Work At Home Pinoy

photo from bestpaidtostayhome.com

I am a work at home pinoy. One of the few lucky ones I think. I go to work in my pajamas, watch TV all day if I want to, as long as I finish my deliverables. I work for a voice at the other end of my VOIP phone, but I get my salary from the local office. There's a growing number of us work at home folks in the Philippines. Maybe a decade ago jobs such as mine would have been incomprehensible. But things are changing at a rapid pace because of technology.

In this blog, I will try to discuss the things that matter to folks like me who are given the privilege to work from home. Make no mistake about it, working from home is a privilege. And as such, it is something that cannot be taken for granted.


Accidental Home Worker

For several years prior to getting my current job, I worked for a lot of big companies. Multinationals and even locals that are a household name in the Philippines. I worked the dayshift, the midshift, even the graveyard shift. I followed bosses, I was one of the bosses, and now, I don't really consider myself as having any boss. Well, except for the voice at the end of the line.


When I resigned from my last job, I was working from 3pm to 12am. Perhaps one of the most convenient schedules a Makati employee can get but still, I had to go to the office. I still had to wear my long sleeves, my ties, and even had to make sure that my shoes were well polished. Thankfully, my previous work was too toxic at certain times of the month which made resigning from my lofty position (yes I was holding one of those fancy titles) a very easy decision.

After a few months of doing my best not to apply for another job however, things got scarce and I had no other choice but to crawl back to the corporate world that I despised. I didn't want to work in a cubicle again but reality sucks so I had to send out my resumes again and make myself available to the market again.

Perhaps it was fate or maybe just serendipity that in a company where I was turned down for a position, I was offered another which led me to my current job. I didn't have a lot of expectations from it, nor was I fooling myself into thinking that I'd feel really important. Maybe I was wishing a little bit, to be honest. What I was made to understand however was that the bosses that I'd be reporting to would not be in the Philippines-- they'll be somewhere far, far away. The only requirement was that I'm reachable by phone and email. Which means that I can work in Timbuktu and they won't raise an eyebrow.

I was really floored when I heard the conditions of my employment. I'm still a corporate type, just freed from that corporate prison that is the cubicle. I was provided with everything necessary to function-- internet connection, blackberry, laptop, and a VOIP tool. The set-up was perfect, IS perfect. Almost a year since getting hired by my current company, and I still feel like I'm on a grand vacation. Except that this vacation is fully paid by my company.

Philosophically, I think life sometimes throws you curves that turn out for the better.