Working at home can mean little holiday vacation time | Dec 16th 2006
There are a number of contradictions which are an inherent part of being self-employed that I definitely did not foresee when I struck out on my own four years ago.
One huge contradiction of going solo is the standard 9-5 schedule, which I found so stifling when I worked as a full-time employee for someone else, actually lends itself more to work/life balance than owning a business. That’s because the delineation of work time versus personal time is so clear.
When you work for yourself and/or from home, consistent time off in the form of weekends, holidays and vacations is often just a happy memory. I’ve learned that the hard way this year.
Most ad agencies shut down during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Last year I was a full-time remote employee at an agency in Manhattan and I got the entire week off with full pay. It was wonderful. I couldn’t work even if I wanted to because no one was around.
This year, however, is much different. I would love to take the last week of the year off, but the reality is that I have way too much to do to enjoy the luxury of five full days of time off. And while I’m thankful for the success of my business, I’m also in need of a good long break.
If I bite the bullet and work the week of the 25th, then I will have gone an entire year without taking any vacation at all (unless you count the 5 day weekend I took in July when my whole family, including myself, was sick with a horrible cold).
December is my last chance to have a “real” vacation and even though it means it will be a short month in terms of how much money I make, I still want to do it. I really, really want to. Unfortunately and fortunately, last week I got a call from one of my big agency clients offering me a very large project for a very high-profile advertiser doing a specific type of marketing that I love to do.
Project is suitable
I’ve been trying to get the agency to give me precisely this type of project since June and to turn it away could mean closing a door that may not open again. The catch? The project will require me to work Christmas week mainly because everyone else at the agency will be off drinking egg nog and shunning their computers.
Ah the irony of self-employment. I finally got the big account I’d been waiting for, but at the expense of my much-anticipated week off in December.
But don’t pity me yet. I’ve still got my flexibility card left to play. I can take a couple of days off to enjoy the holidays and then plan a week off in February (about the time I will get my first paycheck for slaving away the entire month of December).
I think working for yourself provides a lot of “careful what you wish for” scenarios. I have flexibility and freedom on one hand, but at the end of the month if my billable hours don’t amount to much and then I may end up broke.
Likewise, I can line my client roster with four, five or six big projects only to find that I’m swimming in cash (for the short term), but running myself ragged to the point where weekends and holidays are a distant dream. At least I can look forward to a week off in February (or can I?)
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This article was published in the Poughkeepsie Journal on December 16, 2006.