The Future Of Work?

Working from home, in your own time, cocooned from the intrigues of office politics — it sounds too good to be true, right? But more and more workers are doing just that.

The workplace is being re-defined as parents — particularly mothers — refuse to compete in the soul-zapping, inflexible merry-go-round of corporate life. They’re starting up businesses, working out of bedrooms and harnessing technology in the quest to achieve that Holy Grail of modern living, a work/life balance.

All the rage in corporate HR policies, work/life balance is supposedly about helping employees stay healthy and happy. But rarely do these policies supply anything more than free fruit in the office kitchen and subsidised yoga.

For marketing manager Katrina Flynn, it was at the point of having her second child and being struck down with an illness when she realised that she couldn’t keep up her high-stress job with a large media organisation for much longer. “I was at the point of exhaustion and couldn’t go on. I needed to look for something more flexible. “

In a stroke of “serendipity”, Flynn remembered an article she’d cut out of a newspaper years before about a company called Marketing Angels. Back then she’d vowed to work for them one day, and now she does just that, contracted as a consultant for the business.

Marketing Angels provides high-level marketing support and direction to small businesses who normally don’t have the budget to employ their own marketing directors. Instead, they call on one of the Marketing Angels — typically women like Flynn, some with children, who have stepped out of senior corporate roles in a quest for more autonomy and flexibility. Company founder Michelle Gamble has been there herself. She was out of a job after the joint venture she was working for was sold off during the dot.com bust seven years ago.

She saw a gap in the market, and together with a friend, who was also stepping down from a challenging corporate role, started the company in a spare bedroom at home.

She now has offices all over Australia and manages a network of over 20 Angels, who manage their own time and work as much or as little as they like. “I may not see some of my consultants for up to a month at a time, they can work from home, they can come into the office, they can work wherever they like,” says Gamble.

“It’s a bit like a real estate environment where everyone is the master of their own destiny.”

The concept of trusting staff to go about their jobs their own way is radical to most businesses. I ask Gamble how she ensures the quality of her consultant’s work.

“They’re all living and dying by their own swords so quality is not an issue”, she claims. “That’s never been a problem. It’s also about the calibre of staff you hire. Successful people are going to be successful regardless of business structure. It’s part of who they are as a person.”

It is an attitude slowly taking hold among employers, who can make great cost savings by allowing their workers to work remotely. The movement is being called “open work”.

Today nearly 19,000 employees of giant tech company Sun Microsystems (56% of the workforce) work from home or in a flexible office. The company has made huge savings on real estate, technology and energy consumption.

Open work is an issue web design firm owner and blogger Téa Brennan is passionate about. Her company Linkartist was built with “a PC, zero capital, and a little bit of luck.” She was inspired by Jeremy Rifkin’s The End Of Work, “written in 1995 before any of this online freelance stuff was a reality.”

“In many respects, I am at the forefront of a massive restructuring of the way people work,” says Brennan. She believes that in some ways, working from home is a feminist statement.

“I really do believe that in many respects, a new feminism is aided because we have actually opted out of the patriarchal work force.”

Perhaps women are giving the finger to employers who refuse to become family-friendly. At Brennan’s old job, in government policy, she was “getting in at 7:30, leaving at 3:30…. so doing my 8 hours, but because those that wandered in at 9:30 were resentful that I was leaving “early”, it just got too much for me.”

I put the question to Gamble — does big business discriminate against women with children? She is reluctant to say that companies to avoid hiring women “of childbearing age”, although acknowledges that it does go on. Instead, women often self-elect to not play the game. “I think it’s the nature of the environment,” she says. “In the corporate world there’s no flexibility, there’s an expectation you fit in with everyone else. You fit your family around work, not the other way around. I don’t think they’ve cracked how to work with the demands that women and their growing families have.”

Although Marketing Angels employ one male angel in Queensland, Gamble claims that the business model at the moment attracts more women than men. “Women are probably seeking more flexibility than men. Often because they have another partner bringing in income, they may not be the main breadwinner. But that being said we do have some angels who are the breadwinner.”

The benefits to a flexible work environment are plenty. “I used to spend 2 hours a day commuting! What waste of life,” says Flynn. “Working for a corporate you feel like you have to compete with other people… Here your clients appreciate you and you can work without having to deal with the politics. “

“That really reduces stress levels, I find that even though I’m working really hard, I’m less stressed because I don’t have to deal with that whole other swathe of stuff that comes with big corporates.”

Brennan agrees. “I get these awesome little distractions. Whilst I am working, I also get to explain to my son why the 10c piece he found isn’t chocolate inside. They frustrate me, but are at the heart of why I choose to work from home. I want to quit. Often. But when I think of the alternative, of commuting, daycare, and having to put up with other people, it’s hard.”

Of course, as Brennan has alluded to, it’s not all beer and skittles.

“I think there are a lot of people who idealise working from home as a way to
work in their PJs”, she laughs. “People go in with an unrealistic sense of the commitment that it involves, and it is also why so many of them quit early on. The same rules apply to a home business that apply to any other business — the first 5 years are
really, really tough.”

Then there’s the workload. “There’s the expectation you can work 3 days a week,” says Flynn. “[But] the price you pay for working for yourself, or not working corporate, is that it is almost 7 days a week, which is difficult because there is no mental day off.”

For parents who work from home, an added challenge is juggling the needs of the business with quality time with their children. Some work-at home parents have admitted to putting their kids in front of the TV for hours a day.

“The biggest challenge for any working mother is focusing on your child when you’re with them,” claims Flynn.

“I had this situation last week where I was having a fraught phone conversation with a client from home, at the same time I had my two children in the room, who ended up stripping naked. And of course they found the textas I had put away and they’re scribbling all over eachother. I got off the phone and the little one had peed on the carpet. It can be stressful.”

All women iterate that managing a flexible, self-employed work life requires compromise, balance, and support.

“I like that saying that you can have it all, but you can’t have it all at once”, says Gamble. “Be clear on what you are going to have to give up. For instance I don’t have any time to myself. Just because it’s your own business and you can choose how you want to work, you still have to work really hard.”

For Brennan, setting boundaries and learning how to say no is key. “When I first started out, I was so surprised about getting any paid work that I would just take anything, but now, I actually turn down projects that don’t fit with where I want to be or, I quote them a bit higher than I normally would to pay for the hassle. I make it clear with my clients that I prefer email and that I work around other clients, kids and business duties.”

She also recommends setting aside separate room in the house to work in, because “work can very easily dominate your home space.”

Flynn finds balance by working from home one day a week. That way, “I can put the dinner on early, the kids get fed on time, put the washing on, so you don’t have to spend the time with them doing the washing.”

The Marketing Angels model is attractive to some women as rather than acting as sole traders chasing their own clients, they have the support of an umbrella organisation as well as access to office space, meeting rooms and marketing resources.

“I love it,” says Flynn. “One of the best things about working with other women who are all at that the same life stage is that we have these conversations in the morning about who didn’t get any sleep last night and such and such. Everyone understands and is very supportive, but at the same time they’re very intelligent.”

And for women who are taking on the challenge of working for themselves, partner support is imperative. Gamble’s husband sold his business and now works part-time, while Brennan’s husband works spread shifts, so can come home and help with the kids for a couple of hours during the day.

Gamble recommends women communicate with partners and families so they’re not doing it all. “I know a lot of mothers who work and are still doing everything else,” she says. “Be realistic about what you can achieve while you have children.”