I’ve been working remotely since the start of my career in 2018. I’ve worked in-house and as a freelancer, and I can say with absolute seriousness that I owe remote work my life. Here’s why.

It helped me graduate university

Back in 2018, I had to start working my first big-girl job as a Customer Service agent to support my parents and my little brother. Unfortunately, that meant that I had to pause my studies since my faculty building was too far from my office, and the classes were too frequent. I left the university for an entire year, and at some point, I lost all hope that I’d be able to go back. 

Suddenly, there was an opening in the marketing department, and even though I had exactly zero experience writing professionally, I decided to shoot my shot and try out for the content writer position. Thanks to my incredible charm and a really stupid story about a horse-sized duck (I will not elaborate), I got the job. Shortly after I started, I was somehow brave enough to ask whether it was okay to work from home on some of the days, and the answer was surprisingly yes. 

Turns out, they don’t need my nervous and “constantly loud music in the headphones” ass in the office 5 days a week, and even though it made sense, it still felt like a big privilege. I would still go to the office some of the days. It was fun, and I liked goofing around with my colleagues. Besides that, when my social battery went down, I would just switch to working in the break room. 

After some months had passed, I realised that I had the unique opportunity to go back to university without having to quit work. I would just take my laptop with me, multitask during the classes, and voila! Most of the subjects didn’t really need my attention anyway; they just wanted me to be present. Unfortunately, the book publishing degree I started was no longer available, so I decided to switch subjects, and I got accepted into the Philology faculty with Applied Linguistics and Business Communications. 

I started in 2019, went in person for one semester, and then the panini started so until the second semester of my third year, everything was remote. During that time, I attended classes, workshops, training from uni and work, and even went on an Erasmus internship in London. 

When we had to go back to the university, the flexibility of my work and the fact that I moved to freelance at the beginning of 2022 allowed me to be consistent with my classes and take the most out of my educational and professional environment. 

It wasn’t without my burnout moments (more on that some other time), but I made it. I no longer had to choose between work and my education, and instead of one being a hindrance to the other, they completed each other. I used my professional experience to excel in my business communication classes and help my classmates when needed. Additionally, my linguistics education took my writing and understanding of language to another level, allowing me to perfect my creative skills even further.

In 2023, I graduated with honours, and as I was leaving my Spanish state exam room, I dramatically let out a small tear, realising how easily I could have missed out on that experience if I were tied to an office.

It helped me find my soul mate

I am not a religious person, but my relationship with my husband is the one thing that has the power to turn me into a believer. Not necessarily in God, but definitely in some sort of a higher power. 

2020 was a wild year for many people. For me, it started very emotionally with the end of one relationship, me having to move out to live by myself, getting my hours cut in half only a month after that, and having to move back to my parents’ place because I couldn’t afford the rent, and then moving in with my best friend in a different city so we can share the expenses. 

Even after that rollercoaster of emotions, I decided I wasn’t stressed enough, so I applied for an internship in London that I could do during the second semester of my second year in university. Needless to say, it would have been very hard to do this if I weren’t working remotely already. But I talked with my manager and promised to do my best (which I did), and everyone decided that it was absolutely okay for me to go. 

Now, was it the smartest decision I could have made, considering that I would have to work full time, do the internship full time, and also go to classes? 

The answer is a resounding no, but I was young, curious, and apparently crazy enough to want to do it anyway. One of my next articles will focus on how I survived and kept my partial sanity, so keep tuned for that! 

Anyway, why am I telling you all of this? 

When I met my husband online, we knew from the very beginning it was going to be serious, but we didn’t want a long-distance relationship. He lived in London, I lived in Varna, and even though I would be doing the internship in the same city as him, it was only for four months and then I would have to leave. 

Because my internship was also remote, I had the opportunity to move in with him during that time, and we were put to the ultimate test – living together with his mum during a panini and full lockdown, which only permitted rare Lidl trips. Thankfully, we got out of that pretty easily, and it gave us the opportunity to get to know each other and become even closer. When my internship was over, we moved back to Bulgaria together. 

If we hadn’t spent these four months together, our relationship wouldn’t have been strong enough for him to agree to move back with me. 

It helped me be a better professional

I’ll be painfully honest: there are some days when I want to kill anyone who looks in my direction. Other days, I can’t look at myself and everything is 10x harder than it should be, including changing from my pyjamas and brushing my hair. Days where I just can’t get out of bed, and the smallest thing makes me cry. 

Now, imagine me having to go to the office despite all of that. All of my little energy would go into trying to be a pleasant person and doing extremely basic tasks, while the actual work that I needed to do would be left on the back burner. I’ll admit it, on days like these, I would achieve next to nothing, and I would feel awful because I just make myself productive, the whole workday feels wasted, and on top of that, I had to be around people all the time. 

It was exhausting and demoralising, making me feel like I’d never be able to have a normal full-time job, a promotion, or a salary raise. People who get promoted are extroverts, the ones who are always working diligently with a smile on their faces, and when I didn’t fulfil these expectations, I stopped myself from trying to be better. 

With remote work, none of these things matter. Even now, writing this article, I’m in bed by myself, headphones on (back to my Skillet times), barricaded from the world, including my own husband. But because I don’t have to be around people, smile, or pretend I feel great, I’m actually able to spend my energy doing my work. 

Since I started working remotely, I have had the option to embrace those bad days. Without conforming to what most people think productivity looks like, I have been able to shine, and I believe in myself again. I can finally see that I’m just as capable as any neurotypical extrovert, and why not more? 

Remote work saved my life, I guess

To put it very bluntly, if it weren’t for flexible and remote working, I wouldn’t have my degree, my husband, or my confidence and my life would be very different probably. And what really makes me sad is that I don’t think some companies realise how restrictive office work can be to their employees. 

Workers regularly pass on opportunities for professional and personal development, as well as relationships, only to keep the security of their jobs, and this isn’t fair. Everybody should have the chance to travel, try new things, and take risks, without the fear of losing their income. 

To sum it up, remote work and flexible policies have the power to completely remove geographic restrictions, disability barriers, and other potential issues that stop people with amazing capabilities from even entering the global talent pool. Including my anxious, depressed, introverted self. 

And yes, I am calling myself amazing because I know I am! 

And I know you are! 

P.S. If you’re curious to read more about how awesome flexible working is, check out this article that I wrote for Insights for Professionals.