The World's Tallest Writing Coach

Your favorite superhero, Freelancing Dad, had been enjoying his mild-mannered life as a full-time freelancer working for his home office when the phone call came in.

Commissioner Gordon? Lois Lane? The President?

No, it was the IT director of a pipe company I had ghost-written an article for a year ago with a new project; a HUGE project. It entailed software documentation and in-house work, meaning I’d have to wear shoes and maybe even fix my hair two days a week to go on-site and work at  a real, live cubicle for the first time in 2-1/2 years.

I took the job, how could I not? Guaranteed, steady income with flexibility built in is every freelancer’s dream, regardless of the fact that I had to drive 80 miles a day to get there and home again. For two months I spent every Tuesday and Thursday back in the corporate setting, typing documentation, interviewing people, and doing really cool stuff, like climbing on forklifts and seeing massive pipes bigger around than my car being lifted onto trucks.

Of course every job has its positives and negatives, and now that the job is two weeks in the past, Freelancing Dad has been able to compile this list of them.

On-Site Work Pros

1. Free coffee! Honestly, this place had a Keurig station like every 50 feet. I tried to limit myself to 5 cups in a 6-hour shift.
2. There were so many people there, everyone thought that I was a real employee and I got a piece of birthday cake one day in the break room. I felt like George Costanza when he just shows up at the job without really knowing if he works there or not.
3. Interaction with real, live humans. I love my dogs to death, but they can’t truly commiserate on how bad my alma mater is sucking at football this year.
4. One of the original family members of the company also is an artist who makes amazing structures out of used pipes and other materials and displays them on the property, including the stegosaurus in this post.

On-Site Work Cons

1. Nobody understood what I was doing there, and when they guy who hired me would tell employees, “Nick is here to learn your job,” they would immediately think I was there to TAKE their job.
2. The time they left me out in the yard by accident when it was 98 degrees. The yard isn’t like your backyard, it’s a yard with 5 million pipes in it and is roughly the size of a shopping mall.
3. No time for a 10-minute nap. Apparently, that’s frowned upon in the actual business office.
4. Houston rush-hour traffic. Hello my old friend, it’s not nice to see you again.