{"id":44541,"date":"2021-08-01T17:16:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T21:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=44541"},"modified":"2021-08-09T09:28:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T13:28:00","slug":"job-autonomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/job-autonomy\/","title":{"rendered":"Job Autonomy: How and When to Ask for It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Do you have job autonomy? If not, what&#8217;s the best way to acquire it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Job autonomy is the ability to control what you work on and how you work, including schedule and office space. It&#8217;s one of the traits that make a job desirable. The best way to have autonomy is to develop skills that make you invaluable. First, it&#8217;s helpful to know how important <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-the-workplace\/\">workplace autonomy<\/a> is\u2014and when it&#8217;s the right time to go for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more to learn how and when to secure job autonomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rule #3: Cash in Your Skills for Job Autonomy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that you\u2019ve developed your scarce and prized skills, you can start cashing them in for the scarce and prized traits that make a job desirable. In Rule #3, we\u2019ll look at the desirable trait of workplace autonomy. We\u2019ll also look at two autonomy pitfalls and how to avoid them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Importance of Job Autonomy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Autonomy is the ability to control what you work on and how you work<\/strong>, including, among other things, your schedule, responsibilities, and office space. Workplace autonomy is such an important determiner of happiness that the author calls it the \u201cdream-job elixir.\u201d Most common dream jobs include autonomy\u2014for example, many people want to own a farm not only to get away from screens and escape their cubicles, but also because the country lifestyle offers so much autonomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People who have autonomy in their workplace tend to be happier and more productive. There are several examples that demonstrate this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Results-Only Work Environments (ROWEs) are workplaces where, as the name implies, results are the only rule. Employees can work whatever hours they want, ignore their email, and dress however they like as long as they get their work done.<ul><li>ROWE teams at Best Buy saw increased employee retention.<\/li><li>People who participated in a ROWE pilot at Gap were happier.<\/li><li>At the first non-profit to try ROWE, over 90% of employees felt the system made their lives better.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>In one study, Cornell researchers studied two groups of small businesses, 150 of which didn\u2019t give their employees any control, and 150 of which did. The businesses that gave their employees control grew at 400% of the rate of the non-autonomous businesses.<\/li><li>In another study, researchers found that when middle school teachers who worked in difficult school districts were given autonomy, they were promoted more quickly and their students\u2019 performance improved.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Two Pitfalls<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When trying to cash in your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/career-capital\/\">career capital<\/a> for job autonomy\u2014for example, by asking your manager if you can change your hours\u2014there are two possible pitfalls:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pitfall #1: You Don\u2019t Have Enough Career Capital<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>As we learned in Rule #2, you need to develop career capital before you can buy job autonomy. <strong>If you attempt to seize autonomy before you\u2019ve earned it, it won\u2019t last because you won\u2019t make money<\/strong>\u2014if you prematurely demand autonomy from your boss, you\u2019ll either be denied the request or fired. If you choose to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-get-a-small-business-started\/\">start your own business<\/a>, you won\u2019t be able to find clients because you have no experience. Either way, you\u2019ll shortly have to take on a non-autonomous job in order to support yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, many followers of the lifestyle-design movement\u2014a movement to break free of the rat race and live life on your own terms\u2014fall into this trap. They think all they need to succeed is the courage to quit their day jobs and forget about the necessity of career capital. One young professional the author encountered quit his day job to write a blog about how blogging funded his lifestyle. However, his blog wasn\u2019t actually making him any money, so his content was weak and his only piece of career capital was enthusiasm. Enthusiasm isn\u2019t scarce and prized and wasn\u2019t enough to buy him workplace autonomy. Few people read his blog and he eventually gave up posting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-4-hour-workweek\/1-page-summary\">Read our summary of Tim Ferriss\u2019s <em>The 4-Hour Workweek<\/em><\/a> for more on lifestyle design.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pitfall #2: Resistance<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The first step to buying job autonomy is acquiring enough career capital to pay for it. However, <strong>once you have this career capital, you become so valuable to your employer that they don\u2019t want to give you any autonomy for fear of losing you and your skills. <\/strong>Job autonomy might make you happy, but it doesn\u2019t do anything for your employer. It\u2019s typically in your employer\u2019s best interest to keep you working for them as many hours as possible, on their terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore, as you gain career capital, anticipate that your employer will resist your bids for autonomy.<strong> They\u2019ll offer you more money or status to try to keep you, but if you want autonomy, you\u2019ll have to turn them down. <\/strong>Additionally, you may encounter resistance from your friends and family, because they think it\u2019s a bad idea to turn down raises or promotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, Lulu Young started developing her career capital by earning a degree in math. She then took an entry-level job as a software tester. She figured out a way to automate the testing, which saved the company money, and she was promoted. <strong>Only at this point, after acquiring capital, did Lulu make a small bid for autonomy\u2014she asked to reduce her working hours so she could go back to school part-time. <\/strong>Her employers didn\u2019t want her to work fewer hours\u2014they wanted her to spend as much time using her skills to help them as possible\u2014but she was so valuable they had to agree because they didn\u2019t want to lose her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lulu also encountered resistance outside the workplace. Later in her career, when the company she was working for shut down, Lulu received several job offers, one of which was a huge promotion. Lulu had just bought a house and everyone expected her to take the job, but she took a different job that offered her more workplace autonomy. <strong>Her friends and family thought she was \u201cnuts,\u201d but she pushed past this resistance and eventually ended up as a freelancer with full autonomy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While courage culture can lead you into Pitfall #1, courage <em>is <\/em>required for avoiding this second pitfall. You\u2019ll need to be brave to overcome the resistance you encounter. The trick is knowing when to apply this courage, which we\u2019ll discuss in the next section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to Decide When to Bid for Job Autonomy: The Law of Payment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To decide when to use courage and seek workplace autonomy, you can take a simple test called the law of payment. The law states that <strong>you should only choose to do something that will give you more autonomy if you have evidence that people will pay you to do it.