How switching to self-employment can be beneficial for your mental health

We’ve all been hearing a great deal recently about how important our mental health is, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, almost 15% of workers experience mental health issues at work and almost 13% of all sick days in the UK can be attributed to mental health. Given that we spend half of our waking lives at work, it only stands to reason that a large portion of people currently feeling the strain of the 9-5 working week might benefit from putting the brakes on and exploring the idea of working for themselves.

There are certainly drawbacks to self-employment (the lack of paid holidays being right up there) but overall, it’s a move that you should find gives you the freedom to be the best version of yourself. To that end, here are just a few of the benefits that self-employment has to offer.

Flexibility

How many times have you been forced to turn down an opportunity to spend time with your friends and family or do something you really wanted to do because of a work commitment? If you work for yourself, you’re the only person you have to answer to (besides your clients, of course), which means you can arrange your work life around your social life.

Control

Take the jobs you want to take and do them the way you want to do them and when you want to do them. It’s long been reasoned that “heavy job requirements plus low autonomy equals a scenario with high occupational stress” so buck the trend and take back control. You can even choose to work from home if you can, which is something that we’ve all become more used to in recent years.

Quality of life

Not only does doing what you want to do mean greater job satisfaction but it also gives you the power to structure your life the way you see fit. The work/life balance that everyone assures us can never be achieved is within your reach. Being more passionate about your job and being able to decide who you’re working with and for is going to have a monumental impact on your overall quality of life, regardless of what career path you choose.

Job security

You would certainly never fire yourself. Would you? Of course, there’s the fact you have to find your own work to consider, but, generally speaking, you’re never more secure in a job than when you’re self-employed.

You can be whatever you want to be

Just because you’re on one career path now doesn’t mean you have to stay on it, particularly if it’s making you miserable. There are thousands of potential avenues to explore when shifting to a self-employed lifestyle. You could become anything from a black cab driver to a photographer, music producer or a freelance writer. And anything in between.