Lament of the salaried worker

I was flipping through my bookmarks and, in the process, visited Des Walsh’s blog, "Thinking Home Business", and read his post titled "No envy for the salaryman’s lot".  This is a topic that is particularly relevant for me at the moment and was an interesting read.  I immediately identified with the guys in the suit heading off in their suits to a "Very Important Meeting":

On my early morning walk today I saw, as usual, a motley array of people similarly engaged, whether walking on the beach or along the footpath that circles the beach. The common feature was that they were all dressed casually, in this casual, holiday mecca location, and walking casually, or with a spring in their step, to all intents and purposes without a care in the world.

Then, like an apparition from another world, two youngish guys emerged from one of the resort buildings, both clad in dark suits, with ties, lugging briefcases and each sporting a bit of a cascade effect of stomach over trousers – too many airline dinners and nights at the bar in cities away from home? – heading off purposefully for a no doubt Very Important Meeting.

And I thought, with some bemusement, that used to be me, dressed for maximum discomfort at dawn, heading off to yet another round of meetings, in pursuit of – for the most part – long forgotten meeting goals and agendas. All for what? Salary, status, paid holidays, a car after a while, an office someone else paid for, business cards someone else had printed, an expense account or at least a corporate credit card. Not bad, but unfortunately that was not all.

The clincher is this paragraph:

So when occasionally I feel that this home based business and the self-reliance caper is wearing a bit thin and I’d like someone else to take responsibility for paying me and give me a credit card to take my friends (sorry, clients) to lunch, I really should hop in the car and drive over to the airport, buy a cup of execrable airport coffee and watch the salarymen heading off to their important meetings.

Not much need for me to comment, this post really says it all.