The Other Side of Work

It’s time. Time to start writing about what it’s like over here on the other side. “’The other side of what?’ asked Alice.” The other side of work.

15 months ago, I left a corporate job of 18 years for the great unknown. Oh, I had a plan. Focus on my own writing. Loosen the marketing stranglehold on my art spirit. Continue constructing an off-grid house with my builder husband. Lean on him to bring in sufficient income to keep us going while the next thing reveals itself. My projections weren’t too far off. Our personal Plan for World Domination seems to be working. Most days.

Life, as they say, happens. Loss happens. Freak accidents happen. People dear to us are born, get sick, or age, and they need us. At some point, they die. And then we need each other even more. Employers do not grant us much grace when life happens. I was lucky—my former employer saw me through some tough times without kicking me to the curb. But it wasn’t altruism. I was a strong revenue generator, even in crisis. This past year, I have had to extend grace to myself as I balance family needs with my own agenda. It has been a different metric without the corporate onus of productivity driving my decisions. I feel for my friends, family, and colleagues constantly having to make choices between their work and the ones they love, between their work and their Work. I am horrified by the guilt people feel when they take a break, or a vacation, and by how familiar that feeling is in my body. I just learned a couple of people in my circle were laid off in reward for their long-time dedication and commitment. Now they are facing the unknown, and not by choice. The news sparked this note today. A few takeaways:

1.?????? Still employed? Keep building your LinkedIn network. Every time I considered leaving my job (strangely, such determination always coincided with the annual review process), I would hop on to my barely-fleshed-out profile and send out some connection requests. By the time I finally took the leap, I had well over 500 contacts. Two of them have brought me work this year. This is with minimal engagement and nothing like a strategy.

2.?????? I was fortunate to have already been working toward an alternative lifestyle prior to the pandemic, one lived according to the principles of Community, Adventure, and Service (homage to Chris and Jolie Guillebeau and my WDS co-conspirators for this language). Ask yourself, how would you spend your days if you could spend them any way you would like? What would you do? Where would you go? How might your new life serve to create the better world we know is possible? What single thing can you do today to get you closer to your dream? More on this in future notes.

3.?????? The pandemic revealed to many of us our chronic work-life imbalance. Now, our societal resolve is being worn away by the grind. Like the smog before the Himalayas, the blinders lifted briefly, only to settle again. But we can do this. We can do things a different way. Our lives and our loves depend upon it.

I’m no expert, but here to remind you: there is a good life on the other side of full-time employment. You can turn your current employment into an engine to drive you toward a different kind of existence, your kind. Shall we go together?