<\/strong> \u201cPay\u201d refers to the classic case of a customer giving you money, or to getting a job, loan, or outside investment. If someone is willing to pay you to do something, this shows that your skills are valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, entrepreneur Derek Sivers, who came up with the idea behind the law of payment, only took on projects after he had evidence that someone would pay him to complete them. He became a full-time musician only after music was making him more money than his day job. He started a company that sold CDs only after he knew enough people to be confident he\u2019d have lots of clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Failed Application of Rule #3: Jane the Adventurer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Jane did well in school but didn\u2019t want to follow the traditional path of going straight from college to a steady, full-time job. She wanted to have adventures ranging from traveling the world to learning to breathe fire to starting a non-profit, all of which required workplace autonomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jane planned to create this lifestyle by building low-maintenance websites that would passively earn her money. <strong>Without considering the law of payment\u2014which would have told her that passive-income websites aren\u2019t very viable\u2014she dropped out of college to work on her websites and other moneymaking ideas.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to ignoring the law of payment, <strong>Jane also didn\u2019t take into account her lack of career capital. <\/strong>She didn\u2019t have experience with websites or working freelance, and she hadn\u2019t finished college.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In theory, Jane\u2019s choices gave her autonomy, but the autonomy wasn\u2019t real\u2014since her business ideas didn\u2019t make her enough money to eat, she wasn\u2019t free to do whatever she liked.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Successful Application of Rule #3: Ryan Voiland<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Ryan, the owner of a farm, was successful in his bid for job autonomy because unlike Jane, he acquired career capital before embarking on autonomous projects, and he considered the law of payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ryan first became involved with gardening in middle school, when he came up with a variety of ideas for making money. The most lucrative was picking blueberries and selling them by the side of the road. He wasn\u2019t particularly passionate about gardening, but it made money, so he branched out to selling produce from his parents\u2019 garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In high school, Ryan rented land from a farmer, bought a tractor, and started selling at farmer\u2019s markets. Then, he studied at the agriculture college at Cornell University. <strong>When Ryan decided it was time to buy land and start farming full time, he had almost ten years\u2019 worth of career capital in the form of gardening experience, entrepreneurship, and a college diploma in horticulture.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ryan needed a loan to buy the land, so he had to go through a formal version of the law of payment by submitting a viable business plan to the Massachusetts Farm Services Agency. The agency only approves people they think will be able to pay back the loan, so when Ryan was approved, he knew that someone thought he was going to make money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His farm was very successful\u2014so many people wanted to buy produce from him that he had to turn people away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Author\u2019s Application of Rule #3<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>As the author was wrapping up graduate school, he received two professorship offers. One was with Georgetown University, which had only recently developed a computer science graduate program. The other was from a well-known university with a well-established program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Georgetown University offered far more job autonomy\u2014since the program was just starting out, the author would have a chance to influence its development. He would also have more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/freedom-to-choose\/\">freedom to choose<\/a> an up-and-coming specialty. (At established universities, it\u2019s safer to choose popular specialties so that there are people who can endorse your knowledge\u2014if no one can validate you, you\u2019re in perpetual danger of losing your job.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If the author went to the well-known university, he\u2019d be falling into the second autonomy pitfall\u2014giving up autonomy for status.<\/strong> He assessed if choosing Georgetown was falling into the first pitfall by considering the law of payment. <strong>He was confident that he had the career capital to cash in for autonomy because Georgetown was going to pay him a good salary and offer support for his research.<\/strong> He accepted the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you have job autonomy? If not, what&#8217;s the best way to acquire it? Job autonomy is the ability to control what you work on and how you work, including schedule and office space. It&#8217;s one of the traits that make a job desirable. The best way to have autonomy is to develop skills that make you invaluable. First, it&#8217;s helpful to know how important workplace autonomy is\u2014and when it&#8217;s the right time to go for it. Read more to learn how and when to secure job autonomy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":44548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,7,30],"tags":[447],"class_list":["post-44541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-lifestyle","category-work","tag-so-good-they-cant-ignore-you","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Job Autonomy: How and When to Ask for It - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Job autonomy is the freedom to control what you work on and how you work. Learn how and when you should bid for workplace autonomy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/job-autonomy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Job Autonomy: How and When to Ask for It\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Job autonomy is the freedom to control what you work on and how you work. 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