Is it Unprofessional to Write Anywhere But in an Office?
September 12, 2007 by Deb
Filed under Freelance Writing
Yesterday, I showed you my humble little work space. In the discussion that followed, “Writing for Dollars” left the following comment:
“A topic we discuss over and over again is how we are sick of being offered jobs for pennies and how we want to be taken seriously.
“Then we start a thread with people saying they work on a TV tray or at the kitchen table, on the sofa, etc. This does not sound professional at all and if potential clients want to hire a professional, even though you and I know we can write anywhere and under just about any circumstances, it does not appear very professional to be working in anything other than an office in your home, set up specifically for that.
“So, my feeling is that if we are requesting clients to take us seriously and pay us as professionals, we need to at least keep up that image and work in what is perceived to be a professional environment.
“Just as in advertising…it’s always the “packaging” that sells. You must “package” yourself as a professional if you are to be treated and paid as one.”
I so beg to differ…
I started working from home five years ago in a corner of my bedroom. That didn’t work out too well, and I began writing from a laptop on my kitchen table and then a corner of the dining room. While I finally scored an office a few weeks ago, I still believe writers can work anywhere – and still be considered professionals.
My laptop travels to the playground, the back deck, the library, the coffee shop and more. In fact, my laptop will be traveling with me to its first soccer game this weekend. How does this make me unprofessional? I feel it makes me more professional as it allows me the flexibility to complete my tasks despite my duties as a wife, homemaker and soccer mom.
When I worked in the city, I used the hour long commute each day to and from
I have a very successful freelance writing/blogging business. It is such that I don’t need to go back to an office job, and my husband and I are able to pay the bills, work on our home and save money at the same time.
I’m rather offended by the statement that we’re not professionals without a dedicated office. B.S. wages for writers have nothing to with where I work or what I wear. They have to do with all of the writers driving down the rates by accepting these wages. Moreover, with no motivation outside of the $2.50 many are being paid for an 800 worder, many of the writers accepting these jobs tend to flake, or hand in hastily written, poorly researched work. Thus, it’s unprofessional writers making us look bad, not TV trays.
In five years I’ve had hundreds of clients. In that time, not one has asked me where I worked. If it did come up, it was never an issue. I don’t need hardwood floors and a big old globe to convince people I’m a professional. My work, and my work ethic, speaks for itself.
Phil,
Thanks for your input. You stated the point I was trying to make. It isn’t just the “office” but the entire “package” of how you present yourself.
I think there’s nothing else to be said. Just like what Deb is saying, we all do understand what you’re trying to imply, we just don’t agree.
It’s VERY easy lying over the internet. I can tell a client I wear a three piece suit to work in a home office but then I’d want to cut off my own fingers for lying. That is, unless of course, the client lives nearby and would like to meet in person.
Thing is, if potential clients don’t see our workplace, it can’t be their basis of gauging our professionalism. It’s not our offices — it’s the way we handle transactions. The way we write and format our query letters and resume. The way we submit projects before deadline. And most of all, our dedication to maintaining a certain level of quality in our work.
Based on HOW we work, the clients will have their own visualization of our work ethics. What I’m saying is, I can write in a pajama all day if I want to, but if I project the image of a professional, it doesn’t matter even if I work perched on top of a toilet bowl — the client will never know. And they are free to imagine, of course, that I wear a three piece suit to work inside an oak-paneled, sound-proof office inside my house — only, it’s not true. But, so what? Just like what you said, it’s the PROJECTED image that matters, not the real deal.
“I don’t need hardwood floors and a big old globe to convince people I’m a professional.”
I have hardwood floors and a big old globe. Dang it, I want more money.
I WANT hardwood floors and a big old globe. Throw in a big oak desk too.
I have an office, but really, unless I tell my clients otherwise, they have no idea where I’m working (or when or that I’m in my pajamas).
But I know writers who have a lovely office area but use the family phone (or worse, the family answering machine) or have cute email names or use a family email address. In other words, they don’t present themselves in a professional manner.
