A New Wrinkle in the Wacky World of Freelance

The interweb is always quick to jump on new trends.  Freelancing isn’t new, but record layoffs of even top talent are freeing those previously shackled to their desks. For the first time in their working lives, people are being are allowed some stigma-free entrepreneurial wing-spreading. Companies still have goals to hit yet are hobbled by hiring freezes. The answer? Freelancers. No longer in “quotation marks,” freelancing, consulting – call it what you will – is flexible, lucrative and reinvigorated. Some freelance as a bridge to keep their skills sharp and rent paid until they find a full-time gig, while others never look back.

But a new, not oft discussed wrinkle has developed. All too quickly the thrill of conference calls in PJs wears off and the reality of no available seats at Starbucks sets in. While occasionally working from home had always been refreshing, many find working from home exclusively to be, well, claustrophobic, distracting, and isolating. To all you ecstatically happy work-from-homers, please don’t send me your angry comments, not everyone can zone out the dishes and play station the way you can. You guys rock. I mean that. Now stop reading this and get back to work.

For the rest of us, years of getting up, getting dressed and getting the hell out of the house have worn familiar neural pathways in our collective brains. We’ve been conditioned to leave the premises, battle the elements all the way to our desks, boot up the computer - coffee in hand - and get crackin’. Synapses spark, answers fly, work gets done. Amen. Waking up already at our destination circumvents the adrenaline-pumping portion of the morning. Add in the fact that there’s no one to complain to about the Yankees and, needless to say, motivation wanes.

What to do?

 There are a few options for those who’d like an office, yet have no office.

a. Companies are getting wise to this. FedEx now has FedEx Office [fedex.com] with workstations you can rent as needed, by the hour. Another plus is you can print your presentations and that killer shot of your friend in full drool mode in rich, glorious color. Score.


b. Rent a space from a company that specializes in short-term NYC office space like Micro Office. [microoffice.com] Affordable, deductible -  by this I mean ask your accountant - and not a stray sock in sight.


c. Find a local business who will rent you an empty desk. A bit more challenging but certainly doable if your job involves tapping on your laptop and no loud drums or random gore. No shortage of empty desks.

So there you have it. A counter-intuitive conundrum identified, explained and dare I say solved by your intrepid roving freelancer. Next we tackle finding coffee that’s disgusting enough to truly be called …office coffee.