Katherine Lewis

The last breaking story of Katherine Lewis’s mainstream news career was a severance package.  She loved her job, the office, the people.  But thirteen years of typing led her to a dead end.  She and her twenty three colleagues were unemployed.

“There was a great separation between work and home,” Katherine recalls of her old job.  But when the news bureau shut down, Katherine brought work home.  “They really afforded me a great opportunity,” she says.  “A three month cushion was all I needed.”  Katherine pumped her severance into a new career as a freelance journalist, and she’s been thriving ever since.

“A common misconception is that ‘self-employed’ equals ‘unemployed’,” Katherine says.  She warns that your neighbors and friends might not see you in the same way.  Some even worry she’s washed up, possibly trapped under a pile of laundry.  But it’s not like that at all.  Her income has multiplied.

Katherine’s headquarters is her home office.  A large widescreen monitor rests on her desk and a closed door behind her blocks out distractions.  She avoids working in coffee shops unless she’s meeting with one of her clients.  If she has to work downtown, you’ll probably find her in the National Press building.  “I just don’t work well in cafes,” she says, “and I feel crippled without my monitor!”  Katherine’s home office is her productivity zone.

Katherine’s children are in childcare during the day, giving her time to focus and write.  But work never stops.  “That’s the trade off,” Katherine points out, “I have the flexibility to take care of my family when things come up, then I make up that time after the kids go to bed.”

Katherine Lewis

Katherine is a serious planner. Friday is planning day.  And she also holds weekly planning meetings with her husband.  They plan everything: children’s activities, together time, alone time, and work.  “If it doesn’t get scheduled, it usually doesn’t happen,” she says.

We planned our phone call too, but when the time came, Katherine’s husband had to work late.  She answered the phone as she was heading out the door to her daughter’s music class.  Katherine asked me to call her cell phone, and our conversation continued en route.  No need to reschedule.

Background noises changed from quiet, to laughter, to banging and honking and tooting instruments.  “There is no steady state,” Katherine says, “and you can never rest on your laurels.  You’re always striving to move forward just to stay in the same place.”

But Katherine’s career certainly isn’t static. She must be doing something more than “striving,” and I wondered what that might be.

Small talk ensued, and we shared bits and pieces of our family lives.  Then, at one point, she referred to her husband as an “intrapreneur,” explaining that he’s a creative problem solver, constantly looking to improve things at work.  Not a requirement for his profession – he just does it.

So maybe it’s what you strive to do.  Maybe it’s whether you have sufficient flexibility to strive.  And quite possibly, it’s about making it to music class.

You can find more from Katherine here:

• KatherineRLewis.com
• CurrentMom.com
• WorkingMoms.About.com

images: Katherine Lewis