Many entrepreneurs cite the escape from the employment 'cubicle' and the resulting freedom as key motivations to take the leap and set up their own business.
Fast forward 12-24 months, I wonder how many entrepreneurs still feel enthused with excitement and a sense of freedom?
The reality, I think, is that many entrepreneurs find themselves back in a cubicle. (Figuratively, if not in actual fact).
It doesn't matter that you have the 'freedom' to work from coffee-shop to coffee-shop if your interactions are limited to yourself and some digitised forms of communication, like email and online chat. This is silo working. Much like working in a cubicle. You're just completely on your own, not even now with a water-cooler to hang-out and moan at!
As more and more workers take the leap into entrepreneurship, I see this as becoming a real problem. The freedom that technology has granted us - to be able to work anywhere - is actually causing us to retreat inwardly and away from real human (as opposed to digital) interaction. This is not good for us.
There are thousands of years of hard-wired tribal instinct within us. We want to interact with one another. Not just in a constructive world-changing business-building context but also for idle chatter and giggles. Yet over the past 10-20 years, with the advances in technology, this is starting to slip away.
We can work on the beach. We can work in a coffee-shop. We can work in a serviced office. But in each case, we might be working alone.
What price might this change of work patterns have for our long-term mental and physical health?
I, for one, don't think it's good. Yet I find myself in this position quite frequently. Yes, I have the freedom to work anywhere - as long as I have a laptop or just a smartphone. But I am conscious that I need to keep pushing outward to interact with people. Even if it's just making sure that, at the very least, I am on the phone with clients and buddies on the days when I don't get out and about.
Otherwise, I might wake up one day soon and find myself stuck in an 'entrepreneurial cubicle' of my own making...
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://businessn2k.com/the-entrepreneurial-cubicle/