Here’s that flexibility thing coming in handy…

Here’s an example of why taking the “pay cut” to work from home is worth it for me. If this was a day in the corporate world, I’d be getting glares from co-workers and a boss – but instead I can take care of what my highest priority is: my kids.

This morning, as usual, before I could grab breakfast or even a cup of coffee, we raced out of the house so I could get my daughter to her camp, and then I brought my son in for his swim class (this has been extremely important as just a few weeks ago he was terrified of the water. Now he absolutely loves swimming – more on that in another up-coming post), then I drop him off at preschool – no sooner do I get home, make coffee, pour some cereal – before I’ve even had a bite – the phone rings. My daughter isn’t feeling well, I need to come get her. Send emails to clients explaining responses today might be delayed. Back in the car – run and meet the camp at a nearby park – arrange for a visit to the doctor’s office. Get home – try to prioritize what will really need to be completed today – hand off whatever projects I can to other people I work with. It’s now 11am. I have 0 billable hours. And in fact – because we’ll be racing out the door in a few minutes to get to the doctor’s, I don’t expect to have any billable hours until later this afternoon. If I manage to put in 3 hours this afternoon – that will be amazing.

Make no mistake – I am definitely doing two jobs, but only one of them I get paid for. ;P This certainly explains why I’m only getting half the salary I was before.

I was talking to a friend of mine last night and she was telling me how she wishes she could go back to work. Her daughter is old enough now that it would be nice to get out, be able to make some money to help make ends meet. But of course, most jobs don’t have the kind of flexibility a mom needs. I’m not sure how, but I wish that could change. I know I’m lucky, but I shouldn’t be. Getting this kind of flexibility on the job shouldn’t be so hard. Job sharing, or simple understanding when things come up… It’s a shame these things aren’t more widely available.

What changes need to be made to make it work for both employer and employee?

Freelancing from home – the job you never leave behind

On the whole, I am extremely happy being a freelancer. I can’t really imagine myself working for another single company again. I won’t say never – I just can’t see ever wanting to change the way things are right now. I have a huge amount of flexibility and I can’t see anyone ever giving me that as part of a “full time” job. I also like having different clients to work for – which equates to working on all different types of projects. At the last real “full time” job I had – there was a lot about that position that was so repetitive. I felt like I was starting to go numb. I felt like maybe web design/development wasn’t really what I wanted to do. What I found out after going freelance – it’s not that I didn’t like doing web design and development – I just didn’t like doing it there. Under those circumstances.

That said – there are some significant downsides about freelancing and working from home that can really start to get you down if you let it.

1) You never get to leave your job and go home.
My home IS the office. And maybe the secondary issue here is that my “hobby” is just an extension of my job – messing around on the computer. Reading stuff online, playing on Facebook, or Twitter. The only time I come close to completely unplugging is when I exercise. Even then, I’m usually listening to music on my iPhone – which means it’s possible that a client could call me (although thankfully that doesn’t happen a lot). When I take a class (Zumba!) then I’ll mute my phone and am completely unreachable.

But for the most part, I’m always “on call” – I check email regularly. And I do work evenings and weekends. This is definitely a dangerous path I’m headed, I know. There are bright red neon signs all over the place that are flashing “YOU WILL BURNOUT!” – and I feel that I probably straddle this line more than steer clear of it.

2) Working Harder – For Less
When I had a full time job, I had worked myself up position-wise and salary-wise to a very comfortable earning. The problem was that I had virtually no flexibility. Flexibility costs. A lot. Juggling school and day care and still trying to put in a full shift is difficult at best. Maybe there’s employers that understand that and accept that you will be “doing more but in less hours,” or that the hours will be put in over the course of the day AND NIGHT. I didn’t feel I was getting that level of understanding, and that is part of the reason why I opted to go freelance (after taking about a year off after DS was born. If I lived in a country where a year maternity leave was a standard offered by companies – maybe I wouldn’t have left my full time job)

I still feel like my days are a never ending race. I race the kids to school, then I race home to work, squeeze as much as I can in the roughly 6 hours – then race to do after school pickups – try to squeeze in a little more work – but also balancing homework help – then rush to make dinner, clean up, bedtime – before you know it, it’s 10pm – and I can squeeze in maybe an hour of work before I fall flat on my face. All this – for the wonderful price of 40% LESS than what I was making when I was working full time. That’s based on what I was making 4 years ago. If you figure, if I had stayed, I probably would have gotten a few bonuses, some raises, then you’re talking an even bigger gap.

Yet, I feel like I’m working just as hard.

It’s not all doom and gloom. It is extremely rewarding to “be your own boss.” I like that if a project comes my way that just absolutely turns my stomach – I can turn it down if I want to. And I have. My family lives out-of-state and I can go and visit them whenever I can afford the ticket and want to go – without having to get vacation time approved by anyone. (However, I have YET to do this where it didn’t involve spending some of the time working while I was visiting them.) Not to mention – in this economy especially – while I may be making a lot less than I was before, I am still bringing in some money and still have a steady in-flow of work. So I’m not complaining about that!

It’s certainly not for the faint-hearted. But like I said, I wouldn’t change it.