Things I Thought: Working Freelance Can Be Quite Lonely

Over the past couple of months, one of the ways I’ve kept myself busy is by volunteering for a Film Festival.

Broadly speaking, this has meant spending a few hours each day to help promote the festival online. It’s been an interesting experience but it’s also been quite lonely too. I’ve been working from home most days and haven’t had the usually social experience of working with others. I’m not trying to complain because I value the organisation I work for but that’s just how it's been.

It’s the type of fate that I suspect more people are experiencing these days. Pulling up a list from the Office for National Statistics I saw this week, I've found that more people than ever are working in self-employed positions. It stands to reason that this is the case in the modern ‘gig economy’ but let’s assess the facts because they're quite interesting:

• Almost one million people registered as self-employed between 2008 and 2015.
• Overall part-time self-employment grew by 88% over the period 2001-2015.

Crikey.

Another big thing the report suggests is that dissatisfaction among self-employed people is quite strong. This is especially true for male workers – the bracket I personally fit into - although I suspect it’s a situation graduates face regardless of their gender. These are, after all, times where many feel the only way to advance their future employment prospects is by taking on unpaid work. I watched a brilliant film about this recently called Nightcrawler.

For me personally, one of the main issues has been location. After my tenancy ended back in January, I decided to move back to my Dad’s. This meant moving back to a sleepy market town somewhere in the East Midlands that doesn’t offer much by way of entertainment or inspiration.

In order to get out the house I’ve spent time in nearby coffee shops, so much so that I’m now on first name terms with most of the staff. This has been nice, although I’ve been careful not to spend all my savings on coffee and sandwiches.

I’ve noticed is that I’m not alone in this. Many people turn up around midday with their laptops in tow, seemingly to get on with work, or perhaps just to look for new jobs – something nobody really likes doing.

My observation is that Starbucks (one of the two place I tend to frequent) is now better at selling space rather than coffee. I’m undecided about whether this is a good thing but it's certainly been a mixed bag, especially when loud families arrive, or when, god forbid, kids turn up during the school holidays. Working on the weekends has been a complete no-go for these reasons.

More prescient, though, is the difficulty of working alone. It requires a lot of self-organisation and unfortunately I've sometimes struggled to work up the daily motivation to do what needs to be done. In order to help things, I've tried harder to maintain a more active lifestyle. I joined a gym and started bugging people to do things in the evening. Tennis in particular has been ace (try to ignore that pun).

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m wary in this shift towards self-employment. I don’t believe it’s feasible for everybody. I also doubt it's great for young graduates like myself who I suspect will always learn more from the people they’re around rather than just the work they do.

That's my point but I will accept it beats the morning commute on the Central Line.

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