My guiding light and inspiration for this book is Sara Sutton, a leader in the field of remote work. My deep and heartfelt thanks to Sara for always being available to answer my questions and to lend her expertise.
Sara is the CEO and founder of FlexJobs, a groundbreaking career website focusing on telecommuting, flexible, freelance, and part-time job listings, and founder of Remote.co, a resource for remote teams and companies. She graciously opened up the vault to allow me to access her list of great companies for remote workers.
A huge cheer to the following workplace experts who shared their insights with me: Dan Schawbel (danschawbel.com), author of Back to Human and a Millennial and Gen X career and workplace expert; Sharon Emek, founder of Work at Home Vintage Experts (WAHVE.com), a site for professionals over 50 who work from home for over 300 insurance and accounting firms; and Steve Dalton, program director for daytime career services at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and author of The 2-Hour Job Search: Using Technology to Get the Right Job Faster.
Special nod to Beverly Jones, an executive career coach and author of Think Like an Entrepreneur, Act Like a CEO, my go-to expert on all things career-related and a good friend.
My deep gratitude to my agent, Linda Konner, of the Linda Konner Literary Agency, whose publishing vision and faith in my work has driven my mission of empowering people to practically improve their working lives.
My sincere appreciation to former John Wiley & Sons editor Michael Henton for embracing Great Pajama Jobs and making the smooth handoff to the thoughtful and engaging editor Kevin Harreld. Gratitude to Jean-Karl Martin, associate marketing manager at Wiley, for his insights on how to employ marketing resources to bring readers the information they need at this unprecedented time. A warm thanks to Purvi Patel, my project editor, and Susan Cerra, Wiley managing editor, who led the production of this book with smooth and clear direction. And a rousing shout-out to my superb copy editor, Amy Handy, for polishing and perfecting every page with care. Beula Jaculin, production editor, carried us to the finish line with aplomb.
The Wiley design team once again fashioned an outstanding book jacket that projects the advice within, with a boost from the spur-of-the-moment photo image by photographer Cliff Hackel, shot in a simple country cottage in Boston, Virginia, one cold Sunday morning (with fashion styling by Caitlin Bonney).
Special credit to Richard Eisenberg, the managing editor of NextAvenue.org. Rich has been making my work smarter and sharper for years and a trove of the work I've done on the subject of remote work was developed with Rich for Next Avenue. Plus, we are both remote workers, so we have that going for us.
On a personal note, my writing and work depends on the support of my family and friends. These include my mom, Marguerite Hannon; the Bonney family: Paul, Pat, Christine, Mike, Caitlin, Shannon, Garrett Goon, Eileen Roach, and Lindsay Corner; the Hannon family: Mike, Judy, Brendan, Sean, Conor, and Brian and Charmaine; the Hersch family: Ginny, David, Corey, and Amy; and the Hackel family: Stu, Sue, Cassie, and Eric. And my best gal pal, Marcy Holquist.
Big thank you to my horse set at Woodhall Farm, especially trainer Peter Foley and Amy Zettler, and, of course, my special horse with the heart of gold, Caparino Z, for bringing balance to my life.
Zena, my super-pooch, gets the shiniest star for always getting me up and going at dawn and accompanying me wherever my laptop goes.
Finally, much love to my remarkable husband, Cliff, who knows what it's like to work from home and helps us find joy in every day.