Since coming back to the US last year after three-plus years of living abroad, I noticed a lot of things had changed. And one of those things was the people around me.
More specifically, I noticed a lot of my friends complaining about their jobs. They talk about problems with their bosses, suffering through boring meetings, dealing with checked-out coworkers, and even worrying about layoffs. My friends who work for big companies in particular talk about things like salary negotiations and jumping ship to make more money at a different company. They also talk about retirement like it’s the end of a long, harrowing journey where their work will finally be over.
These are all things I don’t deal with in my own work, so I often feel left out of these conversations with little to add.
That’s why I wanted to write this post about what makes a Freelance Life different from a Regular Employee Life. I’m less interested in technical details like taxes, getting paid, and how freelance workers get jobs, and more in the mental experiences that separate regular employees from freelance creative workers like me who technically own small businesses.
Maybe you can relate to some of these things in your own work, or in work you did when you were younger. Or, if you’re looking to take your creative work to a new level where you don’t need a Day Job anymore, these insights could show you what you have to look forward to!
So, here are some benefits that Freelance Workers have over Regular Employees:
Your Schedule Is Your Own
When you work freelance jobs and plan your own schedule, you’re free to do the work you want to do in a way that makes sense to you. If you need more money, you can apply to more jobs, and if you need more free time (for instance, for your creative work!), then you can apply to fewer jobs. There’s always going to be deadlines looming over you, but if you manage things right, they’ll be deadlines you can control, rather than deadlines imposed on you by someone else.
There’s No Busywork
How many times have you been at a job where there was nothing to do, so you had to sit around listlessly? Or when you had to attend a boring meeting, do stupid shit that didn’t matter, or pretend to be interested in a task that clearly lacked any real purpose?
The freelance life allows you to leave all that behind, because when you work for yourself, the work you do matters and leads somewhere, even if it’s just toward bringing in a paycheck. There’s also no busywork, because when you realize the work you’re doing doesn’t have a purpose, you can stop doing it and do something else.
This leads into my next point, which is…
You’re More Engaged
Again, how many times have you phoned it in at your job, just wanting to be done with a task so it would be over? How many times have you gone through the motions of work when you were really just waiting for the clock to run out?
In my freelance work I have very few of those days, and I’m more engaged with my work overall. Sure, there’s always going to be boring tasks, but they’re boring tasks that have to get done and that I can see the purpose of, which helps me stay more focused when I’m doing them. This engagement gives me more energy, which I can then carry into my non-work life because I’m not frustrated and stupefied by the pointlessness of my job.
I Work With People On My Own Terms
When you work with coworkers and have to do a project together, you’re stuck with them. That means that if they’re lazy, incompetent, self-serving, or just plain jerks, getting away from them requires raising concerns with HR and navigating tricky social situations.
In the Freelance Life, though, if you don’t like working with someone, getting away is a whole lot easier: You just don’t work with them again.
I Don’t Scramble to Do My Creative Work Anymore
A big part of the difficulty I had with the Day Job life is that most of my Day Jobs required me to be at a certain place at a certain time. This meant that finding time for my creative work (and for other tasks like grocery shopping and doctor’s appointments) meant slotting in everything else outside of that Day Job window, usually on my evenings and weekends, which translated into putting them off far longer than I wanted to.
In the Freelance Life, though, your schedule is flexible, so if doing your creative work or going to an appointment is more important than your paid work, you can make that the priority, and schedule in your paid freelance work around that.
And finally, I saved the best for last: My number one advantage to living a freelance life is…
There’s No Boss
I’ve had a few bad bosses over the years , and always hated that feeling of being under the control of someone who was incompetent, bullying, or who took advantage of their position to do less work while bringing in a higher paycheck than me. I learned to smile and nod instead of pointing out when these bosses were wrong, and to gracefully accept their pointless assignments because, well, that was part of working.
My absolute favorite thing about the Freelance Life is that there’s no boss or company pulling the strings or exploiting my labor. When I bring in money, I bring it in for me, and there’s no one I have to toady to when their opinions don’t make sense, which means I can be more honest in my work than I could when I was an employee.
There’s an old saying that I think about often: If you want to know who has power over you, just look at who you’re afraid to criticize. I’ve always found that phrase most applicable in the working world, where I hated that feeling of holding back from criticizing my bosses because of the power they had over me.
Final Thoughts: Benefits vs. Drawbacks
I wrote this post focusing on all the good that comes from working on your own terms: the freedom, flexibility, and engagement. I’d be lying, though, if I said this was all there was to it, which is why next week I want to focus on the drawbacks to freelance work that don’t quite make it a good fit for everyone. Click here to read Part 2!