After a year where our working lives were completely transformed, many of us are now questioning what we want the year ahead to look like. Brooke Le Poer Trench explores what lies ahead for where and how we will want to work.

If this year has taught us anything, it’s that we’re all pretty much agreed on the facts: a 9-5 gig, five days a week at one fixed location works for very few people. And it has nothing to do with whether or not you have kids. Turns out, we all need different work models to optimise what we can produce and find balance. For me, one of the most significant challenges over the past 10 years (since I became a mother, but perhaps even before that too) has been to figure out what the perfect job looks like. My issue is that I want to be challenged and grow, but I want to leave on time and not work on weekends. I basically need boundaries… and I work in an industry that celebrates employees without them. Many creative industries rely on the fact you’re so grateful to be producing the work that you surrender most of your standards. Sigh. But that’s another column for another day. 

According to workforce innovation specialist and founder of Flexcel, Sophie Wade, “women typically face tough struggles if they are the primary care givers for their children and or other relatives and work full-time. In my experience, they typically don’t look for the “perfect job,” they simply try and find one that limits the conflict and stress to bearable levels.” Her words resonated with me, big time. On reflection, most of the work I have done over the past decade has been work I would do when I was tired, or under pressure or felt foggy. It was work that came easily. In part, because it feels good to do something well. But it also feels bad, because you see the people above you and there’s that voice in your head that says “you could totally do that too…” 

Here’s what I have tried in the quest for a perfect work set-up: WFH contract (it’s a little lonely and requires a lot of discipline, but also great because you’re home)… project work in an office (you drop all other relationships to do the work and pick up the pieces several months later)… part-time (great for balance but generally guarantees you’re treading water) and finally and most recently, a senior full-time role. 

When I accepted the job, it felt like I was pushing the nuclear button. But I had tried everything else, and so curiosity—and a desperation to sink my teeth into more challenging work and make better money—made the decision easy. The issue, in part, was that I had a nagging suspicion that the reason my husband seemed to enjoy home life so much more than me is because he actually had boundaries between work and home. I wondered: could I also have a better quality of life—and enjoy my family more—if I had the same? I wanted to draw a line in the sand too. 

Going in, I was aware of the risks. I’d been following and supporting women campaigning for flexible working for many years, who had all felt full-time work had left them burnt out and sacrificing too much. Take @annawhitehouse, whose story of the terrible time she had juggling a senior creative role within a global beauty company and a young child left her with no choice but too opt out of the job completely. But to be honest, I have also found her living the flexible-work dream, with a baby on her lap and toddler snacks smooshed into the keyboard while she authors books and records podcasts, left me feeling queazy too. Was that work set-up really worth fighting so hard for? I knew all too well how compromised you can feel—and how much harder it is to create something good and clear— with one eye on something else. 

Spending the pandemic in Sydney, Australia, has meant that I only really experienced six weeks of hardcore Covid reality. However, when it happened I had been working full-time for six months, and I was gasping for air. It was with a sense of relief that I found myself back in the muddled world of working from home. I was suddenly able to get on top of the many chores I was saving until the weekends. A Zoom call, followed by laundry, then emails, and a quick dog walk. And the thought occurred to me that flexibility simply enables many women keep up with the impossible workload, they often shoulder alone. And by not protecting our work space from the relentless pile of tasks a home generates, is it possible we’re compromising on what we can achieve in our careers. 

Something this last year has shown, though, is how flexible working might actually be the answer for those people without families yet. While parents actually need a toy-free, chore-free space to get on with it (which is often hard to find in a full house), younger colleagues have loved their WFH set-ups, which allow for an even better lifestyle. Their homes aren’t over-run with children from 3pm, and they are able to get loads done while embracing their local communities too. And as companies demand bums in seats, I feel for them. While some of us have enjoyed getting back to the office, others feel disillusionment and distrust that they can’t design their own workweek. I’ve heard time and time again: What is the point of this last year if we can’t learn and grow from it? As for where I stand on the perfect work set-up, the word I keep coming back to is trust. I will always value going to work and being surrounded by a team. But I really only want to do that three days a week, tops. The other days, I’d quite like to keep my stretch pants on and work from my dining room table. The quiet suits me, in moderation. I’d also like to switch up my hours when need be, starting early to finish early when need be. What I have realised is that I no longer want to tread water. But I also want to work with people who can give me the freedom I need to juggle work with having a life. The challenge, once you have defined what you want, is to simply find those people looking in the same direction as you. I have managed to find a few of them so far… and trust me when I say, the search is worth it.