Who and What is a Freelancer?

What is challenging, though, is that those mental “boxes” can be very rigid and when it comes to rigid lines for people classification, there is inevitably some pushback. There may even be some near-rebellion from those who are pushed into having to conform.

This is exactly the case when we talk about freelancers.

When people talk about workers in general, the average person has just two ‘boxes’ at the moment and that is ‘Full Time’ and ‘Not Full Time’. Policymakers, consultants and think tanks, however, seem forced to have to talk about gig workers, on demand workers, e-hailing, p-hailing, independent contractors, independent employees and others on an ever-lengthening list of terminology. The need appears to be that, because we point out a slight difference or wrinkle in one perfectly smooth term or definition, we then have to use an entirely new term as opposed to just enhancing the term already in use.

For our purposes here, however, because the base reality of employment is undeniable, we will just use the term ‘Freelancer’ to mean any Non-Full-Time worker. And make it as simple as that. We are thus, choosing to be like the average person in the street and categorising workers in just two ways. It’s just so much easier. And more logical.

Full Time employment needs no introduction. But the reality is that greater and greater numbers of people are no longer employed full-time with many choosing to constantly be on short contract or ‘gig’ work. Indeed, this trend is so phenomenal that Forbes and Gallup talk about more than half the US workforce being employed on a gig basis by as early as 2023, though the more conservative forecasters say it will be 2025 when this happens. Whichever the date, there is no debate that it will happen. It is merely a matter of when, but that ‘when’ is imminent.

It is too convenient to say that because we are not living in the US, everything is different here and so the whole gig worker theory for Americans does not apply here. The reality, however, is that younger workers with those technical skills that local companies seem to want, are choosing not to commit to full-time employment. They are choosing shorter contract options instead. Mid-career workers may want those full-time jobs but organizations are not offering them those jobs, so people in their 40s are being forced to go short contract as a matter of course.

So who, or what, is a freelancer? And the answer is you are. I am. We all are. And if we are not freelancing today, we will be very soon.

Freelancers can be males or females, young or old, short or tall, single or married. They can be finance specialists, or HR people, or marketing experts, or techies or trained architects, or lawyers, or engineers. They could be cooks and chefs, physio-therapists, graphic artists or quantity surveyors. Perhaps the freelancer studied business, or mathematics, or religious studies, or chemistry. Perhaps the freelancer has a PhD or never even went to university. The point is that freelancers can be absolutely anybody doing absolutely anything.