The Freelance Drill: Can't Buy a Thrill
And for so many belonging to my freelance tribe, you know the drill. Staff jobs have all the plentitude of crossbred unicorn-bull seals. Those jobs that do exist often pay squat. Or you get to shill a product or service you could care less about — but must act like you do with all of your heart. Then there are the entrepreneurs among us, who manage to crack the code in ways large and small; for me it’s been somewhere in between as I covered in this column. Will it get any better? Not unless you create your own job by reverse engineering it. And this can empower you. You might as well apply this three-word maxim when looking for a full-time job in traditional journalism: Get over it. The esteemed Pew Research Center notes that the number of newspaper newsroom employees dropped by 51% between 2008 and 2019, from about 71,000 workers to 35,000. These statistics are fresh, by the way — from April. Concurrent to this, freelance work is exploding — though to my thinking, the way bombs do when wonderful cities are leveled. Here the facts can be less clear. For example, Upwork claims: “61% of freelancers went into this type of work by choice.” Ha. I don’t know who the surveyors talked to but it wasn’t a single muthafudging journalist I know. (But I do know Upwork makes money off the backs of freelancers.) Or this: Freelancers could represent 80% of the global workforce by 2030, while freelancers around the world earn $19 an hour on average. Much more believable if you ask me.Know the No's Before You Go
Yes, I did double my income within two years after being let go from the Tribune. And six months after losing my government contracting job this year as a managing editor, I’ve equaled what I made there. In six more months I will probably make more than Android, a source of unending amusement. I’ll send him some new shorts and a shower head. But, but, but:- No insurance.
- No retirement account.
- No company match.
- No workmates to get coffee or lunch with.
- No paid vacations because when you take a vacation, you pay.
- Plus, to borrow from musician and journalism scholar John Hiatt, you get to sell your smart ass door to door in search of a paycheck...
- ...then you get to chase down those paychecks when clients don’t send ’em on time.