In a previous post, I left you with some readings on the top reasons why people work from home. I believe they represent the views of freelancers across America, but what about us here?

With the failure of the NBN-ZTE deal, and the anomalies surrounding it, we also realized that we are not yet a 100% wired or wi-fi country. The truth is, despite our good numbers on the major social networking sites, majority of the population are still in the backwaters regarding the Internet technology. Businesses are mostly brick and mortar and not too many companies utilize virtual solutions.

Local outsourcing (in plain words, allowing a remote staff do the work for you) is a strange thing to speak of. More importantly, becoming self-employed like the freelancer is considered akin to being unemployed. You will have a hard time convincing your family that you do have work, except of course, when the money is in. The banks will have a hard time establishing your sources of income and you may not be approved for a payday loan.

There are certain advantages, of course. While the cost of daily commute, food and bed space eat much of the regular wage earner’s meager salary, those who work from home naturally don’t have to deal with such realities.

In this country, only a few professions are guaranteed to build wealth, employed or self-employed, like doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers and accountants. We may also include those who work in livestock and farming, given that they are already big players, like those wealthy and powerful families in my hometown.

The question, instead of why, is “who can really work from home?” Basically, these are people with computing skills, a computer set, and a reliable Internet connection. I believe we have more female than male freelancers, and most of them are outside the normally employable age limit of 25. I also suppose they are underemployed.

The Internet is a fertile ground for those who want to put to good use their special talents and interests, which they seldom have a chance to do when working in a company. One thing is true about work from home jobs–you can only work them out if you are a good fit.

When you are underpaid, underemployed or both, naturally, you are not satisfied with yourself and what you’re getting. The freelancer is born in you when you take risks and overcome the scariest part of being self employed.

Whatever your reason for becoming self-employed, as a work from home professional or online business owner, you have to find satisfaction from what you’re doing. It is what really counts anywhere in the world.

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Generally as a freelancer, I can consider it part of my job to sit as a panelist in a writing workshop, aside from my occasional lectures on either literature or journalism. Creative writing workshop is already an annual practice in the Philippines, sponsored and usually held during summer by leading Philippine universities such as UP, Silliman and my alma mater, UST.

There are more community-based and regional workshops out there focused on a genre of their choice that normally get funding from the National Commission for Cultural and the Arts. These efforts help inspire and sustain active writing in the country.

Hopefully, Philippine literature, in any language, will also get a sizable share of readership and a well deserved patronage from schools (that promote English and mostly foreign authors) and leading bookstores (that give the best space to foreign works).

Simply put, I’m dropping a note to inform you of a workshop that I will be conducting tomorrow at De La Salle-Lipa (DLSL) with my good old friend and a poet probably greater than anyone in our generation, Ramil Gulle. The activity is meant to introduce creative writing workshop in my province, as I have earlier pledged to help organize with Criselda “Crecee” Roldan, DLSL’s coordinator for arts and culture matters.

In brief, Ramil and I will share our poetry practices, and in turn, will let the participants “practice poetry.” I can’t think of a simpler way than this to start a discussion on poetry among newbies (as Crecee said). In the afternoon, we will explore (or more probably, just glance at) Formalism and Structuralism, at least to give them an idea how a reading can change from one’s standpoint. We will get sample poems from participants to critique (we’ll be kind, though).

As promised in my previous post, I will react to the readings I shared with you on the topic of “why people work from home,” but that will be for next (again!). Meanwhile, I would appreciate your comments on any of my posts.

Talk to you soon!

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