How Remote Work Changed My Life: A Personal Reflection on Accessibility and Independence

Why Working from Home Matters More Than Ever for Me

The world has undergone many dramatic changes in the past five years. For many of us, those changes have been life-altering, but also liberating in a sense. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, remote work was considered a perk—one I desperately wanted to get in on. Today, it’s a regular part of many of our lives. This shift in workflow has far-reaching implications, particularly for those who have different needs and abilities. 

Man in home office

The Remote Work Revolution

The pandemic forced many businesses to rethink and change their operations. One of the more significant shifts was many employees shifting to remote work, either out of necessity, or in cases like mine, by grateful choice. In-person meetings were replaced with Zoom and Teams calls. Everything that made companies tick was on the cloud. Home offices sprang up in living rooms, kitchens, and spare bedrooms everywhere. For some, this was a temporary change. For others like me, it opened doors that had long been shut.

Remote Work and Accessibility 

As someone with cerebral palsy, you’d think that traditional workplaces would pose a challenge or two. I’ve been lucky in that I’ve had few challenges with working. Until we come to the subject of transportation. 

I probably could drive if I put my mind to it, but when I was first old enough—and even more so now—I didn’t feel comfortable. As with my writing and other ventures in life, I doubted my ability to drive effectively, even with adaptations. I couldn’t live with the thought of getting into an accident and potentially hurting someone because I didn’t react quick enough. 

I said all that to say this: My inability to drive, choice notwithstanding, led me to rely on others to get to and from work, which had its own intrinsic limitations in work availability. It felt like most of my time was spent worrying about how I was getting to work and how long I could work and still have a way home. I never really thought about it until I started writing this piece, but I wonder—-or rather how much—-that constant anxiety affected my work performance and how much better I could have been. Reminds me of a piece I wrote near the beginning of this blog about things that get stuck in your head and cause undue mental anguish. I spent a lot of time wondering during those years not doing things I could have been doing because I was afraid of inconveniencing people to get to and from wherever I needed to be. Little did I know, at least in a professional sense, that was about to change.

 In the spring of 2020, I finally had the opportunity I’d been looking for for 15 years to that point. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, my department offered me the choice to work from home, a choice that was a simple decision for me. Not just because I expected the mask requirement on site before it happened, but also because it eliminated the biggest pain point in my working life. After I was all set up and working from home, I felt free. I was no longer worried how I was getting to work. No more cab fees that were double what most people paid because I live in the country. My mom and I shared an office to begin with, as she too was working from home. She worked first shift and I worked second, so aside from a small amount of overlap that I made up by being able to stay later, I no longer had the availability issues with which I dealt when I worked on site. It all seemed too good to be true. Something was bound to go wrong.

Two people working in an office

 The Push to Return On-Site—and My Concerns

In the spring and summer of 2021, I started noticing a shift. It was a slow shit, but it was a shift. Things were returning to normal. There was a call for people in my department who were working from home to return to the office. That move was slated for the end of July. I was not looking forward to this. I was not looking forward to taking a step back and returning to a life of limitations and reliance on others. 

For me, moving from remote work back to on-site work would not have just been a change of routine or an inconvenience. It would have been a barrier to independence and availability. Despite my disability and being eligible for disability benefits if I chose, I’ve always chosen to work. I’ve always done whatever it took to earn my own money. Even if it meant burdening others in other ways, I would not be a financial burden. Removing the need to find transportation back and forth to work eliminated a tremendous burden. I’d be lying if I said the thought of losing the independence of being able to work without worrying about transportation wasn’t unsettling. Even with the announcement of the pending change in July 2021, I hoped, and that hope would end up serving me well.

Man taking a phone call

The Call: The Best-Case Scenario Unfolding

I lost sleep thinking about being forced to travel back and forth to work again. To say different would be utter fallacy. I had no problem with the money I was spending on the cab fees before the pandemic. Realistically, I was probably still getting on easier than my coworkers who were putting gas in their own cars, especially the first shift ones who drove longer distances. What I had a problem with was the loss of agency. I had to wait for a ride, wait for the cab to show up and hope they weren’t late—they were sometimes, and they were pretty nonchalant about it. My job wasn’t exactly thrilled when I showed up late and blamed it on the cab showing up late, and that to me is understandable. With that in mind, I wanted to avoid such things as much as possible. Just in time, like a plot twist that puts the protagonist on the right path after the “all is lost” moment, I got what I was looking for, and all it took was a phone call.

When I got the call and heard my site manager’s voice on the other end of my phone line, I thought it was going to be the call I’d been dreading, the call that confirms the return to what was normal. Much to my surprise, not to mention delight, the news I got was the exact opposite. I was informed that, as a second shift employee, I, along with my second shift colleagues, would continue working from home indefinitely. Other than the Braves clinching a world series a few months later, this was the best news I’d gotten in 2021. But even as I happily went about my days, not worrying about transportation or anything else, I couldn’t help thinking this good news would be short-lived. The first scare came mere months ago.

Work meeting

The Meeting: The Seed Planted

It seems more innocuous now that some time has passed, but I was in a leadership staff meeting not long ago—which thankfully they allow me to attend from my home office as well—in which my supervisor mentioned second shift being absorbed into first, which would not only mean returning on site, but also a schedule change. The latter was actually more jarring for me. I’ve always been a night owl. I do a lot of writing in the morning now, and I love my morning coffee, but the freedom of knowing I don’t have to be somewhere at 8am is still nice. To this point, it hasn’t been mentioned again, but the thought of being forced back to on site work, and on first shift no less, is still something that I think about. This has caused me to look for other avenues of earning money so that if I am forced to make that change, it can at least be temporary. As I have many times in life when things have gotten tough, I turned to the pen.

Content Creator

The Value of Writing and Content Creation

One of the greatest benefits I’ve seen in this new remote work era, especially as a writer, is the explosion of opportunities for writers on the internet. From blogs like this one to freelance gigs, webinars, and digital courses, the internet has become the place to go for anyone with a story to tell or a skill to showcase. For people like me, this is a game changer. It means I can earn a living, build a loyal audience, and make a career out of doing what I love, all on my own terms and without worrying about limitations holding me back.

There aren’t enough words I can put on this page to express how grateful I am for the opportunities that have been presented to me, and how much I wish I’d taken advantage of some of them years ago. I’ll link a post I wrote on my Blogger page here that talks about the platforms I could have been on when I was in high school if I hadn’t had my head in the sand, but that was then and this is now. Now, i am striving to continue working, learning, and growing, paying no attention to the physical barriers that may have existed before. Remote work, as well as blogging, has given me more than just a job. It has given me a sense of agency and belonging that would be difficult to find in a traditional workspace.

Looking to the future

Looking Forward

As we move into the future, I hope to not lose sight of the lessons learned from Covid. Flexibility, accessibility, and inclusivity are not just fancy words that get thrown around. They are essential to creating opportunities for people of all ability levels to contribute. As I’ve learned from personal experience, remote work is not just a convenience, particularly for someone with a disability that may affect mobility in one form or another. It is a a gateway to independence and empowerment. Though I still have a long way to go to get where I want to be, the ability to work from a home office, unburdened by the need for transportation has put me on the right path. My passion for writing and mental health and disability advocacy has inspired me to put pen to paper—more or less—-and try to earn a living by giving a voice to those who may not otherwise have one. It’s a goal I didn’t know I had when I started, but it’s funny how things come to you when you’re not expecting it. 

Do you work from a home office? What benefits do you see from it? Do you believe remote work is the way of the future? Or is it just a temporary fork in the road? I’d love to have a dialogue with you/