Is freelancing a pleasure? Maybe so, if you’ve cordoned off your own cozy corner of the castle you call home. Maybe so, if your designated workplace is calm and productive. Maybe so, if managing your environment is entirely up to you, and for awhile, it’s fabulous! But…
You may be yearning for a break, a change, a more populated alternative.
Enter the open, urban hangout – with its touch of college library merged with café culture. Here, you’ll find a spot to be productive, and a sense of belonging that often eludes those of us who go it alone.
The New York Times explores the growing phenomenon of “co-working” environments, especially attractive to freelancers and independents. They’re a far cry from a sterile rented space, or the crowded bar at your local Starbucks.
In “Working Alone, Together,” Alex Williams describes a number of these office substitutes, each with their own style, and weighing the pros and cons.
Play More, Work Better?
For some telecommuters and freelancers, the need to get up, get dressed and go – somewhere – provides necessary structure. For others, the urge to interact with people drives them to local coffee houses, with laptops and iPhones in hand.
We understand that we benefit from brainstorming and feedback when working with and around colleagues, customers, and even competitors – which doesn’t preclude accomplishing the same in our virtual spaces – but possibly with less connective glue. And without connection, we’re likely to feel lonely.
Reporting that more than 15 million workers are self-employed, the Times article explains that shared sites may be just what the doctor ordered, at least for those who struggle with working in isolation. Incidentally, these are more than cubicles with coffee and snacks; in the spirit of lightening up these co-working configurations, some offer dinners, events, and as Mr. Williams writes:
… some work spaces are playing up their party atmosphere. Link [Coworking] holds Mad Men-themed soirées… “People… are going back to the office to be around people again.”
Freelance Freedom or Electronic Cage?
Isolation? My freelance freedom doesn’t result in a sense of living in an “electronic cottage” or cage. I’m comfortable with silence, and discipline has never been a problem. I’ve also lived through years of office politics and jockeying for position, interruptions and run-on meetings, and the inevitable sources of friction you find in any human system.
With 20 years in the corporate trenches, naturally, I recognize the advantages of brainstorming over lunch, over a drink, or in the workout room provided by a progressive employer. And yes, I’ve been fortunate in having a few of those. But they were in younger days, which may be key for any number of reasons. Among them, when we’re single and childless, we’re less conflicted over 14-hour “campus” schedules, much less mixing work with play to produce our best outcomes.
As an independent, I’ve spent extended periods at clients’ sites – a complicated situation at times, as a single mother. Managing remote work on the other hand, which some might deem intensely isolating, I have found to be very pleasant. Essential communications are easily facilitated by Skype, email, and phone; nearly all hours are productive hours.
Can We Talk?
Where I wholeheartedly agree with observations in the Times is in the challenge of turning off the work day. When our load is demanding, when one task flows into another, when the entirety of a home transforms into an office, we’re in danger of never giving ourselves (or our families) a break.
Then again, our “do more with less” culture has been blurring boundaries for decades. In my corporate life, working late at the kitchen table was routine, once children were dispatched to bed. And isn’t it true for most of us that the ubiquitous presence of technology to connect us also worsens our ability to say “enough?”
In fact, our convenient communication tools may condemn us to more than obsessively checking email or glancing at our Google calendars. In “The Flight From Conversation” Times journalist Sherry Turkle acknowledges that we are now accustomed to being “alone together,” both generally and in the workplace. She writes:
Texting and e-mail and posting let us present the self we want to be. This means we can edit. And if we wish to, we can delete. Or retouch: the voice, the flesh, the face, the body. Not too much, not too little — just right.
For all the advantages this seems to provide, Ms. Turkle suggests we’re losing out:
Human relationships are rich; they’re messy and demanding. We have learned the habit of cleaning them up with technology… But it’s a process in which we shortchange ourselves.
Might we assume that if we’re too far removed from the face-to-face human stage, we’re degrading our ability to empathize? To read body language and counter effectively? To trust fully? To navigate tricky emotional spaces?
Striking a Balance
No doubt the goal is for each of us to strike a balance – family, work, fun (let’s not forget fun) all have their place, along with a measure of rest. That last can be a conundrum for many. It’s not merely a matter of priorities; parsing our personal and professional realms is not easily mastered.
To Ms. Turkle’s point, we also risk not honing a variety of skills that cannot be learned in a tidy technological tunnel.
For me, when writing, silence is the ideal companion, broken only by the sound of my fingers tapping on the keyboard. When consulting, that’s a different story. Even infrequent face-to-face communications are critical, whether they take place virtually or in person.
Still, as one who isn’t in a co-working environment, I feel the solitude intensely at moments. This is especially true since my children have all but flown the nest. So what helps?
- Ensuring that I schedule daily exercise, even if only 20 minutes
- Touching base with other independents / remote workers via online groups, phone, Facetime or Skype
- Getting out into the “world” and interacting with people — at the mall, the supermarket, the neighborhood bookstore
For those who suffer on Isolation Island, co-working spaces may furnish partial or periodic solutions. That said, for now, I’ll occasionally choose my local Barnes and Noble, feeling soothed as well as stimulated by the presence of books and my carry-cup of coffee.
