Poll: Do you work for "the Man"?

[Sukotto]

NathanKP commented

  I would imagine that a fairly large percentage 
  of the Hacker News community probably works for 
  themselves or as freelance contractors.

( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2392346 )

What do you say HN? Are you:

[Goosey]

I think HN gives off the impression that most people own company or freelance due to the content, but it is a bit of a filter effect. Similar to how everyone is living amazing awesome lives on facebook.

[microtonal]

I work for someone else too (a Dutch university). Although I am interested in freelancing or starting my own company in the future, what brought me to Hacker News was the good signal/noise ratio. Both in terms of upvoted items and in insightful comments.

The focus on startups may filter for people who are generally interested in new technology and business methods. You have to be able to tolerate some entrepreneurial posts every day ;).

[nickbp]

In my opinion, someone truly living an amazing awesome life wouldn't have time to advertise it on Facebook. But it might be that I have a different definition of such a life.

[m0th87]

I'm sure there's a sizable percentage that are in school / grad school (myself included) who are not represented by this poll.

[jshort]

Or perhaps unemployed/retired or working on small projects that may one day lead you to be the 'man'.

[mgkimsal]

"owner of your own company" and "a freelancer" are really the same for many people.

[chc]

I think the distinction is that freelancers technically own a company, but what the company does is whatever people ask it to do. Compare a freelancer's company with a company that makes washing machines and you'll notice a substantial difference — I think that's the line here.

[cjeane]

That is what I was thinking. Is the distinction having employees?

[gersh]

I'd distinguish between consulting and a product company. Product companies license software, sell physical goods, or off-the-shelf goods. Consulting companies sell time to their customer's requirements. They may do fixed-bid work, but the client writes the specs, possibly with help.

[NathanKP]

I feel obligated to comment since I inspired this poll: I don't think the way this poll is worded is contributing to accurate results.

For example, I can truthfully say that I am currently employed at someone else's company (a startup that I am consulting for), I am a freelance contractor (for the startup I am consulting for), owner of my own company (an apparel and design studio that I am currently working on with some close friends), and I have numerous side projects including my own startup. If I feel like I should select multiple options, then I'm sure others are having the same problem. I don't think the options in the poll are leading to an accurate answer to the question.

I think the real question is what the percentage of cubicle dwelling office workers being watched over by a boss is compared with the percentage of self employed, freelance consultants.

My initial estimate was that there would be more self employed individuals with self control built by working for themselves, and fewer cubicle workers who are trying to sneakily browse HN behind the back of their bosses.

This poll hasn't answered my question one way or the other though.

[zavulon]

The real question should be which one is contributing the majority of your income. When I worked for "the man" I had numerous side projects (none of them went anywhere), and proudly called myself an entrepreneur. Now that I have my company as my primary income source, I see how naive I was to even consider that what I was doing was real entrepreneurship.

[famousactress]

Yeah.. it's a hard question to pose! I was the one that suggested a poll, but stopped short of putting one up cause I wasn't able to come up with the right list of choices, and title that honor the spirit of the original curiosity....

... that and, I got work to do!

[SimonPStevens]

Right now I'm employed. But I handed my resignation in yesterday to go freelance, and I aim to eventually build a company. I've wanted to do it for a long time, but HN played at least a part in giving me the confidence to try it.

http://www.simonpstevens.com/News/GoingFreelance

[memset]

I am working for "the man" in every sense that that phrase implies: yes, dropbox, facebook, gmail, and tumblr are blocked. And we use ClearCase!

Participating in any sort of forums or outside communication via company equipment during work is completely off-limits (often for regulatory reasons rather than draconian. For example, Hulu and Youtube aren't blocked because, while they're time-wasters, they aren't really venues for communication which has to be logged.)

I wonder how many people would be grouped in the "lurker" bucket not because they don't have an interest in this sort of thing, but because restrictions at work make participation require too much activation energy.

[originalgeek]

The idea of not working for "the man" is merely an illusion. If you are freelance or a business owner, "the man" is your clients/customers and the government. Let's say your enterprise involves the illegal distribution of contraband, then "the man" is your supplier. Or let's say you're just a laborer working for a small building contractor, the boss is "the man".

