Daniella Cortez was running ragged on a work treadmill overseeing a content team at a Northeast Ohio boutique marketing firm — and she was quite good at it. A committed boss balancing mom life, the work was fulfilling. But how empty she actually felt didn’t kick in until the pandemic forced her team to 100% work from home for several months. “I was in my 40s and realized I had been white-knuckling it through my career,” Cortez says. She discovered, “Life is too short to be super overwhelmed all the time.”
“The lifestyle I had been living until everything stopped was unsustainable and unhealthy,” she says.
Hybrid was no longer comfortable. “And I have a high-risk child who could absolutely not get COVID,” she says of her daughter’s seizure condition. “In general, returning to the workplace made me feel really nervous.”
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Cortez started a low-key job hunt to see what remote-only possibilities were out there.
Then on LinkedIn, she stumbled upon a post about Curriculum Associates, a Boston-area tech-ed company that produces instructional and assessment software. An open social communications role caught her eye.
“I did four interviews with them in less than three weeks, and it felt like the right role, the right time and the right team from the moment I saw the job description,” Cortez says.
The life-changing career move has given her a sense of freedom, three years and a couple of promotions later.
Unraveling stressors
While working from home, Cortez realized, “It was easier to accommodate myself.” She gained knowledge of ADHD diagnoses and says understanding her neurodiversity has been an enlightening path to working healthier while also scaling the corporate ladder.
Fruit snacks on Zoom
With fully remote work and an employer out of town, the responsibilities are no different than attending a 100% in-office position. But there’s a level of understanding in the work culture Cortez joined that she appreciates. For one, no more daycare at about $900 per month. Cortez walks her daughter, who is in kindergarten, to school every morning as part of a daily routine. She says, “If there is an 8-year-old wandering around eating fruit snacks on a Zoom call, that’s part of being understanding.” Because Cortez works in a market with higher wages, she won a nice-sized bump, nearly double her previous pay.
Structured WFH
During her time at the local marketing firm, Cortez admits, “I had zero idea how to work at home. I was just working all the time. Work was always here.” Boundaries are big. For Cortez, that meant converting a sunroom to an office, closing the door to that space on weekends, using a different laptop for personal matters and maintaining traditional hours with the mind space to do everyday life. “Being in control of my space is super helpful for my productivity,” she says.
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