Why Freelancers Never Walk Through Floods
This morning, I was lucky enough to drive to the office early. As of this moment, hundreds of thousands are stranded somewhere on the road while they wait for the floods caused by Typhoon Egay (you may know it as Sepat) to subside. Just last week in fact, my car stalled as I drove too fast through a knee-high “puddle.”
Why am I saying this? I imagine full-time freelancers have a lot more options when bad weather strikes. If they work at home, such as fashion blogger Sasha Manuel, they don’t have to leave the house anyway. Anyone who works on the field, like photographer Jake Verzosa, can simply postpone anything he has to do for the day. Unless the weather is extremely severe, which currently isn’t the case, necessities such as electricity and connectivity are still up. Thus a freelancer is left with a lot of choices: stay at home, work through the weather, leave the house at a later time, etc.
This versatility is available because full-time freelancers have greater control over their schedule. The typical setup of a freelancer-client relationship is results-based. For certain clients, it doesn’t matter how much work a freelancer does on a particular day, so long as the deliverables are there on the agreed upon deadline. And from personal experience, clients are more willing to cut freelancers some slack when it comes to scheduled meetings, presentations, etc.
In many companies, office workers actually incur a salary deduction for tardiness, the amount depending on how late they were. No matter the reason. Some employees can of course, use up their vacation and sick leaves to keep this from happening, but why should down time come at a cost?
I’m not saying that it’s OK for freelancers to be late. In fact, punctuality helps contract workers avoid unnecessary stress. The point is, with their flexible schedules relative lack of direct supervision, full-time freelancers can easily adapt to the situation as the need arises. No reasonable person would want to drive, much less walk, through horizontal rain and strong winds, if it can’t be helped. And those making a living exclusively as freelancers can certainly help it.
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POSTED IN: Living as a Freelancer, What's Great About Freelancing
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