Freelance fringe benefits

Hi Sarah,

Being outside the mesh of office politics and status games.

Also, sitting in the garden with a cup of tea and toast and saying hello to the robin. :)

Best
John
Freelance Coach

Steamed broccoli, Maxwell House & traffic

Some trivial, granted, but important to me nonetheless:

My own mug; not a chipped, cracked, promo mug donated by the printers 10 years ago. Properly washed up rather than merely on nodding terms with the cheapest stuff from the Cash n Carry.

Decent tea and coffee. Maxwell House. Bleugh.

Breakfast at my desk; something a bit more civilised about checking emails over breakfast rather than juggling toast and the steering wheel.

Commute traffic. Also therefore not being late for work. I still don't quite understand why it mattered if I arrived at 9.04 but then didn't finish until 6.45. Somehow it did though.

No politics.

Internal meetings. Extension of the above. Fair bit of posturing/jockeying for position. Not very much getting things done.

No Christmas parties. Initially these were fun. Then there was the frock competition. Which meant some women only ate steamed broccoli for lunch from October (serious!). That sort of took the fun out of it.

Some good points so far - laughing at several of Rizzo's suggestions! Certainly agree with the comments about avoiding politics. Some additions from my point of view:

I get to decide how jobs are filed on the mac! No longer do I have to conform to some long winded and counter-intuitive system.

I'm now in to accept those important deliveries from Amazon etc and don't have to go to the post office depot the following morning to collect them.

If I have to work overtime it's because I'm earning cash or it's my own bad time management - I'm not putting in endless extra hours for no reward simply because someone else has been disorganised or has agreed to an impossible deadline.

I have control of the radio - I don't have to listen to someone else's questionable taste in music. If I want to have the TV on in the background with 'To Buy or Not to Buy' or 'Diagnosis Murder' on it's up to me!

I don't need to have my hand hovering over the mouse ready to hide my browser window if the boss appears whilst I'm watching the live Champions League draw over the internet.

The dress code is whatever I feel like wearing.

The building isn't freezing cold in winter and boiling hot in summer - I control the thermostat and there's nobody to nick the fan.

My pens don't all mysteriously go missing off my desk.

I don't have to either spend a fortune on buying lunch in town or decide what I want to eat when making butties the night before (was never up early enough to do them before leaving for work).

I get to see much more of my eight month old daughter than I would if I were leaving for work early in the morning and not getting back until close to or after her bed time.

Dave

Ah the pens, the disappearing pens.

What we need is PensReunited.com.

:D

Many of these are making me laugh. I can still never find a pen but the one about hiding what you're up to on the computer screen is a good one. At one time I was probably the fastest internet window minimiser in the West. I bet my skills have faded a bit now!

Sarah

Great question! Loved all of Rizzo's comments 🙂 Here are a few from me . . .

More holidays - this sounds really bad and like I'm not really focusing on work, but the joy of being a freelance writer is that I can do it anywhere! So what if I have to take two hours away from the pool to go to my hotel room and write a press release? It's worth it!

Taking my son to school - and picking him up! I'd say 'going to assemblies' as well but they don't seem to have them any more . . .

Not sitting on the M1 and M25 for half my day.

Being able to make tea 'just for me'. I always used to keep out of the office 'tea club' - I made my own when I wanted one, and was happy if they didn't make me one when each person went to do their 'trayful of the day' - but somehow I was still branded anti-social!

Definitely being at home for the parcels - the only slight downside is that I end up with everyone else's from the cul-de-sac as well!

Being a 'lady who lunches' on occasion. I think I'm a long way off being a full time one, but it's nice to pretend once in a while!

Being able to actually get on with the job in hand, especially on a Monday morning - not having to spend an hour or more chatting about 'what I did at the weekend' for fear of being told I'm anti-social - again!! I think you don't realise just now much time employees waste until you get paid by the hour as a freelancer :)

Being able to skive for a couple of hours here and there, but telling all your clients that you're in a meeting with another client - even though you're actually getting your hair done, or having one of those lunches!

The holidays and being able to spend more time with my son are still top of my list though . . . 😃

fringe benefits

i love.. not knowing what I am doing next week; no monthly meetings, no appraisals, no buffets with wilted lettuce and chicken a la salmonella