I am so proud to have Gemma Silvia from Yum Tree Foods write this great blog post for me.
I have now been out of full time office working 9 – 5 work for 5 years and I love this letter Gemma wrote to herself.
Make sure you check out http://www.yumtreefoods.com.au
I recently updated my CV and realised my work experience amounted to 20 years working in an office – yes 20 YEARS!!!
There’s been time off to have kids, there’s been a re-think of my skill set and a shift into a few different career paths, but ultimately, I’ve done it all in a 9-5 office job.
Working in an office gives stability: pay cheque, regular hours, comfort, friendships and relationships. It allowed someone else higher up the tree to be ultimately responsible for the direction of the company.
I was very settled in a comfortable job that matched my skill set and provided everything I thought I needed from work. Until things changed – in a fairly big way – the company closed down.
Now it’s time for me to shift into a totally different environment, to end my love affair with the corporate world and embrace CHANGE and FREEDOM!
I started an online subscription business…gulp, it’s a big step for my office dwelling self – it’s something my sister and I have dreamed of for a long time. Our company Yum Tree Foods is helping me to grow in more ways than I first thought…there are bonuses I hadn’t even been considered when giving the flick to the 9-5 desk job and no longer working in an office:
Freedom….freedom to change your direction; freedom to choose who you work with. A chance to re-brand yourself and re-establish your connections with a wider network. The opportunity for continued movement and development.
The idea of working in an office is one of tradition – so many of us were brought up believing working in an office was synonymous with hard work and success – yet for many people these days, there are very few reasons to have to go to an office, finally ‘working from home’ is being viewed as a valid and legitimate option.
For me personally, productivity actually improves when I’m working from home. Maybe this is because I can choose the space in which I want to work and how I would like that environment to feel; or maybe it’s because I know the quicker I get my work done, the more “me time” I can have (ok, so I probably spend it preparing dinner or hanging out the washing but there’s no end to other more interesting possibilities!!).
There’s no commute! Yes! No more hours sitting in traffic. That feeling of exhaustion before I even set foot inside the office is a thing of the past. If I need to attend a meeting, I can usually schedule it to make sure I miss the morning gridlock. Lesson: you don’t have to be stressed out sitting in your car just because it’s 8.30am to be ‘working hard’.
Time can be used more effectively – I can have breakfast without gulping it down, walk the kids to school, and really feel settled and grounded before sitting down to the tasks I have set for the day.
Don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone, to change the boundaries and to throw those traditional beliefs of “office = success” to the scrap heap.
I feel like a free bird – and have enjoyed the revelation “Hey, I can actually earn money and not be tied to my desk”. It’s a truly liberating experience.
The number one lesson to tell my office working self is that there are many more ways to work successfully. I don’t have to be attending an office everyday to be super productive, excited, engaged and…working!!!