Is self-employment the same as WFH?

Turns out, there's quite a lot of difference between being employed remotely and self-employment

Jul 04, 2021

There was a time before the COVID-19 pandemic struck that a newsletter like this would be dedicated to demystifying the world of home-working. There would be endless opportunities to talk about resisting the alluring hum of the fridge, the benefits of using the Pomodoro method for productivity, and interrogating whether or not you should ever work from your bed.

But the reality is the majority of those reading this newsletter will have had firsthand experience of homeworking over the course of the last year and a half. I don’t need to preach about the benefits of being based out of your house. Nor do I need to catalogue some of the negatives (try sharing an internet router with four teenage boys and tell me how you get on). We all know what working from home is like by now. So why am I talking about it in this week’s newsletter?

Well, as mentioned in last week’s newsletter, I’m now officially unemployed. Because of my desire to get a mortgage at some point in the next few years, I’m currently looking for a new full-time role in marketing or journalism (Sheffield-based or remote). But until I get a new job, I’m going to try my hand at the whole ‘full-time freelancing’ thing. This newsletter originally started as a space for me to share my experiences of freelancing around a full-time role, but now more than ever I guess it’s a way for me to hold myself accountable and ensure that I do actually sit down at my desk each day and write.

Working for yourself is very different to working from home, as my two days of self-employment last week made me realise. There is nobody holding you accountable if you snooze your alarm until midday. There is no boss on the other end of a Zoom call expecting you to come to the table with a notebook full of ideas. There is a great deal of self-discipline required to get up each day, get dressed, sit down at your desk and write. And I think that structure is something I massively took for granted while I was a full-time employee.

As I settle into a routine and figure out what works best for me in terms of working hours, I think it’ll be interesting to see how many more pitches I send compared to the 2-3 a week I was sending while in full-time employment. I also reckon it’ll be interesting to see if I see an uptake in the number of my pitches getting commissioned while my head is ‘in the game’ full-time, as it were. Is the full-time freelance life for me? Watch this space…

My week

… in editing

I’m currently uploading all the articles from The Indiependent’s May magazine to our website, so keep your eyes on our socials for some great content.

… in writing

Pitches: 1

After working my last three days in my job, I spent Thursday hungover and Friday having an existential crisis, so I’m hoping for better pitching stats next week.

Commissions: 0

Articles written: 0

Articles published: 0

… in listening/watching

There’s a brand new episode of Indiependent Thinking dropping soon — make sure you’ve listened to the most recent episode first:

I’ve also been watching a *lot* of football lately. Things you do for love, eh…

… in reading

Rachael Healy’s VICE feature on toxic workplace culture in indie film was eye-opening
Daisy Jones’ VICE piece on ‘How the cry-laughing face became the most divisive emoji in history’ made me feel OLD
Anthony Breznican’s Vanity Fair interview with Iliza Shlesinger was so interesting: ‘Iliza Shlesinger’s ex-boyfriend lied about everything—so she made a Netflix movie about him’
I grew up cringing every time I went out in public with my Mum wearing Crocs, so I found Jenna Igneri’s Refinery29 piece really interesting: ‘Why are we so obsessed with “ugly” shoes? Psychologists weigh in’
Couldn’t agree more with Ella Glover’s Huck piece: ‘It’s time to make bosses pay for the commute’
I used to get harassed as a 17-year-old working in a newsagents — so I related to Hannah Van-de-Peer’s brilliantly reported VICE piece: ‘The grim reality of sexual harassment for shop workers’
Loved Elise Bell’s interview with Megan Barton-Hanson, exploring what happens when you’re made the Love Island villain for The Independent
Read Kelsey Barnes’ Clash interview with Måneskin

Events

On 12 July at 8.00pm, former The Guardian foreign correspondent Hella Pick will be talking to Emma Graham-Harrison about her extraordinary life and career — get tickets here.