Why do things always go the most wrong just when they seem to be going so right? As I had a mini celebration about the fact that I had survived as a freelancer for a whole year, surprisingly unscathed, disaster struck. I say disaster - the more rational amongst you would probably just say minor drama. Either way, it is not fun.
Of course I always knew that when drama did strike, it would almost certainly be related to the computer. Am I psychic? A recent survey talked about the rise of computer rage and this week I have been right there with frustrated workers who scream at the screens and bash at the mice. The internet gods are conspiring against me because, horror of horrors, I can’t get online. Initially I couldn’t get online before 9am, which is when I need it the most every single weekday. It almost seemed like it was personal. It was most annoying but just about manageable. So, as if to show me who is boss (as if I didn’t know), the internet now doesn’t work at all. It’s been that way for three days and counting.
As an employee I would have probably been mildly annoyed that I’d broken the internet. Then, I’d have quickly moved on to wondering if anyone was planning an official statement on whether I might as well take the rest of the day off. Now that I’m a freelancer, as productivity levels have hit rock bottom and deadlines have loomed, so stress levels have been cranked up to the absolute max. I do realise – if I squint a bit – that the internet conspiring against me (and it is a personal vendetta) is small fry in the grand scheme of things, but I am sure other freelancers appreciate what a dramatic effect it can have one the work front. I have allowed myself a little panic, simultaneously calling my internet “service provider” (a hollow laugh to that term!), bashing frantically at two separate keyboards and screeching at my ever-patient boyfriend about our impending financial doom because of this computer blip. As the internet-free days draw on, I am starting to get a grip.
As a freelancer, it can feel – rightly or wrongly - that your position is just that bit more precarious. Even if you’re great at what you do, if you can’t do it for whatever reason, there’s more than likely someone else out there who can. In the past, IT was someone else’s problem at the end of the day. Now, even though I am kind of powerless to help the situation, at the mercy of my internet service provider, it is still ultimately my responsibility as far as clients are concerned - and quite rightly too.
So, as back and forths with IT people rumble on, I will continue this week as I ended the last - tearing around Newcastle, challenge Anneka-style, searching for a café that is a) open, b) has wireless, c) has free seats and d) has a free plug socket. It is not as easy as it sounds, as you go down the list. When you do find one of these cafes, there are then the problems of wondering whether you have stayed longer than is the done thing, concentrating amid bad music and other people’s conversations and last, but not least, shelling out for numerous over-priced drinks. I even bought some internet vouchers for wi-fi from a café and spent 20 minutes on the phone to their help desk because the damn things didn’t work. I suppose I will laugh about it next week. Still, at least I am treading water work-wise. Just.
They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, so I hope to emerge post- internet drama with contracts still intact, a stronger resolve in the face of adversity and an encyclopaedic knowledge of wi-fi hotspots in the Newcastle area. Even if the stress doesn’t kill me, though, I fear all this posh coffee I’ve been mainlining might.
Anyone got any amusing or serious freelancing disaster stories to give me some hope? What’s the betting that the majority are computer-based?
Sarah Wray
Apr 15, 2009
Email this article
Printer friendly page
Previous Page
