Gut Knows Best

"... After college, I continued to work in agency settings over the next three years. The first year was at the same agency of my first internship (they hired me upon graduation) and then at a PR agency in Chicago for two years (LOVE CHICAGO). I'm now in Orange County, Calif. where I've gone back to working on an internal PR team in a corporate setting for a cell phone company. I've been here for about a year and a half now. So not only am I a writing nerd and a horrible radio DJ, I guess ths also makes me a techhie. Is there anything worse?? Haha ..."

Hi. Yeah, so that was me as of a few weeks ago. (For those who are new to this blog, you can read the rest of my introduction to Working Girl here.)

Guess what? It's time for an update. Here goes:

Some may call me crazy given the state our economy is in, and given that I loved my job so much (no dress code, great boss, remember?), but after a year and a half working on the internal PR team at the Orange County based cell phone company, I decided it was time to say good-bye to the corporate world.

You see, all of a sudden, things got turned upside down at work. It was like someone flipped a pancake on me, slap! Things changed very quickly, changes that were completely out of my control. Literally, guys, one day things were trotting along swimmingly and the next, I was driving home crying at the steering wheel and making a bee-line for the Taco Bell drive-thru (my comfort food) because I was so worried about getting laid off. What was happening?!? Have any of you ever been in that type of situation? Makes me question big corporate companies and who's managing them. Where's The Man? Lemme speak with the bozo in charge here.

After an agonizing month or so, I found out I wasn't going to be laid off. Instead, I was given a brand new role, brand new team, etc. and I was not happy about it. Accepting this new job would be like taking three steps backwards in my career, there would be zero room for growth, limited exposure, non-existent team camaraderie since it would be me in the OC and the rest of my new team on the East Coast, no pay raise or hope for one in even the far distant future, ugh, I could go on and on. It was time to get out and move on.

I can't tell you how scared I was to do that, though. I'm not usually one to just up and quit a job. I like to play things a little more safe, but this time I could not ignore my gut feelings. The negatives were just too overwhelming and far outweighed any positives.

Fast-forward to today, I am the happiest girl ever. See my smiley face? :) The best part, I'm still a PR Working Girl and I'm working 100% from home. I can't believe how things have fallen into place for me, still a whirlwind of craze and stress, no less, but it's like the stars aligned and I was meant to quit my job.

DEEP BREATH. AND AGAIN.

So dear readers, thanks for your patience as I've let the dust settle a bit these past few weeks. Moving forward, my weekly PR Working Girl adventures are going to be pretty cool (in my humble opinion). I have my very own two new PR clients, one women's fashion & lifestyle magazine and one small business, a retail store. I heart them both.

Also, I'll be able to provide the "working from home" working girl perspective, and I know there are lots of you work-at-home girls out there--I'm going to count on you for advice! I've gotten great tips from readers already, probably my favorite is from MonsteRawr who commented on my "Hopelessly Addicted" post where I rant about how I'm such a slave to my cell phone. Thanks to her suggestion, I've set my phone to vibrate when I get a new email so now I only check it when it buzzes, not constantly like I used to. Thank you, friend!

So tell me, ladies, what is your advice to someone just starting out working from home? Any expectations I should set for myself?