The Paradise called Freelancing
Ajay, name not changed for reasons that he does not want it do, is a freelancer. Which means that he works when he needs the money, lives a cushy life, has loads of holidays and pursues an amazing array of hobbies and activities that gives him a full life.
Err no.
Freelance isn’t the same as footloose.
Ajay spends a lot of his time, in a structured organized environment of work at a popular co-working space, doing pretty much the same thing that he would do at any office, were he employed fulltime. He starts his morning with a coffee break – for which he has to pay a coupon – and then searches for and finds a flexi-desk that’s available, says hello to a new co-flexiworker daily and begins his day.
He spends his mornings looking up assignments on portals like odesk, elance, flexiport, etc that he can stock his pipeline with, engages in creating offers, quotes, a bit of digital marketing and other activities, and then settles down to his assignment for the day, to provide application development services on react native to his customers.
He spends around sixty percent of his time developing systems for at least two customers at a time.
Ajay, and thousands like him, aren’t freelancers because they don’t want to work. They’re freelancers, because they don’t want to be associated with a regular job and all the trials, tribulations and travails. They are in a job, because they have traded off some perks against others, as a calculated move.
They do this because of myriad reasons. Ajay moved out of a job, because he was asked to lead a team. Sounds corny? It isn’t. Ajay knows what he wants to do, and what he’s capable of. He knows it isn’t really his cup of tea to work on gantt charts, and project management sheets, and pulling up people for time and output woes. He is happy coding, and his ex-organization – they are also utilizing his skills, by the way – didn’t have a role for him that allowed him to code and grow within the organization.
Ajay isn’t secure really. But he does know that so long as he has a skill, and stays ahead of the curve in terms of skill and knowledge upgradation, there is always value that he can offer to an organization, against payment.
This tribe is growing, slowly and surely. People are discovering that a whole host of perks can be traded off towards working on aspirations that a regular job may not offer. They are saying no to certain luxuries, to get some others in return. A freelancer has not given up working, a freelancer has given up a job.
