Servey, speaking in Marketplace's 'Clocked Out' series, left a corporate design job after developing nerve problems in her hands and turned her Etsy side hustle into a full-time business. She describes how self-employment fits her disability.
Thanks, Kristen.
…You know, things that aren't necessarily productive, that don't need to make money, that you don't even need to master. But sometimes the pull of the side quest is too strong. And suddenly, the side quest becomes the main quest. That brings us to the latest installment of our series, Clocked Out.
My name is Stephanie Servey, and I'm in Monterey, California. And in mid-2025, I turned my side hustle with an Etsy shop into a successful full-time business running a local yarn shop. My previous job was with the Naval Postgraduate School on an in-house contract design team. I was doing what I love, but after a while, I started noticing I was having nerve problems in my hands. I got carpal tunnel syndrome and cubital tunnel syndrome in both arms. I tried my best to stick it out and keep working because it was meaningful work. But eventually I just had to admit, this isn't working anymore. Leaving my traditional corporate. job was absolutely scary. And I sat down with my parents and what we ended up deciding was this side hustle that I'd had since before I left college, which was just making little jewelry pieces or doing freelance design here and there for people. We would see if I could turn my Etsy shop into a full-time business. So I…
Stephanie Servey, a yarn shop owner in Monterey, California. We're bringing you stories from this series all week about people leaving the corporate world to do their own thing. Tell us your story at marketplace.org/slash clocked out. This final note on the way out today, we got the latest survey…
In the 1960s, the federal government embarked on a huge experiment. It was groundbreaking at the time. The goal? To figure out the best ways to teach.
They evaluated