Yes, I’m Wearing Pants

Financial Post:

Freelancers have a certain reputation — one that I am perhaps not the best candidate to bust. After all, I take full advantage of the work-at-home lifestyle. This morning I came very close to retrieving the mail with no pants on.

Some people like to believe that freelancers slob out of bed at 11 a.m., just in time to make a pot of coffee and check in with the ladies of The View, and that the only work we do consists of pulling the occasional all-nighter right before a deadline.

“If I send an e-mail at noon, I have friends who will joke about how I just got out of bed,” says Tal, a freelance writer in New York. “But I try to have my day started by 8 a.m. or 9 a.m., which is earlier than when I had a staff job.”

Sarah, a freelance illustrator and filmmaker, who jokes that she talks to her plants when desperate for midday interaction, starts work before most people wake up and refuses to succumb to the freelance stereotype. “If you’re wearing a bathrobe, you’re like a caricature of yourself,” she says.

The freelance lifestyle requires discipline, flexibility and a high-speed Internet connection. True, I sometimes dedicate a sizeable portion of an otherwise productive day to checking the status of Britney’s fluctuating custody agreement. But for every squandered afternoon, there are cancelled evening plans.

John, a photojournalist in England, who has been freelancing for The Guardian and The Sunday Telegraph newspapers for 20 years, says that his schedule is completely random and that he often works weekends.

“I watch my neighbours go to their nine-to-five jobs and sometimes feel a little envious that there is order and structure to their working week,” he says. “But no one argues with me about when I take my holidays.”

One of the toughest adjustments to the freelance life can be the end of a regular pay-cheque. Workflow is often unpredictable and threats sometimes have to be issued along with invoices.

Read more.

Photo by Getty Images.

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