[famousactress]

I disagree.. I mean, yes.. working for yourself is a bit of illusion.. everyone has customers. But the spirit of the question in this case is a bit different. I think 'the man' we're all talking about is a short-sighted middle-manager type who's at the moment working with IT to install web-censoring software, and putting together a dashboard of LOC produced, per engineer, per day.

[gcr]

What's wrong with being employed? My employer is both super-interesting and reasonable; I can learn a lot from him.

[tluyben2]

Nothing. But, as said, a lot of (most I saw) employers are not like that and, more important, a lot of people are not like that. I was employed and the only thing I learned, even though my bosses were reasonable, was that I cannot stand that situation. I love startups, I love getting my team to the top and that top is limited by my employer (at least in short term). That makes me really not like being employed.

[statictype]

What's wrong with being employed is that not everyone has the benefit of a nice employer. I also have a good and reasonable employer but not everyone does.

[scythe]

Well, my last job was with the Navy, which I suppose is The Man, but that doesn't fit into any of the poll options.

It'd be good to add "public sector" and "military" options, I think.

[spir]

In the spirit of the poll, you are very clearly employed at someone else's company.

[jamaicahest]

Or working for The People, as opposed to The Man :)

[xiaoma]

If Uncle Sam doesn't qualify as "the man", then who does?

[callmeed]

You should add an "I am the man" option

[chc]

I think that would be "owner of your own company".

[hardik988]

Just a couple of months after graduating (in 2010), I attempted a startup and it was a great experience. The lessons I learned were invaluable. But, I had no industry experience whatsoever, and relatively minimal programming (the production quality kind) experience as well.

I quit my startup after six months and now I'm employed. However, I'm working on fabulous new technologies like Node.JS and I'm enjoying my experience. My employer realizes my startup background and I have almost all the freedom I had when I was at my own startup. I work directly with the Director of Technology and I really couldn't have asked for a better job.

Sure, I failed at my startup, but I believe that failures are often as important in shaping a person as successes. And at 22 years of age, attempting a startup as a single founder was one of the best mistakes I could have made.

[pbj]

I'd vote for unemployed but I can see I'm not allowed to! :)

[bcrawford]

Isn't that just the same as "entrepreneur?" I kid, I kid.

[olalonde]

Unless you don't declare your revenues, you are working for the Man whatever you answered above ;)

[mediacrisis]

I work for "The Woman". I used to freelance on the side, but I signed a pretty tight non-compete. I prefer the security of a salary job over freelance projects anyway, as I'm in the lovely demographic of broke 20 something post-grads ;)

[mattmanser]

Apart from that's pretty much exactly when you should be freelancing/contracting as you've got no commitments and the money is phenomenally better than a salary job.

[carterschonwald]

Where does grad student fit in this schema? :-)

[nowarninglabel]

I own a company, contract for my old employer, and work for a company.

I work for Kiva though, and my boss passed me on a skateboard coming in to work this morning, so it's about as far from working from the man as I can get.

[bjelkeman-again]

Similar but different. I work for Akvo.org, a software/online services foundation for development aid, which i co-founded. But technically I am a freelancer, and own my own company. Similar in many ways to my previous startups and very different in others.

[KirinDave]

I'm not sure that where I work would constitute working for "the man." I have considerable equity, and was a very early hire. I'm not a "founder", but this job is a damn far sight from something like my previous work at, say, Lockheed Martin.

[juddlyon]

Don't be put off, most owners of their own companies are running around like chickens with their heads cut off for a chance to make it big.

If you have an easy day gig that pays well and have time to hack on the side, consider yourself in good shape.

[kin]

I once spoke to an industry veteran when I was still in college and his advice rings to me real well. He said that it's very easy to just work for the man coming out of college. In our particular market, it's easy to follow recruiting strategies and land a job working for the man and getting comfortable.

While you're young, you can afford to take the risk of joining a startup or one on your own. Furthermore, by joining a startup, in a way, your presence at the startup reduces their risk of failure.

That was just advice and I currently work for the man. Fortunately I'm really happy where I am and I do work on things on the side.

[michaelpinto]

Side note: I once met a former Apple employee who dismissed my sugar coated illusions my telling me that at the end of the day working for for even an amazing large tech company is "working for the man"