Work To Your Own Tune – The Rewards of Working for Yourself

The self-employed appear to be the happiest by far, in a landmark survey of 100,826 working adults to determine how occupation affects happiness. The Gallup-Healthways survey measured six criteria of contentment, including emotional and physical health, job satisfaction, healthy behavior, access to basic needs and self-reports of overall life quality across 11 diverse occupational groups.

It seems that the independence to choose your work on your own terms fuels satisfaction and contentment. Overall, self-employed store or business owners, electricians, plumbers and the like have a higher quality of life than doctors, lawyers or CEO’s.

Occupational factors that contribute to unhealthy stress are lack of control or participation in decision-making, conflicting or unclear job expectations,  hectic tasks with little inherent meaning, cost cuts and layoffs.

According to John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the study “reaffirms my view that the more control you have over your work, the happier you are.”

In these tough economic times, where things are quite unpredictable, being your own boss is advantageous to one’s psychological well-being – giving you some control over your destiny.