"Maybe after this epidemic, the city's working mode will see a permanent shift, with more people joining the home-based working population," joked Alex Yan, a website designer with a local IT company, who has been told to work at home on alternate weeks during the special period.

"SOHO" is actually no longer a new term in Shanghai, where 500,000 locals already work in "Small Offices and Home Offices" according to statistics from the end of last year.

And the current SARS epidemic, which provides an opportunity to fully demonstrate all SOHO's strong points, may well fuel its development in a major way.

A survey conducted by a website recently, involving over 1,000 people, found 40 per cent saying they could adapt well to the SOHO mode and even work more efficiently at home than in the office.

Home is where the heart is

"In the eyes of outsiders, a SOHO's life may be full of fun," said Chun Zi, a home-based web-designer who has been a SOHO for three years.

"Only when you really step into this circle will you find all the difficulties."

Usually it is when working in companies doesn't fit your character that you think of becoming a SOHO, she said.

When three years ago, Chun Zi graduated from the famous Fudan University, she had a lot of ambitious goals, such as to be a successful white-collar worker at a big multinational enterprise.

Chun Zi started her office career as a secretary in a local company. Her job mainly involved writing up the minutes of meetings.

"A very pointless job - I spent my time writing up these vacuous and trivial things," she said.

After two provoking months, she job-hopped to an IT company, resigning again a few months later.

"The polyarchic style within the company really annoyed me," she said.

"To have one suggestion passed, you have to get the nod from many people. It's too time consuming."

The same disappointing experience happened again with another company, which finally caused her to become a SOHO.

"I don't want to give in just for the salary," she said.

Chun Zi launched a website called SOHO Union. Everyday she received letters from those who wanted to be a SOHO but didn't know how to cross the threshold.

"Many of them are people like me who find themselves unable to adapt to company life," she said.

"If they were equally able at being a successful SOHO or an office clerk, most would probably settle for the latter. Anyway, being a SOHO requires facing much greater survival pressures. To some degree, we are just like orphans."

Jacks of many trades

These years, partly due to the country's education reforms, which have cultivated different interests in students, an increasing number of people are choosing to become SOHOs simply because they have too many interests.

A fixed job within one company is insufficient to allow them to display all their capabilities.

A-Jian, a young man in his 20s, is one example.

"When two years ago, I resigned from my former company and decided to be a SOHO, a lot of people didn't understand my choice as the salary the company provided was quite generous," he said.

Apart from the desire for a free and easy life, A-Jian wanted to develop more of his capabilities - in fact, that was the main reason.

"In my former company, I was a technical adviser for multimedia production," he said.

"I liked the job, but I also liked working in the fields of advertising and publishing. So later I became a SOHO. Now I work in all these fields."

The case of James Zhang is similar. As a law graduate, he could easily have found a good and fixed job, except for his excessive number of interests, such as sales, advertising and chess (he twice won the university's chess championship).

Currently, Zhang is a law counselor for one company, and at the same time works on advertisements for a newspaper. He is also tutoring two children at chess.

Although he has many posts, the total working time adds up to far less than eight hours a day. His income is considerable. During his ample spare time, he makes trips or takes night courses to improve his skills.

Survival of the fittest

However, as mentioned, SOHOs have to face much more challenging survival pressures than those working for companies. Usually, SOHOs need to earn more to have enough money left over to cover insurance policies after meeting their basic needs.

Don't take it for granted that SOHOs are those who work in pajamas, and can freely give themselves a holiday when not in the mood for work.

"Actually, if you want to be a SOHO, you should fully prepare for a hard life," said Mei Shudong, who has been working as a freelancer for over five years, and has seen many SOHOs return to work for companies after failing to make ends meet.

"In the first three years of being a SOHO, my average income was only half what I earned working for a company, and sometimes for several months I had no income at all, but if you have fully prepared for that, you can still enjoy such a life."

Apart from survival problems, another difficulty facing many SOHOs is disturbance from friends and relatives. It is often the case that SOHOs are regarded as having most of their time free. When there is something needing help, the SOHO friend is the first one to be called upon.

"Anyway you have no boss to deduct your salary because of taking half a day off," Mei said with a forced smile.

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