Singapore PR Professional Triples Income After Shifting to Fractional Work

In late 2019, Singapore-native Rachael De Foe made a bold decision to leave her nine-to-five job in public relations with no concrete plan in place. Burnt out from years of working in both large agencies and boutique firms, she walked away without knowing what would come next. That leap of faith, however, led to a career transformation that has more than tripled her income to about $220,000 annually, according to documents verified by CNBC Make It.

Leaving Traditional Employment

At the time of her resignation, De Foe, then in her late 20s, had been struggling with the relentless pace of agency life. “Every single business was chasing what I now like to call the ‘agency monster’ ... You have too many clients, so you need [a bigger] team. You have too many team [members], so you need more clients. There’s never equilibrium,” she told CNBC Make It. Having burned out multiple times, she realized she did not want the career trajectory of her bosses. “That’s just not the life that I wanted. So that’s when I decided to quit at the end of 2019,” she said.

Initially, she planned to rest during the holiday season before looking for another position. “I had no plan, if I’m being quite honest ... my plan was to figure it out,” she said. But the more she surveyed the job market, the more she recognized familiar patterns that had driven her to leave.

Woman talking on the phone | Source: Pexels

Starting a Business During a Pandemic

Her uncertainty coincided with the global COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, when many businesses downsized and eliminated public relations and communications roles. “I’ll be honest, it was actually really scary at that point of time, because I think two of the functions [first] to be cut [during an] economic downturn, was both PR and HR ... so in my mind, I was like: ’Oh no, what am I going to do?”

Unexpectedly, the downturn created new demand for leaner solutions. “At the peak of Covid, essentially, I had founders and VCs reach out to me saying something along the lines of: ‘Rachel, we just got rid of our agency, but we have this reputation problem ... Can you solve this problem?’” she recalled. What began as ad hoc freelancing soon evolved into a structured business. De Foe incorporated her own company, Redefy, in 2020 and began working as a fractional head of communications.

The Rise of Fractional Work

Fractional work differs from traditional freelancing in that workers are embedded into companies on a part-time basis, often taking responsibility for entire functions such as communications or strategy. While freelancers are typically hired for discrete projects, fractional executives operate across multiple organizations, offering leadership without full-time commitments.

“As a fractional head of [communications] ... I’m completely responsible for the communications function of a company. But because the company may not [need] a full-time person, it’s really up to me to make my own hours,” De Foe explained. “I answer to three CEOs, but I’m my own CEO at the same time.”

Her typical workload includes three to five clients at once. This approach has allowed her to avoid the burnout cycle of agency life while maintaining control over which projects to pursue. “In the past few years, it’s been very interesting to see the shift in fractional as well, because people who used to be seniors at companies that I’ve worked for have started going the fractional route too,” she said.

Woman with her arms open | Source: Pexels

Financial and Personal Gains

She believes fractional work makes sense for service-based industries where the individual professional is the key asset. “You are the person that people want to work with, right? So it doesn’t matter whether you’re sitting under a [bigger] company or [if you’re working alone]. People are looking for that interaction with you, and if you have [the experience or seniority], that’s enough to start on your own,” she said.

Reflecting on her journey, De Foe is clear that she does not intend to return to traditional employment. “I’m never going back to one boss,” she said. “I’m a lot happier. I’m a lot more fulfilled, and I think more than anything — I feel like I can give myself the permission to chase the things that I want to.”