The Disadvantages of Freelancing: 4 Major Things to Consider Before Quitting Your Job 



The freelance economy is booming, and the work-for-yourself lifestyle can certainly sound enticing. But it's not all lounging in pajamas and meeting friends for midday coffees. The freelance life has drawbacks that—without discipline and certain personality traits—can drive even the most talented worker insane. Here are four dark sides to freelancing you need to think about before you turn in your two-weeks’ notice.

1. You never leave the office. You may not literally be chained to your desk, but when you work from home, it’s tough to set boundaries, such as using your living room onlyto Netflix and chill—and not to answer late-night work emails. “For many people with work-from-home jobs, it’s extremely difficult to ‘turn off’ and end your day,” says Heather Huhman, Generation Y career expert and founder of Come Recommended. “Never actually leaving your physical office can become daunting and overwhelming.”

When 36-year-old Evie Smith launched her own consulting firm, she relished working in bed. “Then I started noticing days where I would not brush my teeth,” she admits. “I would forget to eat until like 2:00 P.M. and just feel frazzled and gross all the time. I had absolutely no boundaries with work and no reason to ‘person’ during the day.” Eventually she forced herself to work from outside her home—and embraced a chic active-wear wardrobe that encouraged her to get dressed because it also kept her comfy, a perk of the freelance life.

If you make the freelance leap, set boundaries—as Smith did—to separate your home and work lives. How? “Try to maintain a fixed work schedule, have hours when you are in your home office, and time when you do not respond to work emails,” recommends career coach Hallie Crawford.

2. Nobody else deals with the headaches. “If you ask most people, they’d be happy to have only themselves to answer to every day—no manager looking over their shoulder or boss breathing down their neck for deadlines,” says Huhman. But those same people you’re so eager to dodge also deal with a lot of behind-the-scenes issues, problems you and you alone will now be responsible for. “Going out on your own means there’s nobody to catch every complaint, issue, or downfall except you,” she says.

Going freelance means you become every department: You’re the acｃountant, the sales team, and the human resources manager for your one-woman show, points out Crawford. And while it’s possible to wear all those hats, “it’ll likely take a lot of learning time, both on the job and through professional development courses,” she says.

Branded-content consultant Melanie Deziel, 26, says she didn’t anticipate how much time she’d spend doing things other than her passion: “Tracking hours and expenses, writing and following up on invoices, setting up meetings, negotiating contracts, booking travel, preparing and paying quarterly estimated taxes, and filling in what seems like an endless supply of spreadsheets and paperwork,” she ticks off. “Since I come from a creative background and not a business background, these things can sometimes be intimidating, not to mention a distraction from the fun creative work I'd always rather be doing.”

If you’re considering going freelance, ask yourself how comfortable you are dealing with tough and even foreign situations, suggests Huhman. “Consider whether you’d rather stick to your passions and skip the flaws of business ownership,” she says, “or if you would like to take control and handle everything.”

3. Your income isn’t guaranteed. As you scrounge up new clients—or while you wait what feels like forever to be paid for work you’ve already done—your bank balance can dip alarmingly low. “It’s difficult to understand what it feels like to have inconsistent pay until it’s actually happening,” commiserates Huhman, who didn’t launch Come Recommended “until I felt my family could survive solely off of my husband’s paycheck and my business. However, clients and business are always fluctuating.”

Even something as simple as taking a long weekend away from the office can hurt your bottom line—which means a lot of freelancers literally can’t afford to take time off. “The hardest part about freelancing is that you can't ever take paid time off,” says 33-year-old copywriter Kimberly Crossland. “That was a big deal a year ago when I had my first child. I was answering client emails while in the hospital bed less than 24 hours after delivering my son. It's a lot harder to put up those boundaries when your clients are your lifeline.”

To freelance full time, you have to be comfortable with the idea that you may never get rich—or have so much as a steady paycheck. “Don’t get me wrong, many freelancers do very well for themselves, but no matter what, there’s no guarantee,” says Huhman.

4. You’ll be alone—a lot. “If you are a social person, working for yourself might be difficult, especially if you have a computer job,” warns Crawford. Depending on your job and where you choose to workfrom, it can be hours before you hear another person’s voice. The TV—which you’ll probably put on for background noise—doesn’t ｃount.

“One freelancing drawback, for me, is the isolation,” says 26-year-old web designer Jessica Freeman. “I thought more friends would be able to go to lunch or co-work, but it's not that way.” Freeman schedules phone calls and check-ins with friends and pros alike so that she can have some human interaction to look forward to.

But even that can’t replace an office environment for some. “When I made the transition to consulting, I missed the morning catch-up with colleagues, having people to brainstorm with on a moment’s notice, and to grab drinks with at the end of a long day,” describes 33-year-old public relations pro Farrell Klein. “Networking has always been second nature, so I didn't anticipate that I'd feel socially deprived when I started out on my own—but I did.”

Before you say goodbye to that office environment, “you have to determine if you have the personality to feel happy and fulfilled working 100 percent from home,” Crawford says. If the answer is no, she says, maybe a better option is to “talk to your boss about trying to work your current job from home a few days a week.”

Article Source: http://www.glamour.com/story/freelancing-tips-to-consider-before-quitting-your-job
Image Source: https://media.glamour.com/photos/58d56ff5f802062edf81b3f2/master/w_644,c_limit/lede-26.jpg

VOCABULARY WORDS:
1. Freelance (adj.) ~ working for different companies at different times rather than being permanently employed by one company
2. Enticing (adj.) ~ attractive or tempting alluring
3. Daunting (adj.) ~ seeming difficult to deal with in anticipation intimidating
4. Frazzled (adj.) ~ extremely tired in a nervous or slightly worried
5. Perk (n./ informal) ~ an advantage or something extra, such as money or goods, that you are given because of your job
6. Flaw (n.) ~ a mark, fault, or other imperfection that mars a substance or object
7. Scrounge up (idiom) ~ to obtain something by or as if by begging, scavenging, or borrowing
8. Lifeline (n.) ~ a thing on which someone or something depends or which provides a means of escape from a difficult situation
9. Drawback (n.) ~ a feature that renders something less acceptable a disadvantage or problem
10. Second nature (n.) ~ a characteristic or habit in someone that appears to be instinctive because that person has behaved in a particular way so often

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
1. What is freelancing? Is this becoming more common in Korea?
2. What do you think are the benefits of working freelance? How about the disadvantages?
3. Do you think your personality is suited to work from home without any regular personal contact with others? Explain your answer.
4. Give some examples of jobs that freelancers can do. Which of these jobs are you qualified for?