The Free Agent Outlook on Work

Today's workplace requires a new outlook. Work must be seen for what it basically is: an economic exchange -- labor for pay. We are hired to perform skills. Having marketable skills is the key.

In sports, a "free agent" is an athlete who is free to sell his or her skills to the team that offers the best deal. With skills that sell in the labor market, we are in control; we can earn more, quit an unsafe job, change to better jobs, and find another job more easily if laid off. By recognizing that work is fundamentally labor for pay, we look for opportunities of self-fulfillment outside of our job.

Six principles guide the Free Agent Worker:

1. Strengthen Marketable Skills
   
   
2. Stay Mobile, Prepare to Change Jobs
   
   
3. Watch Your Company and Industry Information
   
   
4. Free Agents Do Better at Work
   
   
5. Balance Life and Work
   
   
6. Optimism and Thinking Positive

Viewing work through the eyes of the Free Agent Worker puts work in perspective and frees us to find economic and self-fulfillment.