“I’m not really a big fan of the nine-to-five, I have a bit of a problem with confinements. I wanted flexibility, and I wanted to be around with my kids, and I knew that I was a very efficient worker, and I could do that from home.”
Lisa Georges lives in Kitchissippi, by the river in Ottawa. Twelve years ago, she decided the office just wasn’t the right place for her – her family was growing, and she needed the room to grow herself. When she asked her employers about the possibility of working at home, they told her no. “At the time it wasn’t really a thing, to have your employees work from home, and so they were like, I don’t think so.”
When her second child was born, the year of maternity leave gave her a chance to think. She took the opportunity to develop her own work up to the standard that she knew was necessary.
“I knew I had to work a certain amount of hours, and I needed a certain amount to sustain my current existence. So, that’s what I did.”
Using the clients that she had met in her previous office job, Lisa created her own publishing and marketing business at home. Her first big contract was with her local newspaper, the Kitchissippi Times, and her association with that business brought her more and more customers. Lisa, who couldn’t stand the office confines of bosses, work hours, and schedules, began to enjoy the freedom of working at home. She didn’t have to worry about pleasing the boss – she was the boss. She didn’t have to worry about work hours – she could work nine-to-five, ten-to-seven, or whenever else she wanted. She didn’t have to worry about schedules, either – she could arrange her own meetings with clients when they were necessary.
Kitchissippi is one of the most popular areas in Ottawa for people who work at home, as shown on the map below. Analysis of the 2011 Household Survey shows that 470 people in Kitchissippi gave “Home” as their place of work, the second highest number for a single ward in Ottawa. According to the same survey, 18.6% of people who worked at home in Ottawa worked, like Lisa, in the professional, scientific and technical services industry – by far the highest proportion.