Question to Freelancers: When Are You Going to Get a ‘Real’ Job?
Break Time
By Ryn Gargulinski
So that means you’re unemployed? That was the first question I would often get when I started full-time freelancing in 2009, and the question usually came from someone in pastel-colored scrubs.
That’s because the lavender-clad person was looking over my responses on those horrible medical forms we’re forced to fill out before every doctor visit. The person would quickly skim through all my answers concerning depression, alcoholism, mad cow disease and any other important things to know – to home in on the “job” section.
“You listed ‘self’ as employer,” they’d confirm. “So that means you’re unemployed, right? Well, no wonder you’re depressed. Maybe try drinking a glass of wine each night to lessen the stress.”
Sigh.
The second question was even better, and it often came after excitedly sharing all the long hours and hard work I was investing in the juicy freelance projects lined up through something like 2082.
“That’s nice dear,” the person would say. “But when are you going to get a real job?”
And the third question, well, it was one that kind of went with the second one. After someone asked how I made a living, and then listened to my jam-packed daily schedule of writing, website creation, drawing and making metal art, they would nod their head as if they understood. Then ask a question that proved they didn’t.
“Since you’re home all day doing nothing, can you pick up Becky from daycare for me?”
To be fair, there really was no Becky. And, probably after seeing how I drive, no one has ever asked me to pick up their child from anywhere. But you get the gist of what we freelancers face on a regular basis. Or at least we used to.
The general mindset around a career as a freelancer has shifted, as has my own mindset. While I used to moan, cry and insist I was working hard, I no longer feel the need to defend or explain what I do.
The term “self-employed” is no longer automatically viewed as “unemployed” – and it may even have made it as a category on those horrible medical forms. Terms like “solopreneur” have brought on a hint of allure and romanticism.
The number of freelancers has likewise exploded. Statistics say there were about 10.9 million freelancers kicking around the U.S. in 2009. Fast forward to 2024, and the number has grown to 76.4 million.
Even more thrilling to learn, we freelancers have been around for thousands of years. The earliest written evidence of the term pops up in the early 1800s, in a passage in “Ivanhoe” by Sir Walter Scott. “Free lance” referred to a professional medieval soldier who would fight for whatever cause, person or country paid them the most.
While that may immediately bring to mind a gaggle of money-grubbing mercenaries with no loyalty whatsoever, that’s not entirely true. If we look deeper, we find they did have extreme loyalty – to working smart, working hard and supporting themselves in a creative way. Not to an outside entity that could turn on them at any given moment.
Kind of like the modern big-company environment that helped propel me into freelancing in the first place. A giant corporation gobbled up and eventually closed down a bustling newspaper, leaving me and 60-plus fellow journalists unemployed in Tucson.
I freelanced until 2021, when I was lured into shaving off most of my freelance clients for a single company that promised 40 hours a week of steady work, high pay and perks – that all ended abruptly when that particular company sold out to an overseas firm that abruptly fired the entire American-based marketing team.
Other employers that had previously promised much, like traditional Medicare benefits upon retirement, seem to have no qualms about conveniently breaking those promises to employees if there is more money to be made.
Loyalty has largely eroded on both sides of the fence. Perks and benefits for full-time employees have generally gone down. Real wages have been on the decline since 1973. And even if it were once true, working full-time for a seemingly established company does not necessarily offer more job security than the freelance path.
Just ask the laid-off journalists in Tucson. Or the American marketing team for the sold-overseas company. Your life and career can change in a flash at any given moment, which means having more than one income source is always a plus. It’s an even bigger plus when you’re a freelancer doing what you love on your own terms.
If a full-time job for an established organization has been working for you, good for you. Stick with it and celebrate. Yet it doesn’t work for everyone. Know that those who succeed in the freelance life are productive, attentive to details, invested in doing their best, and, if they’re anything like me, most likely working for the toughest boss they’ve ever had – themselves.
There’s no slacking on the clock over here, but there is plenty of freedom. If I want to get up and work at 2 a.m., I can. If I want to work extra late on Thursdays so I can spend Fridays at the beach, I can do that, too. As long as I meet the initial commitments and deadlines to which I agreed, anything goes.
For those who may still argue that freelancing is not a “real” job, I’m done arguing back. I’ll take this “fake” job any day of the week – especially on Fridays when I’m hanging at the beach.
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Ryn Gargulinski is an award-winning author, artist, speaker and Reiki master who loves marching to the rhythm of her own offbeat drum. As founder of Sanctuary of the Wild Souls, she teaches people how to attain and maintain higher states of consciousness. More at WildSS.com.
