Self-employment made harder by difficult boss

When you're your own worst enemy...and then some.

“Let’s face it, my boss is a jerk,” complains self-employed writer Jeff Tamblyn, who’s currently working on a novel, titled, The Blue Jay. “I thought I’d worked with some bozos in my time, but I really take the cake.”

Among Tamblyn’s workplace grievances are that he doesn’t pay himself enough, he doesn’t give himself enough time off, and he makes fun of himself behind his own back. “I can’t prove it yet,” he whispered, “but I think there’s even some sexual harassment going on.”

Tensions in the office reached an all-time high last month when Tamblyn caught himself taking slips of paper from the suggestion box and destroying them without even having read them  “it was an act of bad faith,” he mutters under his breath, “but I can’t say I’m surprised.”

The incident resulted in a shouting match that led to Tamblyn’s staging a walk-out. He admits it was an extreme action, but he claims he left himself no choice.  “I really suck when it come to leadership skills.  Oh sure, I’m great at acting like I give a shit at the company picnic, but behind closed doors, when it’s just me and me, I run a sweatshop.”

Tamblyn claims things were going fairly well until a few months ago when he made himself CEO. “I really got a big head over that! You’d think I’d made myself King of the Western Hemisphere or something. I suppose that’s next,” he sneers.

What are Tamblyn’s options for improving the situation? “I’m passing around a petition. If I sign it enough times, that might get my attention. But if that doesn’t work, I might have to quit. I hope t doesn’t come to that, because I really like my odds for making supervisor eventually.”