I can still remember the day I decided to quit my “9 to 5” as a Senior Account Executive. I had just returned from an unsuccessful, last minute meeting cancellation where I had wasted precious moments away from my then six-week-old newborn to venture into New York City. Frustrated, I thought, there’s got to be a better way. And there was. That evening, over a glass of Pinot Grigio, I mustered up the courage to send in my resignation letter and tell my husband that my steady paycheck was about to become less, well, steady. I took a leap with no net, taking with me a “Work hard, and be nice to people and you can do and be anything” mantra. I was to be a freelancer. Emphasis on the free.
It wasn’t a simple task. I had become so acquainted with the corporate set-up that I had forgotten how to exist in anything but a structured, organized schedule. No conference calls, no “meeting about the meeting.” Just me, my laptop, and my creativity for hire. As a writer and publicist, I realized just how valuable I could be when left to my own devices, and how productive my hours might become. I didn’t clock in just to fulfill some hourly quota; every minute of my workday was spent fulfilling client’s requests. The rest of my energy went to my family. My mother marveled at my new commute to my in-home office (a quaint 30 second walk). “In my day, that just wasn’t a possibility,” she said, lamenting the hours she spent away from the home in the name of a fruitful career. Today, motherhood is no longer a threat to my position at work. I am equal parts mom and CEO, and I’m not alone. For companies who grapple with difficulties over their female employees taking maternity leave, the work-from-home environment creates an opportunity for women to stay “plugged in” when they might have had to choose between their income and their newborn. Additionally, the company benefits because they don’t risk losing a valuable and productive employee.
How is it possible, then, for a career woman to exist outside the walls of an office? In a word: Technology. With Skype, Facetime, Email, Text, and G-Chat available on a plethora of screens, I’m more available than I’ve ever been. I worried that clients might hesitate to work with me because I didn’t have a physical office, but I’ve found it to be the opposite. I believe I’m ahead of the curve.
“It’s predicted that half the workforce will be working remotely by 2020,” said Sara Sutton Fell, founder and CEO of FlexJobs, during a recent interview with Fast Company. “I believe it’s already happening informally. This generation hasn’t had geographic parameters to tell them how to work. Location and time is arbitrary, which means they adapt well to working outside of an office setting.”
Companies that hire millenials are eager to create adaptive, productive workspaces with open, creative floor plans. Many organizations have swapped the “open door policies” of the past with “no door policies.” Businesses whose employees telecommute have the benefit of a comfortable, personalized workspace without overhead; a win-win scenario.
The freelance lifestyle is no longer suited only for creative professionals, like artists, musicians, and writers, but is extending to many other occupations as well. The most popular virtual positions are creative director, UI developer, visual design engineer, accountant, and marketing manager, according to a FlexJobs study. It has its many upsides for the employee (no commute, a more flexible schedule, and a yoga pants work uniform) but it also benefits companies who employ telecommuters. For one, less overhead means they can spend their money hiring bright, creative individuals without worrying about desk space. It’s estimated that for each employee who telecommutes, a company saves about $11,000 annually. Two, the option to telecommute accommodates flexible scheduling and less need for time off requests, given that employees can check in from virtually anywhere.
Working at home works only if you do. In fact, being at home only inspires me never to fully “clock out” (much to my husband’s chagrin), and I constantly have my clients in mind, thinking of ways I can create inspiring content at every turn. (Again, I’m not the only one. A University of Texas Study showed that telecommuters worked 5-7 hours more than their in-office counterparts.)
I’ll never be forced to miss a single soccer game, carpool pick-up, or first heartbreak. And while the three letters C-E-O threaten to stroke my ego, there are three others that trump any job I’ve ever had: M-O-M.
