4th Office – Making flexible working a reality

An interesting post on the Freelancers Union website today talks about why so many women are choosing to work freelance. Sara Horowitz states that:-

“…Even more than our male counterparts, our lives play out in stages that don’t fit well with a corporate world dominated by men. By our 30s, many women are starting families and struggling with taking time away from the office. By our forties, we’re often hitting the glass ceiling in terms of pay and promotions. By our fifties and sixties, unfortunately, we’re often being ignored altogether…” (Read full piece here.)

This was certainly true for me. Starting a family in my thirties, combined with health issues that developed after Joe’s birth meant that I no longer wished to be constrained by a teaching role that saw me in school at 8am, leaving and 6pm, and then taking 3/4 hours of work home with me. Freelance work and blogging was a way to maintain a work/life balance that suited me as an independent woman, and as a mother. But working from a home office which more often than not is my dining room or sofa has it’s own issues, which is why I am excited to now be using 4th Office.

Home Office – fantasy and reality

4th Office is your new online home office that can be accessed anywhere and keeps you organised, with all your most important files, emails, tasks and contacts stored in one easily accessible place. It is very easy to set up an account, taking just a minute, and it is free for start-ups, mumpreneurs, freelancers and those working from home. (There are premium accounts available for bigger businesses that are chargeable, these help to fund the free accounts).

Your 4th Office account can be used at anytime, in anyplace and by anyone who you add to your account. It is the perfect way to get yourself organised – you can store your most important emails, spreadsheets, planning work and files on the system, and can then share them with anyone as required. You can set up reminders of important dates, deadlines and tasks that are instantly visible on your desktop – meaning no more need for post-it notes that just disappear. You can update your work online, and still keep previous versions to hand. What I really love is that you get a newsfeed so you no longer have to search through a chain of emails to keep a conversation going, or to refer back to something – it’s all there for you.

4th Office say:-

” We’re on a mission o build better ways of working – helping start-ups make the dream of flexible working a reality.”

I really think they are onto something with this, and with the free service and unlimited cloud storage space, I can see no reason for freelancers, those working from home, and new start-ups to give this a go.

To do an online our of 4th Office, click here.

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