Working Alone Sucks Sometimes
Anonymous Charming Scoundrel #540 · General
I started freelancing from home about six months ago after a tough breakup. I thought it would be great to set my own schedule and have all the flexibility, but there's a downside that no one talks about. The loneliness is crushing sometimes. Yesterday was particularly rough. It rained all day, so no coffee shop meetups with other freelancers. My laptop froze up too, which felt like a personal attack on my productivity. I tried to work from my favorite café but they ran out of vegan snacks and the Wi-Fi kept dropping. I had this weird moment where I called an old friend who hates technology just so we could talk about non-work stuff for a bit. I ended up telling her she was right that she should buy a new phone, though, because it’s such a hassle to try and type on those buttons. Not my usual advice at all. Anyway, this got me thinking - am I being unreasonable? Is this just part of the gig economy lifestyle, or is there something seriously off with me for feeling so lonely even when working alone was supposed to be liberating? I'm not asking because I want out of freelancing (though that's a thought), but more trying to figure out how others handle it. Am I missing some key coping mechanism? Or is this just one more thing to deal with while navigating adulthood?