Here’s a recent conversation I had with an ex-colleague.

How’s your job/work going?

Pretty good.

D’s also working right?

Yeah. In fact, her division at Company L was recently taken over by Company N.

[The conversation then revolved around family life…]

Then both of you must be really busy with your careers?

No. Not at all.

It’s exactly the other way around. For us, work fits around our personal lives. For example: I said NO to BIG Company I (which really was a stone’s throw away from L) and BIG Company S before saying YES to Company M and D’s been with Company L since she started her career.

A short commute, work from home when necessary, wear what we want to work, independent contributor-type roles, and good reporting managers (we’re both honestly lucky in this aspect), that’s what we get at both Company M and Company L.

He he he…same old specifications. Good to know you’re able to get/enjoy what you want.

Her last statement left me thinking. These work-environment-factors are what we need — not want. We wouldn’t be at our productive best otherwise. We wouldn’t be happy otherwise. I’ve worn formals at a previous job and if I hadn’t quit when I did, I’d be having a dual-personality by now. (And I’ve always wondered why we can’t be who we want to be in our own motherland.) But our choices certainly do have their consequences. For example: D easily makes 30% less that what she’d make elsewhere. But she couldn’t even dream of trading these work-environment-factors for money. Neither would I — not even for a BIG-brand on my resume.

And we’re perfectly OK with all these because: We make our choices. We face their consequences. We enjoy our happiness.

Time and again, I find that these are the pillars that support us.