Over the past year I was banished from cubicle-ville, where I more or less worked a 10 a.m to 6 p.m. shift five days a week as a print reporter. After my position evaporated, I spent the past year freelancing, looking for a "real" job, and finally launching a new career as a social media manager for a digital marketing agency. During this time I've come to appreciate five largely unspoken benefits to workshifting.

1. Safety in sickness. Earlier this month I felt miserable for three days. I ended up taking half a  Tuesday off and half a Thursday off. I was sick enough to have to take it easy, but not quite feeling so bad that I had to ignore work completely. What I really appreciated through this sick spell was that - and I'll admit this may sound a bit gross - the toilet was only 20 feet away, and the bed 15 feet. I could visit the bathroom 20 times and no one would notice, and I didn't have to worry that Joe from accounting was hogging the only stall. Then whenever I needed to rest for a little while, I didn't have to sneak outside, or try and relax in the company break room. I say this because the ability to toil away in the place I feel safer and more comfortable in than anywhere else in the world, allows me to be at least partly effective, instead of having to take the entire day off. In a traditional job, you either have to feel nearly fine, or go home. There's not a happy medium. You also have to be worried at work that others are watching, worried they might catch what you have. Had I been at my old post, chances are I would have had to take two or three days off, not so as a workshifter.


2. More windows. Because newspapers are traditionally old institutions, their buildings are often  drab, windowless structures located in cramped downtowns. In the winter it's too cold, and in the summer too hot. My home office is naturally located in a neighborhood I chose to live in, has lots of great windows, and on sunny days I can watch and hear ships slide in and out of the Duluth Minnesota port on Lake Superior. During the winter, I can light a fire in my fireplace and work in front of it. In the summer, I can open or close as many windows as I desire. In other words, the views and temperature controls of my office, are all in my control.  And parking's free!


3. Peer pressure nonexistent. While I have many friends, co-workers, clients and a boss scattered all over the globe, because they aren't sitting next to me I often find myself not spending as much time worrying about what others might say about my ideas. Obviously you always want to be very open to constructive criticism, but I feel much more freedom now, working solo, than I ever did when bosses and co-workers were always meandering about, reading what I was writing. Being physically alone allows me to feel freer to flex my own mental muscles more liberally.


4. Connected with others in ways that works better for me. One of my co-workers is in the Philippians. I'm working with a customer whose team is spread between the Silicon Valley and India. And many of my new colleagues and friends I've only met through Skype, blogs, e-mails and tweets. So while I work solo every day, I feel like I'm virtually surrounded by great people who are never more than a chat or tweet away, yet distant enough to not get irritating, or overbearing. I also have gained lots of input from forums like Third Tribe, with people who know exactly what I'm going through. Often because geography is no barrier, I meet more people whose thoughts and optimism about the world lines up with mine far more than I'd ever found locally.


5. Doesn't feel like work. There's something about working in the place you relax that helps make me feel like I'm not actually working. Most of the time I'm in my upstairs office, with my cats sleeping nearby. If I'm not there, a local Italian restaurant or coffee shop with WiFi, is where I can be found, meeting with clients. I don't worry about deciding what's for lunch. I hit the fridge when I'm hungry. I occasionally run an errand at 11 a.m., and do a couple of hours of work beginning at 11 p.m. I now work for myself, on what I want, when I want. And it feels pretty darn good.

What are some of the unspoken workshifting benefits you've never seen mentioned here?


Photo Credit: Stewf