January 10, 2019
Have you recently changed your job position from being employed to being an independent worker? Is becoming self-employed or starting a company an option? If so, what is your motivation? We would welcome your comments on our blog, which is related to the book ‘Flex or Fail’ which we are writing.
Comments
I had been a teacher in a secondary school for around five years and headed up a department, as well as full time teaching. I loved my job but it had become increasingly difficult to manage with more and more bureaucracy, reports and regulations to deal with. Preparing for classes, marking work, meeting with parents and managing staff all began to take a toll on me, both physically and psychologically.
I guess the tipping point for me was that my daughter began to have some mental health problems and this required more of my time to support her through a difficult period. All of this got on top of me and I became quite stressed, I guess I was getting depressed. I knew something had to give and after discussing it with friends and colleagues I had the idea that I would give up teaching full time and move to some different way of working.
I thought I would just work as a part time teacher and that would allow me to spend more time supporting my daughter and get my own life back together. I told the school that I was going to resign my full time role, but they were really upset and said they wanted me to stay on somehow. We finally agreed that I would teach for three mornings a week, and focus on kids with a high level of needs who required more of a ‘one to one’ approach.
I was obviously worried about money, I live alone with my daughter and have a big mortgage on my apartment. I needed more income than just a couple of mornings teaching. I have a spare room in my apartment and managed to find another lady going through a divorce who wanted to rent a room. It works really well and the money helps a lot.
Following giving up full time work, I joined an agency that provides temporary teaching staff to schools. I didn’t really like this work but it paid quite well and at least it was flexible around my needs to support my daughter. During that time I was approached by someone who wanted their children home schooled and asked me whether I could help in teaching them at home. I gave up the temp job and now have a small business that teaches kids at home. More recently, I was asked to do some editing work for a magazine, and now have more work than I can really manage alone, so I farm some of it out to other colleagues and charge a small profit margin on their work.
Overall in the two years since I gave up teaching, I have worked hard to make a go of it independently. I have had loads of help from friends and colleagues as well as my clients who I think value my work. All of this has helped in getting new work in. With my four current income streams I am earning in total more than I was when I was a full time teacher. I’m not saying it is easy to keep all these different things going, but I am in control of my work and feel I can support my daughter properly. She is gradually improving as well. That is a great relief to me