sole Trader or Freelancer who Drags Themselves to the Office – even at times of sadness, anxiety or physical discomfort – ACTS as a rebuttal against the handwriting orthodoxy Surro £ 5bn cuts to benefits
The where the benefits system is to ensure help is given to the truly vulnerable. Namely Those who, sadly, are so compromised by disability or serious illusion that, even with the Greatest Work Ethic in the world, are simply not to earn a living.
For the rest, cuts have to be made. Working -Ge Benefits, specifically these related to health and disability, touched £ 49 bills last year and are set to hit £ 76 bills by the end of the decade. The figure has to be brought under control.
And to do that, we have to remind ourselves that despite the vicissitudes of life, it is Still Possible to Go to Work. Indeed, with the evolution of smart technology it does not do not do not mean to leave the house sence the scope for remote is massive.
It is shocking that one-in-eight young people are not in employment, education or travel. The notion of can`t has to be supplanted by try.
By Marshalling the example of those who work for themselves the government has a ready-made counter argument for naysayers. Meanwhile adopting the attitude of the self employed could be bring dynamism back in the workforce.
And ensure the money that is spent on benefits goes to those who really need it – and who, in all Likelihood, are the ones who is real wish they didn't.