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Dear Ed archive
April 2009
Dear Ed
You’re always banging on about how great it is being freelance. I don’t
believe you! I bet there aren’t even ten good things about being a
freelance editor!
Dubious of Spotswood
Dear Dubious
My, such vitriol! Thought I was back at Sunbury Rock Festival in ’73 for a moment. I was almost expecting someone to yell out ‘Judas!’ and start lobbing full cans of Victoria Bitter onto the stage. Okay, Dubious, you’re on.
Herewith ten good things about being freelance. And if you don’t agree, you’re a nebbish.
1. You don’t have to squeeze your feet back into work shoes at the end of your summer holidays.
2. If you know your brain has entered its no-go phase, you can take a break without some idiot boss confusing productivity with time spent at the desk.
3. No-one gives you dirty looks if you’ve been out for an extra-long lunch (even if you do have to drape a towel over the bathroom mirror).
4. Freelancers have as many ways of saying ‘no’ to a job as the Inuit people have words for snow. (Actually I don’t think that’s true about the Inuit people, but it’s too good an idea to pass up.)
5. You can start work at 5.00 am if you want to without your colleagues thinking you’re committing an act of industrial espionage.
6. You get to meet clients ... and as an added bonus you get to say goodbye to them an hour later and leave the building.
7. The daily commute from kitchen to study is about five metres each way. This saves you a minimum of ten commuting hours per week and the time gained can be devoted to pursuits unrelated to earning an income, such as reading for pleasure.
8. What you lose in colleagues, you gain in peers.
9. You can do all your errands in those sweet spots between 10.00 am and noon and 2.00 pm and 3.00 pm when no-one else is about. It feels so good it should be illegal.
10. You no longer have to trade your boss ten units of daylight in exchange for a wage and four days off every fortnight.
Of course, all of the above is just this Ed’s opinion, so feel free to lob a few comments in my admittedly biased direction.
Seriously,
Ed