Hybrid life
I've been thinking recently about my working pattern, partly inspired by a recent conversation with friends, and partly due to too much time spent on hot trains while crawling past bits of East London.
I'm lucky enough (and believe me, I know I am *very* lucky) to live in a place and time where I can earn a living very much at my own pace. Over the last few years I've worked as a software engineer, circus performer and tutor, set up a business or three, run a small festival, renovated one house and started on another, grown things and helped raise two children. None of this may sound particularly unusual, except for the fact I've generally been able to choose when and how to do it all - if someone calls me and asks me to teach a bunch of kids to juggle at 3pm on a Tuesday I can often accomodate them, and if I need to pop out and do some weeding in the allotment on a Friday afternoon this usually isn't a problem.
This is all possible due to working from home for a business I part-own. This hasn't always been an easy thing to do: it takes iron self-discipline to avoid the myriad distractions available and to focus on the V.A.T. return for example. Not everyone can manage to be their own boss (funnily enough, in this situation your boss can still be an idiot, it's just more pointless moaning about it). In our industry (I mean software) it really doesn't matter where you're located, given a phone and a broadband connection. It matters that things get done, in a timescale that your customers (or the Revenoo) demand. So far we appear to be getting away with it.
The downside is there's no safety net: I don't have a pension, health insurance or a company car (actually I'd prefer a bike). If the market for what we do dries up for some reason (or we're just not very good at finding it) we won't get retrained or reassigned to another part of the business. I'm also currently the sole wage earner at home - we're careful with money here though, it's not in our nature to be profiglate and there's a quiet satisfaction to be gained from re-using things, second-hand bargains, DIY and growing your own veg. I can't currently conceive of actually retiring - perhaps that will change - I'm already able to do the things some people look forward to on their retirement.
Perhaps it's a lack of ambition, but I've never wanted the traditional trappings of success either. People I know who have expensive cars, huge houses filled with gadgets and flash clothes seem to have to work increasingly harder and longer to sustain that lifestyle, which seems rather pointless. Give me a pile of unread books, a good Scotch and a comfy chair against your 45 inch plasma telly, X-box and surround sound system any day, and I bet I worry less about backing my ancient rusty Astra into a bollard.
According to this new government we didn't actually elect, it's time for Austerity, General Tightening of Belts and Living Within Our Means (I'm not sure anyone's told the banking industry though).
I think we'll just carry on here as usual.
I'm lucky enough (and believe me, I know I am *very* lucky) to live in a place and time where I can earn a living very much at my own pace. Over the last few years I've worked as a software engineer, circus performer and tutor, set up a business or three, run a small festival, renovated one house and started on another, grown things and helped raise two children. None of this may sound particularly unusual, except for the fact I've generally been able to choose when and how to do it all - if someone calls me and asks me to teach a bunch of kids to juggle at 3pm on a Tuesday I can often accomodate them, and if I need to pop out and do some weeding in the allotment on a Friday afternoon this usually isn't a problem.
This is all possible due to working from home for a business I part-own. This hasn't always been an easy thing to do: it takes iron self-discipline to avoid the myriad distractions available and to focus on the V.A.T. return for example. Not everyone can manage to be their own boss (funnily enough, in this situation your boss can still be an idiot, it's just more pointless moaning about it). In our industry (I mean software) it really doesn't matter where you're located, given a phone and a broadband connection. It matters that things get done, in a timescale that your customers (or the Revenoo) demand. So far we appear to be getting away with it.
The downside is there's no safety net: I don't have a pension, health insurance or a company car (actually I'd prefer a bike). If the market for what we do dries up for some reason (or we're just not very good at finding it) we won't get retrained or reassigned to another part of the business. I'm also currently the sole wage earner at home - we're careful with money here though, it's not in our nature to be profiglate and there's a quiet satisfaction to be gained from re-using things, second-hand bargains, DIY and growing your own veg. I can't currently conceive of actually retiring - perhaps that will change - I'm already able to do the things some people look forward to on their retirement.
Perhaps it's a lack of ambition, but I've never wanted the traditional trappings of success either. People I know who have expensive cars, huge houses filled with gadgets and flash clothes seem to have to work increasingly harder and longer to sustain that lifestyle, which seems rather pointless. Give me a pile of unread books, a good Scotch and a comfy chair against your 45 inch plasma telly, X-box and surround sound system any day, and I bet I worry less about backing my ancient rusty Astra into a bollard.
According to this new government we didn't actually elect, it's time for Austerity, General Tightening of Belts and Living Within Our Means (I'm not sure anyone's told the banking industry though).
I think we'll just carry on here as usual.