I guess I’m agreeing with what Mariella said above (although I do have hardwood floors, but the globe would only take up space I need to spread around my paperwork).
What an office looks like is subjective. In my last “real” (for want of a better word) job, I would have killed for the amount of space of Deb’s new office area. I worked with people who had so little space in their cubes that they’d work at the conference room table (kind of like the dining room table, huh).
Once I was working on my back porch on a beautiful summer day when an editor called. I told her I wasn’t in my office at the moment. She said, “If it is as beautiful there as it is here, I hope you’re able to be working outside.” Editors know . . .
I have a laptop that I am bringing with me when I move to Hawaii on Saturday, so my office will be a Presario laptop on my lap for five hours during the flight. Does that mean my writing quality will be unprofessional? Hell no! When I get to my new apartment, I will have a large bedroom with a very nice computer desk/chair waiting for me.
Will that make my writing more professional? No way! It’s the words that I will be writing that will determine the professionalism- not the work environment.
And just to keep everybody updated, I have still NOT been paid by LCP publications, nor have they contacted me since I wrote them two professional articles. Never send LCP any articles without at least half of the $50 payment sent to your Paypal account by these people first.
Rob, I think you better read the LCP thread about their paying through PayPal.
There’s a stereotype of professionalism and there are those who believe that anything outside that stereotype is counterproductive – until you prove them wrong.
Yes, we freelancers know that it’s possible to get your work done anywhere. We know that creativity rarely flourishes in an office wearing a suit. But, our clients don’t always know, believe, or trust that. It’s just not something they’re used to seeing. Whether it’s right or fair really doesn’t matter. What matters is our ability to continue to get writing jobs and work in the environment that’s most convenient and effective for us.
I won’t change the way I work to change clients’ perception of me. If my professionalism or work quality is ever called into question because of my work environment, I’ll just point to my portfolio. If questions remain, that person can go hire another writer.
I agree with Deb, Latoya, and all the others who have said similar things.
I have posted on my blog many times about where I work. I have posted pictures of both my office and my porch, and I have discussed the fact that I work better when I can change the scenery periodically. Heck, I once even dedicated an entire post to my new desk chair!
Like Latoya, I think my website and portfolio contains the means to convince any doubting client that I am a professional. And also like Latoya, if they still aren’t convinced — well, that’s probably not the type of person (or company) I wanted to work with, anyway.
By the way, Tamara –
It sounds like Canada is more flexible with the home office deduction than the United States. Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me very much. Lucky you.
Pam says:
“If a client asks you what you are wearing today or where you are in the home, I would start to worry about the client.”
I agree. That would be creepy. Particularly if they want to know what I’m wearing.
Okay, I think we ALL agree on one thing — we want more money for our hard work!!!!!!
I think that’s one of the conclusions we can come up with
Great debate! I think it’s true that some places will think less of us for where we work, but that’s ok. There are plenty of well-paying clients who couldn’t care less. I work on my living room couch in my PJs most of the time. I’m more comfortable, and therefore more productive. I have an office, but I hate working there!
Let the old-school folks sit behind their huge ancient-forest derived desks and look down their noses at us. The telecommuting employee (in or out of their PJs) is where things are headed and I applaud everyone here who refuses to give in to the notion that a business suit makes for a better employee! This is how change happens.
Definitely. I think we could take it a step further, though, and say that we would all like to see rates in general go up, rather than just our own.
By the way — many of my posts this morning were from the porch. You wouldn’t have guessed, though, so who cares?
Today is typical of autumn in Colordao — perfect crisp air with lots of sun. My favorite!
Interesting debate. I can see both sides of it.
If I worked in a field where a client had to come into my office/home, I’d make sure I had a suitable office to invite him into. Although I have a small workspace carved out of one side of my bedroom, I am more often found working on my (unmade) bed with my laptop. Would I invite a client in to my current working arrangement? Absolutely not. I’d be mortified. But working as I do, strictly by telecommuting, I don’t see my work environment as an issue.
