It’s not that I don’t like working in a large office with friendly coworkers. Especially one as historic and lovely as my former agency in the beautiful downtown Stockholm district of Östermalm, or one that has a view of Boston’s skyline, or that is a just few miles from the beach where coworkers meet once a week for a friendly game of beach volleyball, as at my first agency job in South Florida.
But there is something to be said for being the master of your own time. For logging on when you’re most awake and working until the wee hours if that’s when your brain fires on all cylinders,
Well, there’s that, and then there’s the economies-of-not-commuting. Not spending upwards of two hours a day commuting to and from the suburbs to Boston every day has definite time management, as well as carbon footprint, advantages. That’s mainly how I Ianded in my current position of part-time consultant, freelancer, and independent company owner. It sprung from the desire to balance my home and work life, work on projects that excite me, and make use of technology to stay connected to colleagues across the pond.
A new way of working
So when a former boss approached me about launching a new company with distributed work teams, I was more than eager to join. After all, I’ve been working that way for nearly six years. But now UP* is different. There will be a team of us. A group of former colleagues and trusted professionals working together as a single organization. I liked that idea. And it fits right into my passion for the intersection between marketing creativity and online connectivity.
All about the web
The other best thing about UP*, and working in a modern internet-connected way, is that it lets me focus on doing those things I am best at. Writing blogs, preparing web site copy, evangelizing SEO, and managing social media strategies. When your job is all about current technologies that keep companies connected, it’s easy if you’ve walked in those shoes.
So while my view out the window might not be as nice as when I was in Sweden, or Florida, (I look out on the neighbor’s tarp-covered boat and snow-covered pool at the moment), I like that I can change that easily by taking my connected office anywhere in the world I want to go.
My office view now.
My view then (from apartment).