work – Sushi Writes About Things

The year of occupational hell… and Hades

Note: I’ve tried to maintain close relationships between characters in their real life counterparts, but the romantic ones in Hades are obviously not romantic between coworkers. Still, they hint at some level of closeness, past or present. Also, if you haven’t played Hades, you should play it, but more important to this post, there are game spoilers.

In March 2024, I had worked on my technical writing team for almost two and a half years. I had just been promoted within my role. I had just launched a major initiative that people had been asking for… since before I started at that company. I was respected, well-paid, and had great coworkers, including a manager I may follow if they ever leave. Everyone in my personal life thought I was living the dream.

Why would I want to give that up?

The Freelance Life

Note: I’m no longer working freelance jobs as my primary source of income. Considering how much I struggled in the slow business times while freelancing, this is a definite yay. But someone asked for this post many months ago, and I wrote it and then forgot to post it. So just replace a bunch of the present-tense stuff with past tense.

I’ve mentioned casually in the past that most of my day job involves freelancing. Basically, I’m not an employee of any company, but companies hire me to work on various projects.

As you might expect, I get questions about this somewhat regularly from curious folks, people who want to do the same thing, and my family–often the same questions. What’s it like to work from home? How do you get started building your own gig? Do you really get to work while sipping a cocktail on the beach?

Good question. Let’s try to answer them.