However, coming from a background of working in a very corporate high-end suit-and-tie-or-you-die environment, I can also see the point Writing for Dollars is trying to make. If I was doing freelance work for my former employer, and they came across a picture on my site of me working in my pajamas on my unmade bed, it would certainly be a turn-off. Would they fire me over it? Probably not. But if they were just considering me for the job, I’m thinking they’d give me a pass based on that.
Although I do a lot of corporate writing work, I don’t share a corporate mindset. I don’t care much what people think of me, and if they think less of me for who I am or how/where I work, then that’s not really the type of person I want to work for. Still, I can see how others might feel differently. I think it’s all a matter of perception and personality.
Angela, I think you’ve whittled this argument down well.
This may be off-topic, and I apologise, but what’s been said here has me thinking more about how we have embarked on an age of ‘presumed annonymity.’
Blogs and facebook and the like, their ready accessibility, have made it very easy for potential employers to google-and-choose. While I have no desire to work for the high-end corporate world again, I do consider carefully what I put my last name on whilst commenting on the Internet. My blog, though, is rather personal, but always told in a creative non-fiction voice. Thus, it is a true representation of who I am.
In this way, I am always concerned about image. It seems most of us are to some extent, but some of us are more comfortable with the hominess of honesty than others. I applaud them for that.
Some writers I know have several ‘representations’ of themselves out there: a blog for the personal observations; a professional CV-based site; and perhaps another with more career-based information.
It will be interesting to see how the world (and work world) adjusts to this ‘open book’ tendency, especially as the younger generations have no qualms about putting it all out there for the world to see.
Amen, I consider myself a professional and I share a computer, still use a pen and paper and don’t even have a laptop (yet, I hope to afford on soon) I am a darn good writer and my work proves that, not my work space!
That letter is probably the pettiest, most ridiculous thing Ive ever read, lol. Writers are artists, artists are tempermental and they need a space that will bring out the creative juices. Everyone knows that, lol.
When I worked as an editorial assistant, I worked with someone who was in a position to hire lots of freelancers. I was envious of the freelancers in their hip, casual clothes, while I walked around in my suits and heels. I was also envious of their ability to make their own hours and work where they wanted. Most traveled with laptops.
If they needed to take a meeting, they would come to our offices. It’s very rare the client would travel to visit them.
I guess my point is this: The owners and editors of a large NYC publishing firm were aware that freelancers didn’t work in traditional offices or dress in traditional business clothing, but this was never an issue.
Deb, I had that same feeling while I was the content editor with an educational publishing company.
I thought it was cool that freelancers could make money and not have to sit in those hour long daily meetings about nothing. When the senior editor mentioned how much freelancers made I said “How do I get that job?!” Needless to say, my senior editor did not look amused.
Less than six months later I was freelancing full-time, praying it would work for me. I had already tried teaching math, then I tried editing math. I hated both. I was hoping that writing math would pay the bills and not drive me crazy. So far so good!
Then another conclusion we can come up with, I think, is that we, freelancers, are very “cool”
Of course we are
I personally do not think that a designated office space necessarily makes any freelancer’s work more professional than the rest. The office may make a freelancer look and seem more professional as a person, but I know there are many freelance bloggers and journalists out there that deliver higher-quality work without offices.
I’m in a classic ‘on the fence’ position on the issue when it applies to me personally. On the one hand, I’m a sucker for lying in bed or sitting outside to complete my work, however there are also times when I feel I get the best work done when I’m sitting in my family’s office in front of a desktop computer.
I guess it really does depend on the freelancer’s attitude and personal preference when it comes to where they work. Be it the local coffee shop or the spotless office space, as long as the work is top-notch, the employers are happy.
I give you kudos for working from home. I’ve been working in an office at a newspaper for two years and I can’t stand it! Everyday I dream of being able to work from home (or the coffee shop) and complain about having to go into the office. In my experience, I’ve found that offices are distracting and negatively affect one’s work. I believe I’d get a lot more done -and still be considered a professional – if I worked from home.