Comma: A Life-First Company (Logan's Story)
This time last month, I was strolling across the Ponte Vecchio on my way to a pasta-making workshop in Florence.
I know it’s an odd brag, but that short walk marked the culmination of about 18 months of planning around COVID-19 safety precautions, three years of letting my unused passport gather dust on my dresser, and a lifetime of waiting for my chance to take my first international solo trip.
It also took six different jobs and about eight or nine flights to get to that point (I’ve honestly lost track), but there’s a reason I finally made it — I found Comma, a company that affords me the freedom to go on impromptu Italian excursions while I use my talents in meaningful ways.
Why I Prefer Comma to a Traditional Desk Job
A 9-to-5 desk job was not really in the cards for me. Gave it a try — didn’t love it. Exchanging 50 weeks of mundane busy-work for the chance to take two for myself (at approved intervals) wasn’t a ratio that particularly enthralled me. There’s been an ongoing discussion over what constitutes a proper work-life balance, whether work-from-home or hybrid models are here to stay, and whether the so-called Great Resignation will change office culture across the country. I don’t claim to have answers to any of those questions for everyone, but I know what the answer is for me.
I work best when I have control over life, professional or otherwise. Of course, it also helps to have a supportive network of leaders and friends looking out for additional opportunities to help me hone my craft, increase my earning potential, and expand my body of work.
That’s what Comma offers me. Our leadership team is clearly invested in us as individuals, our personal and professional goals, and ensuring we go beyond merely striking an adequate work-life balance. Truthfully, I don’t feel like I have to balance much of anything. I can sleep in and still hit deadlines. I can drive two hours south to Salt Lake City to visit my girlfriend for lunch and still hit deadlines. I can take two weeks to take a dream vacation, leave my laptop at home, unplug from the world entirely and still return to hit deadlines.
Why “Work-Life Balance” is a Deceptive Term
The secret behind a successful work-life balance might be that they’re one and the same. No one asks you to stay late at the office when you work for Comma — instead, I get to focus on putting exceptional work on the page for clients who have already been vetted and approved by a leadership team with a strict “we don’t work with jerks” policy (no seriously, it’s written in our company values). I get to do it according to my own hours, in an environment that’s most comfortable for me, knowing my editors trust me to do my job.
Sure, sometimes that means staying up late tinkering with an opening paragraph until it hits just the right notes, but when you’re a Comma writer committed to writing copy worth reading, that sort of thing is kind of part of the fun.
It is a company that invests heavily in its people and in its clients. Even as a remote worker who interacts with my Comma team in person just a few times a year (like at last summer’s 5th-year celebration), I feel a camaraderie among my fellow writers and a genuine partnership with my clientele. We’re given all the freedom independent writers crave within the supportive framework of a company dedicated to treating us as much more than just a rolodex of capable word nerds.
Cliché as it may seem, Comma has allowed me to begin piecing together the life I want to lead. Flexibility to travel home and see my parents, funds to save up for a new car, a company grant for third-year writers to check an item off of our bucket list (a list which our leadership team dutifully studies in preparation for helping us achieve our personal goals). After so many missed chances to take the leap into the life I hoped to build, Comma provided the flexibility that made it possible.
I won’t have to wait another year to return to Italy (or wherever else I may go in 2022). There won’t be any stockpiling of PTO, approval processes, or requests denied. I’ll simply wait for the right time, and I’ll go — knowing Comma will be behind me the whole way, and that work can wait until I return.
Written by Logan Jones as part of the Comma culture series. Want to join our team? Check out our hiring page.
Logan Jones is a former sports-writer and columnist with his own LinkedIn profile and portfolio website. He is now an expert in homemade butter-and-sage sauce and noodles from scratch.
