Freelancers _do_ care.

There is an article in a national UK newspaper today, written by a founder about how "freelancers don't care" about the work they're doing, and how they don't put their "heart and soul" into their work, it's just a means to an end for us.

I'm sad that this particular founder has had such a bad experience with freelancers, and I hope they find more success in the future - but my response is not about this particular founder's experiences - as I'd love to say this article is an edge case.

It's part of a larger attitude which is almost aimed at disparaging anyone who works in a different way, peddled by many parts of mainstream media (who are often positioned against other progressive work models, like remote, flex, etc), and I freelancers rarely get the right to respond or similar opportunities to speak in the media. But I wanted to balance out some of the points I see from the other side.

"It is a means to an end for them. They can turn up, do the job, it could be [rubbish] — they don’t care. It could be great — they still don’t care."

For the majority of freelancers, work is not a means to an end - but self-employment is an active choice in how we work. This is our career, and therefore the work we create is a reflection of our talent, it is our reputation, it is our ability to get the next project - and above all of that, the majority of freelancers I've ever spoken are deeply proud of their work, and truly do care about doing the very best for their clients.

When you work in a company, you're somewhat sharing the responsibility and accountability for the output. When you're self-employed, most of the time, you were solely responsible for producing the work - and I've honestly never met a freelancer who was happy to do a poor job. We deeply care.

The other reason I know we care is because statements like this hurt, they cut deeply, to think that clients might think that we're just here for the money. Many of us went self-employed so that we could focus on our craft, avoid the politics of work, and just do good work. That's why we freelance. We freelance to do better work with clients who also care about doing good work.

"ultimately their heart and soul is not into what you are creating".

I don't think this is a freelancer issue - this is the difference between a founder and anyone else in the business.

I've been a founder multiple times, and I recognise that no-one in my business will EVER be as passionate about my business as me. No employee, no freelancer, no-one should be expected to pour their "heart and soul" into work, because that's only a decision a founder can choose to make for themselves.

Building your own business is often a vehicle for passion, it's likely that a founder will go over and above expectations, and put even more in, because they want it to succeed. We expect too much of our employees or freelancers if we think they are to expect the level of passion of the founder (unless they're sharing in the equity!).

But that passion you feel as a business owner - we feel that too, as freelancers are also business owners. We put that same heart and soul into building our business, working for you as clients. We put our effort into your thing, because it's part of building our thing.

"I wouldn’t use freelancers to provide a flexible resource that could be turned off and on because it is about having people who are on board with the vision"

This is a problem in lots of organisations who hire freelancers - and it often comes from not spending enough time a) finding the right people who have aligned values and b) not spending enough time explaining your vision.

When a freelancer is brought into an organisation just as a "bum on a seat" to fill a gap, to turn resource on and off, that's how they'll feel - treated as a commodity. But when organisations build relationships with their freelancers, by taking time to cast people with similar values, who add to the culture, who understand the organisational vision, who are excited to be part of it - then working with freelancers adds exponential value (not just commercial).

That's why I encourage clients to a combination of build smaller and more intimate talent pools with pre-boarded freelancers who you work with on a regular basis, as well as the larger pool of "on-demand" talent. It's why I encourage clients to think about the strategic growth areas, where external collaborators can add value, rather than seeing freelancers purely as filling a gap.

"If you are not bought into that entirely, because on the sideline you really want to be an author, then that doesn’t deliver the same love and passion."

The myth that freelancers are just side-hustling to pay the bills for their real passion is unfair. Whilst freelance isn't well defined, the best definition which distinguishes freelancers from gig-workers and side-hustlers is "highly skilled professionals who work under contract".

Whilst more and more individuals are doing "freelance" work on the side, either to generate more income or to try freelancing out, for the the majority of freelancers, this is our day job. We are brilliant PR experts, illustrators, designers, developers, strategists, marketeers, accountants, lawyers, the list goes on, not someone who is dabbling whilst they find their big break doing something else.

Employees are just as likely to have passions on the side, like writing, or even a little bit of freelancing here and there. Taking issue with someone who has passions outside of work is not going to resonate with most employees either.

Whilst this response is prompted by specific quotes from the article, it's not about one individual's views on freelancing - as this is an attitude somewhat reflected by many who employ freelancers.

In my work with clients who are building relationships with freelancers, I see some of the same challenges and statements, that "using freelancers doesn't work for us", but in most cases, it was the way in which they were using freelancers which didn't work well. But once some subtle but important mindset shifts have been made, about the strategic value which fluid talent offers, and about the way in which relationships are built with external collaborators - things rapidly change for the better.

Working well with anyone takes work - employees, freelancers, suppliers, clients, and modern work is going to include a much larger proportion of the workforce than ever before - to ignore that is to ignore a huge opportunity for more diverse and valuable workforces.