Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.
In praise of the freelance life.
Talk to most freelancers and they will tell you their status in the labour market is one where there is a real disparity in safety and protections to that of their permanent employee counterparts — all as a consequence of their decision to choose the independent life over that of permanent employment within an organisation.
There’s also been a long-held view that the life of a freelancer, through their vocational choice of breaking free from an overarching ‘employee/employer’ structure, is somewhat of a stateless existence.
I believe this to be a misconception and reductive. Countless freelancers I have met, and worked with, these last 25 years have been quite the opposite of stateless. They indeed have a sense of belonging and identity, it’s just that this belonging and identity falls beyond the traditional definition of employment. Instead, I would argue that a freelancer’s ‘statehood’ is recognised in their independence and that this collective drive for autonomy is what both connects this ever-growing community together as well as drive the labour market forward in a post-COVID economy where tactically deploying independent professionals, remotely, makes more and more sense.
Enter, the national motto of France: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. As far as national mottos go, the French clearly brought their A Game — it’s beautiful. Equally impressive and super-inviting is Belize’s “Under the shade I flourish” — sign me up to that utopia any day! And let’s not forget Chile’s national motto which I think can also find a convenient home in parenting books for toddlers: “Through Reason Or By Force”. But since the latter two don’t work as neatly for this post, I’ll continue with the French trifecta.
I believe these words have a special resonance within the life of a freelancer. Of course I appreciate the context in which it was created and even the fact that there are those who believe the evocative statement needs adaptation and possibly redefinition in today’s France: “Expectations — of living standards, cultural expression, and individual identity — are very different now compared with post-Revolutionary France” as the BBC’s Paris Correspondent, Lucy Williamson, notes.
But for me, the words and the meaning behind them can provide a powerful, even poetic, description of the freelance life.
Liberté
For individuals who choose the freelance life, and even people who are forced into it via external factors and then decide to continue down this path, the core motivation is quite often freedom. The idea of taking control of one’s life, setting the terms on how they pursue their career and further their craft, is as powerful a driver as they come.
The very fact that freelancers have greater movement within a particular sector or within their specialist craft is an incredible asset to the next company they choose to engage with. This is because the skills and information a permanent employee might be exposed to thanks to a long tenure at Company X, the average freelancer absorbs in a shorter period of time and subsequently occurs more often. And by experiencing more ways-of-working/cultures/technologies, they enter the next environment with an incredibly informed approach in how to get the job done. Every one of us learns through osmosis to some degree wherever we work. The difference for the freelancer is that their hunger for liberté means that this osmosis is supercharged.
Égalité
You would be hard pressed to find any other part of the labour market that functions on equality of opportunities more than the freelance economy. A freelancer’s relationship with the market and potential progression is based on their ability to come through with the goods for whatever project they’re on. If they can’t, then it’s not just their current engagement that’s in jeopardy, but also future opportunities. And since the frequency of jobs a freelancer does is relatively high, news of not being able to deliver gets around. But thankfully, this frequency can also become a strength. Every freelancer has a story of ‘wrong fit’ within an organisation or project, and so the fact that they can move on, and the sheer quantum of data points of freelancing in their specialist field, means that a more authentic égalité is delivered.
Fraternité
This final pillar, I believe, is the strongest in combating a sense of statelessness. Yes by their very nature a freelancer is independent, but they still form part of a larger fraternity that is very much rooted in belonging. They are bound together by the drive to achieve their goals in their craft in an autonomous way. It might sound like a contradiction but independence and belonging need not be mutually exclusive. I would argue their desire to “go it alone” isn’t based on some exclusionary attitude but rather very much a pursuit of excellence albeit at a higher cadence. This has been an overwhelming characteristic of the freelancers I have had the privilege of working with over the years and this trend is only gaining steam in a post-COVID world.
Finally, beyond these three concepts, I believe there is one more critical trait that defines a freelancer — courage. It relates to the quasi-meritocracy of the second pillar but it’s so much more.
To be a freelancer is to back yourself.
But unless you’re born with an incredible amount of serotonin, there will invariably be times where things aren’t smooth sailing and both your confidence as well as your broader mental well-being is affected. Continuing to pursue the freelance life during these times is hard. Continuing to be driven by a conviction that the independent career path you have chosen is still the right path takes guts on a continual basis — especially when external factors such as government regulations and economic policy have not caught up to the way in which an increasing number of the labour market is headed. But soon, the numbers will be overwhelming and freelancers will soon outnumber permanent employees in many economies and organisations, so the concept of identity and belonging can move beyond “I work at Company X” to “I’m a freelance Y”. The former becomes the vehicle and the latter becomes the state.
SVM
