- Kyle Ankney is looking for a remote role in PR because he has cerebral palsy.
- Ankney's insurance covers in-home care, complicating in-office work.
- The 34-year-old has found there are fewer remote roles in PR — a broader trend in the workforce.
Kyle Ankney, 34, lives near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and works in public relations, including running his own firm. He's looking for a remote role in PR because he has cerebral palsy, which limits his physical abilities, and his insurance covers in-home care. Business Insider has reviewed medical records that confirm his diagnosis. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.
I never really wanted to run my own PR agency. Yet a client who didn't want to lose me convinced me to start my own firm. Now, the client is going on an indefinite hiatus and isn't sure if they'll return.
So, for the past few months, I've been trying to re-enter a traditional PR agency-type role, to have a team to grow — to do all the things I enjoy, minus running a business. I'm looking at, I would say, mid-senior level or something around director level.
I've been doing this work for more than 10 years, quite successfully — not to toot my own horn.
One recruiter told me I was super qualified but said I was probably hitting bumps because when you get to my level of experience, many people are expected to manage teams. Then, the recruiter told me I might have to consider looking for a more junior role because most managing jobs would be in person.
Some of the conversation now about remote work goes beyond it just being a perk. It's almost like it's a drawback for some employers.
My condition requiring the nurse three times a day is the reason that remote has gone from a luxury for me to now being a necessity.
The way my insurance works, it only allows the nurse to come to one address. So, even if I were to find a job here in South Florida, I would still have to be remote because of that.
Getting this care took decades
It took me 20 years on a waiting list to get this level of home care by a nurse covered through Medicaid. If I leave Florida and go anywhere else, I lose those services and have to go to the back of the line.
Needing extra help from a nurse started four years ago when I was 30. It changed my world in the worst way. It now feels like the cerebral palsy and the wheelchair and all of the other BS that comes with it is nothing in comparison to needing the nurse to help me go to the bathroom. This I literally, physically, cannot handle on my own.
So, it's been a rough year trying to run a business, trying to find a job — it's just been a lot. I'm not trying to be completely unrealistic, but having as much resistance as I've had has been surprising just because you're taught, at least in society, that the more senior you become and the more experience you get under your belt, the easier it is to make connections and find opportunities.
As someone who's managed a team of six, I know how difficult it was to direct them remotely because there was a lot of oversight needed to make sure that mistakes weren't being made. There was a lot of back and forth, and ultimately, I was able to figure out how to do that quite well at my agency.
I try to reiterate whenever I have opportunities to meet with anyone in my field that working from home is necessary and that I've figured out how to manage a team remotely. I say, "I understand that this may be a point of hesitation for you. However, I've been able to navigate it this way for so many years."
When the recruiter told me I should consider more junior roles, my ego was like, "That's absurd." Yet now that I've been looking for four months, which feels like four years, my savings are drying up, and I'm not making ends meet. I've been lowering all the search criteria and the salary range and I'm not really finding a bunch more.
The last time I was looking for a job, I got remote positions just by chance, but I would have been able to do in-office if it was absolutely required — and now I cannot.
There are fewer remote roles
In 2020, because of the pandemic, I saw a lot of PR opportunities becoming fully remote. It was a game changer for me in terms of opening up opportunities. But because I've been running my own agency for several years now, I hadn't been paying attention to what was remote versus hybrid versus in-person. I was shocked by the level of swing back.
I've reached out to everyone I know in PR, which is a substantial group. They're saying things like, "I'll send people your way."
I have looked up every agency I wanted to work for, and I wrote a blunt email. It wasn't, "Hey, I need a job." It was, "Hi, I respect you. I admire you. I need advice because here's what I'm running into. I would love the opportunity just to pick your brain." That has been successful in the sense that I have had three or four conversations with people at different agencies, yet no one is quite hiring.
If there's a role that I'm particularly interested in, I'll go to RocketReach, I'll look for the best email that I can find, and I'll say, "I've already applied. Here's my situation." I continue to follow up to try to make myself stand out.
You have to try. I'm shocked by how many postings and emails I've received that say, "We're not hiring for this role, but we want to collect résumés." Or if you apply for positions, you get "We're on pause." Or it's just complete ghosting. I've experienced all three.
I don't know if this is the best- or worst-case scenario, but I recently interviewed with an agency, and it went to six rounds. The role was listed as remote. Then they were like, "You know, we might need travel to be involved, so we have to take this a different direction."
You would think you would know that at round one. I don't just blindly apply to jobs. I read for things like whether travel is required. That particular posting said nothing about travel. So there have been a whole bunch of hurdles.
It's just a game of resilience at this point — just holding on and crossing your fingers and praying.
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