Yes, we know life is plenty of different sensations and experiences. And each of those arouses quite a different feeling. When talking about work, we can find a common bond. Work places us in a distinctive position, sets the course every day.

But we do not always feel motivated about it, or identified with it, as it doesn’t always reflect our inner power. Sometimes it just confines us or turns us away from other essential experiences: then we neglect our family or even ourselves, just watching as life goes by, though not truly getting hold of it or actually living to the fullest with our own, individual choices.

I refuse to believe that the worlds we love cannot interconnect, that work and family and individual life cannot be lived as one. I think there is a new model where all these live side by side and complete us as a perfect whole. I’ve been living like this for the last 7 years, working at Workana.

How did things change as from 2012?

To infinity! And yet, there’re still lots to do. We’re just starting to fit into a model where work can no longer be felt as a sacrifice –a concept my grandparents would never get. Generations before us had to move out from their hometowns to big cities to hope for a better life (a better life, not a better work).

Nowadays we can state that is over. Self-employment has provided us of a new meaning: there are endless possibilities within this context –a value system promotes it, the latest technologies make it possible, organizational changes demand it.

What are its benefits?

All these years we’ve been accepting absurd barriers, pushing away true talents from the companies.

• Who said there is an age limit to do some jobs?
• Why wouldn’t you perform in a Junior IT position if you decided to or just managed to specialize on that area at the age of 40?
• Why would a woman sacrifice her professional goals to look after her children?

I know there’s still a long way ahead. Every deep innovation goes through a period of questioning, but there will be a day when we can integrate this work model with the system or we might just change the system 100%. Anyhow, I think that today advantages outweigh any drawback.

When it is your turn to hear these life-changing stories –as it happened to me, it’s quite impossible not to shudder with excitement.

It’s not sacrifice but passion

We’re living on a very special moment when our brain can finally leave the leading role behind. It used to be necessary to stay strategic and focused to survive –and the key to this was rationality. Enjoying from your job was not looked upon kindly. If you did enjoy it, then it meant you were not working really well or hard enough. It usually happens in life that laughing conveys a state of relaxation and that was not allowed to exist in the work environment.

We had to stick to the “rules”. Seriousness, polished shoes, suits and ties for men, combed hair for ladies with such a tight bun that you couldn’t even think –but you looked properly tidy. Those things meant you took your job really seriously.

Image was the first impression. Sacrificing the things we love, the things we enjoy, the things that make us the people we want to be –all given up for the security and the “acceptance” within the world of work, which is, of course, basic survival.

Now we’ve broken away with that mold, as we can see on many contexts. I like to use the example below because I find it amusing and also because I think it reflects everything we’re witnessing in this new working world. I’m sure you’ve already watched this video where a BBC reporter is doing his weekly column, live, and his children get to his office.

We can see his two kids coming into the office, and their mother behind them, trying to get them out of the way. Besides the fun, I’m certain that these days nobody would criticize or judge this reporter as to his professionalism or talent. We’ve all regarded it as a daily and very likely thing to happen. I would even dare to say that way down of that suit, he might have well been wearing a pair of beautiful bear slippers and it’d have been something entirely normal.

I’m confident that within this new context, taking into consideration all of the cultural, technological and educational advances, we’re facing a new opportunity –we’re now given the chance to decide what we want to be, where we want to live and who with, and what we want to work on, with no need to make these decisions binding with one another.

The world of work has to provide equal opportunities, so that’s the commitment from all of us working at Workana. We want to see you shine with your passion and your talent whenever and wherever you wish.

Happy Labor Day –a day of self-employment and equal opportunities, a day of freelance and remote talent! Let’s hope for all changes spoken from the heart to stay and evolve with us.