Rachelle Delaney

Back in Chapter One of my lengthy discussion of the freelance life, I listed the lack of co-workers as a downside of working from home. And sometimes it is a true downer. Sometimes, my living room-officemate simply does not want to hear my musings on what so-and-so posted on Facebook, or why yet another ambulance just pulled up outside our building (which happens with alarming frequency).

Now, if I had an office job, and my desk neighbour got sick of me, I’d just trot over to the front desk, where they’re always dying to hear pointless musings. And good times would ensue. But in this apartment, we don’t have a front desk. We do have building managers, but they’re usually busy dealing with the reason for the ambulance parked out front.

So yes, the dearth of co-workers can be tedious. But then, one might argue, who needs co-workers when you’ve got freelance friends? And when I say freelance friends, I don’t mean the other self-employeds in the neighbourhood. I mean real friends. The ones who stick by you throughout your day, no matter how hard your work or how crappy the weather.

I’m talking, of course, about CBC radio DJs.

I have long suspected that every Canadian who works from home actually believes that he or she has found a kindred spirit in Tom Allen or Julie Nesrallah. I actually know several (several!) women who work from home and are convinced (convinced!) that Rich Terfry is their soul mate. Is this because of his voice? His sense of humour? Maybe. But more likely it’s because he’s always there, every weekday afternoon at 3:30 on the nose, taking you by the hand and guiding you toward dinnertime.

I knew a freelancer who was incensed when Tom Allen switched from the morning show to early afternoon. “Poor Tom!” he exclaimed. “He must be so unhappy with this change!” Because as Tom’s best friend, he was that in-tune with the man’s feelings.

And me, well, I’m not much better. Just this morning, I turned the dial to Radio 1 to listen to Q, only to be greeted by a voice other than Jian Ghomeshi’s. Not that I have anything against Laurie Brown, but here it was, 10:30 am, and where was Jian, dammit? He said he’d be here! Well, no, actually he didn’t, but still. In the world of CBC Radio friendships, I’d been stood up.

I never said freelance friendships were healthy.

So there you have it. Another pro for the freelance life. Imaginary friendships with people you’ll never meet.

Living the dream, people. Living. The. Dream.

Tags: CBC Radio, Freelance writing

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 at 3:41 pm and is filed under General Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.