The freelance experience

Introduction

Everyone who worked on Belong in Plymouth did so in a part-time capacity. For some, it was part of a salaried role, but more than half of the ‘core team’ were self-employed. Part-time hours ranged from 2-3 hours to 2-3 days per week. In the winter of 2023-24, in my role as Learning Partner for the project, I interviewed 10 of the 18 ‘core team’ members, including five freelancers. Based on their experiences (and mine, as a freelancer as well), here are some key insights and recommendations for anyone else embarking on a social change project with self-employed staff.

Flexibility and Control

Many freelancers work in this way because they want work to fit in with their life, not the other way around. They want flexibility and control. Some work like this because they see it as the only way to bring about positive social change whilst living the life they want. This approach to work appears increasingly common. Nevertheless, this is an insecure way to work, which can breed a sense of uncertainty and rootlessness. Our working hours didn’t always overlap, and we didn’t have an office so were all working from home. We operated a flat structure with no ‘managers’ overseeing work. As a result, things could take a long time to happen or sometimes be dropped altogether.

Many Minds

Having a greater number of people each working a smaller number of hours was viewed by some as a positive: more ‘minds’ working on the project meant a greater diversity of inputs and insights. I could certainly see the benefit but working in a very part-time way can also lead to a feeling that there is never enough time to do the job properly. The anxiety that could breed had the potential to be exploitative. Speaking personally, this job required a far greater amount of mental and emotional labour than I was being paid for! As a counterpoint to that, however, is the hourly rate we were charging. For many, this was high enough to mean that they were able to work fewer hours than they had done in the past, allowing them the necessary time to shoulder the additional mental load. The question that arises for me is: how can we support people working in this way to both give their best to a project and look after themselves?

Recommendations

Onboard effectively. Have a shared physical space where people can meet and get to know one another away from the Teams screen. These informal connections are invaluable to weaving a fabric of trust and goodwill that will benefit the project, as well as offering an organic means of skills and information sharing. Create a core day or a core set of hours every week is one way to ensure enough overlap so people can collaborate. Without ‘managers’, people still need dedicated time, care and attention for themselves. Ensure this is available, perhaps on a ‘peer’ basis.