The best boss I’ve ever had is myself. I’m sort of self-employed at the moment and taking any freelance graphic design jobs I can get my grubby little paws on since I don’t have a regular job. No matter how many resumes I send out, it seems that I’m the only person who wants to hire me. The work isn’t too steady. I wish I paid better and the benefits package is absolute crap.

My boss and I get along really well most of the time. We have the same interests, and like the same movies, books and music. Our discussions are always thought-provoking. I like my boss very much. She lets me wake up when I feel like it and is never upset if I come to work late. There is no dress code; in fact, right now, we are wearing pajamas.

My boss has some bad qualities though. Sometimes, she’s not very motivated. There are days when she doesn’t assign any work and we play video games or take a nap. She’s not very good at promoting the business. All the clients we have we’ve gotten either through friends of friends or word of mouth. We don’t do any advertising. She’s not too good at the business end of freelance work. There have been a few jobs where we haven’t gotten paid for the work. She feels awkward about asking people for money, even though it is money that is owed for services rendered.

She isn’t very good with people. That’s part of the reason why we do graphic design. I keep telling her that we need to hire a business manager – someone who will go out in the world to promote the business and handle the money end, but she keeps telling me that we can’t afford it. She has a point. We’re a very small company and the jobs we get aren’t all that big nor is the work very steady.

Occasionally, we get a freelance job that promises more work in the future, but that rarely pans out. The job I did last week promised another client to us, but so far, nothing has happened. Since neither of us is very good with people, no one has followed up on it. We have been paid for last week’s job already though, so that’s a step in the right direction. Right now, we don’t have any clients and we’re both going stir crazy trying to occupy our days.

I wish that one of us would get our act together and develop some business acumen, but we tend not to give each other a hard time about it. Things have got to look up eventually. Despite our faults, we aren’t too hard on each other. We’re in this together and we either sink or swim. Right now, we’re sinking.