Freelancing and Out of Work

The Newshour had an interesting segment on its friday show http://www.pbs.org/newshour/newshour_index.html. Titled "Freelance and out of work," it depicted a number of individuals who had either quit or could not find regular employment and were now attempting to make it as freelancers. Besides portraying a number of interesting and inspiring life stories, it offered some practical information, for example, that there exists a freelancers union which can be helpful in things like purchasing insurance (http://www.freelancersunion.org/). Back to the stories: A woman who had given up a college teaching job in order to work as a musician said, "I always wanted to make music," she said. Another woman who was trying to sell her own jewerly said: "I need to be able to claim something that I can say 'this is me' and I can be proud of that." Another simply said, "I can't wear the suit." A man who was starting his own business said: "Many times I have given up safety and security because I wanted to change the environment and try different things." Although in some ways there were inspiring figures, near the end of the piece things got decidedly less optimistic--"The happy face of freelancing started to sag" was how reporter Paul Solomon aptly put it--and we heard how tought things were for these folks. For obvious reasons, for me the ex-academic story was most compelling: "I hate having to have been extremely successful and then having to make so much less...I hate making less money." This for me is the ghost of Christmas future after my one year terminal sabbitical pay runs out. It's a segment worth watching for anyone contemplating making the move on their own.