Otherwise, my home office suits me perfectly. And I manage my own Mad Men theme, martini in hand, every Sunday night.
If you work remotely and don’t go in for co-working environments, how do you beat isolation? How do you set boundaries so you don’t work around the clock?
You May Also Enjoy
Jack says
I recently returned to “office life” and have been adjusting. After seven or so years of working remotely it has been refreshing and frustrating.
There are moments where I love being back among people and have found it stimulating, but some of the other challenges have been less…refreshing.
People paying attention to when and I come and go as opposed to my work and the interruptions that come with being inside have been quite the adjustment.
BigLittleWolf says
There are a whole lot of adjustments, true that. We talk such a good game about work product, but there’s still a tendency to judge by Time In Chair rather than output. We’ll be interested to know how it goes… And good luck, Jack!
annah elizabeth says
I love this option. Though I, too, prefer to work in silence, I do enjoy the occasional distraction of being with others… Not much better than people watching!
BigLittleWolf says
Glad to encounter someone else who is at ease with silence to work by, Annah Elizabeth.
Shelley says
Nope, I have not missed the office environment at all since retiring. I love quiet and solitude; if I want talk I meet someone for coffee or go to a craft group or something. (And I can always talk to my husband, who is also retired). I was always the one who wanted to push through my to do list, not the one always hanging out chatting. I looked forward to lunch breaks, but about half the time I was in the gym. There was only a short time when I had a ‘real’ office to myself with a window and a door; most of my offices were open plan or cubicles. Even universities are now doing open plan for their professors and lecturers (possibly to get them to all stay home to work?). I think it’s insane to give people a noisy environment and then expect them to produce careful, well considered output.
lunaboogie says
My career, which involves independent interactions with families in the community, also involves endless documentation and phone calls. 20 years ago I had a cubicle in an office where I had my own phone and reference materials. I was expected to go into the office at the beginning and end of every day to pick up and drop off work. There was something grounding about seeing my colleagues every morning and interacting with my team members. Meetings included coffee and muffins and lots of heated interaction. I have the same job today, but a laptop and smart phone replace my cubicle. I attend meetings via Webex and even though I have had this particular job for the past year, I have met only about 5% of my colleagues. I love the freedom, but miss the community. I have also noticed a difference in tone in the email exchanges with people I have never met in person.
I am on leave, right now, recovering from surgery. But I am working on some work related projects. Being able to do these at my own pace, in my home, with the garden outside the windows, and the sun streaming in is indeed a pleasure. This is how my creativity flows best – alone and with quiet and no interruptions.
Barbara says
It’s interesting to me that lately I’ve had a very busy, demanding social life – chatter, chatter, chatter, obligations, fun, on and on, family and friends and I can feel myself start to near implosion. I definitely prefer more solitude than crowds, office co-workers, employees, conversations….. I appreciate the latter in small quantities – but writing and solitude suit my spirit and tendencies.
teamgloria says
we found Office Life a bit difficult for our sensibility to be honest – and it’s a relief to mostly write from (bed, to be honest) home.
but did you know about the FAbulous Lynne Franks? http://www.bhive.co/
we interviewed her years ago and have kept in contact – her bhive feels like a great mid-way-solution.
*wavingfromLA*
_tgxxx
Leslie in Portland, Oregon says
My work requires a great deal of concentration, while I analyze complex issues (and the facts and rules related to them), formulate decisions on those issues, and articulate those decisions, and the rationale therefor, in long written documents. The confidential nature of my work precludes my discussing it with anyone but someone in the same profession or my staff (of which I have none). After working in an office environment (first as an employee, then as one of several freelancers) for decades, I have worked out of my home office for the last 8-9 years, and I love it! I relish the silence and the solitude, which is tempered at least once each workday by a walk in the neighborhood with my two dogs. For the most part, I can work continuously (i.e., with only the interruptions I choose). No time is wasted by meetings or office politics. For all these reasons, I am much more productive here. Do I feel lonely? No, because I have an active personal life with my family and in several communities. The one drawback to this arrangement is one you mention: putting work away at what should be the end of the work day. That drawback existed when I worked in an office environment, however, since it was so much easier to get work done there after regular working hours.
What is interesting to me is that my first “permanent” post-college job was all about being relentlessly outgoing, for long periods, in a noise-filled environment packed with people. I was a flight attendant, then purser, for an international airline (flying mainly 747’s) for eight years. And I loved it (and would have continued doing it but for the development of a severe allergic response to working in a smoke-filled environment for many hours at a time)! My wants and needs in a job must have been very different then!
Cecilia says
“I’m comfortable with silence, and discipline has never been a problem. I’ve also lived through years of office politics and jockeying for position, interruptions and run-on meetings, and the inevitable sources of friction you find in any human system.”
You said it. I don’t miss the office for those very reasons and while I did enjoy chatting and taking breaks, I was often frustrated by the Office Chatterbox who couldn’t catch a hint that I needed to get back to work. I enjoy and need quiet. Of course, I feel a bit better about my situation working from home because I’d put in 13ish years in an office environment. I wouldn’t recommend this to my son when he starts out one day – annoyances and frustrations aside, there is much that needs to be learned about group and work dynamics. As for me though, I feel I’ve paid my dues! 😉