My First Taste of Working from Home
By digiMa on Jun 24, 2009 in Careers
My first job out of college was truly horrible. On the surface it was what I wanted to do — writing. But though my title was “Technical Writer,” it should have been “Glorified Secretary” or perhaps “Trained Monkey,” because that’s what I really was.
Basically, I was doing technical “writing” (there was very little actual writing involved, mostly copy/pasting) for an out-of-state firm that had a contract in my city. They had been flying their people in every week and having them stay three nights or so at the Sleep Inn in the Denver Tech Center, but of course that was more expensive. By hiring local writers they saved a lot of money on travel expenses.
I never questioned why they were so quick to hire a liberal arts major straight out of college — I was too excited about the job. Well, it turned out the owner of the small company was kind of a jerk, and hired only young women fresh out of college with liberal arts degrees — a demographic that really had no expectations for high-paying jobs, and therefore would be relatively easy to control because they genuinely didn’t think they could find anything better.
The job sucked, to say the least. The boss was a complete control freak. But it did give me the experience that I needed to launch a career as a freelance writer — on paper, anyway, even if I know all I did was type what our boss transcribed, and then copied and pasted that into a new document. (And good heavens, his writing was atrocious!)
But it was here that I got my first taste of how nice it would be to work from home. One day I forgot a jump drive that contained work I had done from home. (This was before I was totally disillusioned with the job — when I was still motivated enough to work from home.) I had to drive back and get it. While I was gone, my boss called the office, and my co-workers lied for me and said I was in the bathroom and wasn’t feeling well.
When I finally got in, my boss called again and sent me home, thinking I was really sick. I felt rather bad about that, and took my work home with me again. (Like I said, this was when I was motivated…)
That day turned out to be a pretty good day. I took my laptop over to the cafe at Barnes & Noble and worked there for a while. It was my first experience in how nice it is to work from any location I please, rather than being stuck in the same boring office day after day.
I’ve been freelancing full-time for more than three years now, and I have to say I still love it now as much as I did then. And I’m once again motivated to put in the extra hours needed to get something done, which is a great feeling!
Edgar | Jul 9, 2009 | Reply
This blogger’s right. Working from home totally rocks! If you can land a gig like tech writing or editing that you can do from home, you’re really fortunate. You save a ton of money on gas, and you don’t have to get dressed up to work at home.
Sandra | Jul 9, 2009 | Reply
I like working at home, but in some ways it demands more discipline than working in an office. You have to be sure to maintain a steady output and it’s pretty easy to get distracted with housework or a phone call from a friend, or just surfing the Net.
Tom H. | Jul 9, 2009 | Reply
Technical writing really should be done at home, where it’s quiet and you have a minimum of distractions. The only time I ever go to the office is for meetings, and then I get the heck out.
Clark | Jul 9, 2009 | Reply
This blogger’s post points out one big problem with being a tech writer. If your boss is a jerk, he or she may not understand how valuable you are to the company and won’t appreciate what you do enough to pay you well or give you raises.
Monk M. | Jul 9, 2009 | Reply
One of the best investments I ever made as a tech writer was a laptop with a wireless card. Having that little beauty lets me work anywhere there’s wireless access. I’ve done some of my best work at Starbuck’s. Of course now I’m a total java junkie, but oh, well.
Theodore | Jul 9, 2009 | Reply
Interesting blog. I predict that in the future, a lot more jobs will allow people to work from home because it lets companies have smaller, less expensive offices and less infrastructure. Telecommuting is on the cutting edge of modern business.
Angela | Jul 9, 2009 | Reply
Having a bad boss can make any job lousy. That’s just one more motivation to work at home, to get away from a rotten boss and poisonous office politics. I love freelancing from home. I never want to work in an office again.