Almost half of freelance workers are so satisfied with their flexible business careers they would reject a 100% pay rise if it meant having to become an employee.
Most value their independent working life so much that adding 50% to their take-home pay wouldn’t convince them to quit freelancing for 9 to 5 employment.
Controlling when and where they work is the most prized asset of working atypically, followed by escaping the ‘rat race’ and having more time to pursue their interests.
Suggesting to freelancers they should forego these perks, stop being their own boss and work as a full-time employee is not agreeable to most, even with cash incentives.
Partly this is because freelancers attach an immeasurable value to the benefits not being directly employed allows, but it’s also because they’re already paid handsomely.
“One of the most common concerns before switching to a flexible working life is being able to secure enough regular work to match the income of full-time employment,” said Workology, which commissioned the findings.
“However, potential freelancers should harbour no such worries: 62% of freelancers earn a comparable or higher income than when they worked full-time.”
As most freelancers will testify, flexible working does not dictate working less: one third put in between 41 and 50 hours a week, and almost as many work each week for over 50 hours.
The fact they get fatter, or the same, pay packets as their directly employed counterparts is further justified because freelancers are typically non-employers and initially short on resources.
This reality of being a sole agent gives newcomers to freelancing a bit of a shock: 58% of respondents quizzed by Workology said they missed the infrastructure and support of conventional employment.
These new freelancers said that, having made the jump from the corporate world, they found it tricky to know how to access or find the support they needed after leaving their job.
But 56% got over their initial wobbles within just six months of being self-employed, while three-quarters reported they no longer felt anxious 12 months after they had decided to go it alone.
The overall positive experience of people who quit their permanent jobs for freelancing seems to be turning more and more heads in the directly employed workforce.
“This survey confirms what I'm encountering more frequently amongst coaching clients,” said Emily Stokes Hotchkiss, a life coach and flexible working expert.
“It seems we're approaching a tipping point with growing numbers of people moving away from traditional employment, towards freelancing and self-employment.”
Workology’s managing director Sam Gyimah said technology has played a crucial part in allowing people to make the change to how they work.
"We are entering the next stage in the evolution of work,” he said. “The internet and high broadband penetration is steadily putting paid to the traditional working week and it won’t be long before flexible working becomes the norm.
Mr Gyimah pointed to estimates from the Professional Contractors Group, the freelance trade body, showing that up to 40% of the UK workforce will be freelance by 2010.
Workology’s findings were based on interviews with 1,000 workers, all of whom worked flexibly, including freelancers, remote workers and self-employed professionals.
Jun 13, 2008
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