The Societal Benefits Of Being A Freelancer
Being a freelancer benefits society in an immense, but not so obvious number of ways.
Just a few weeks ago, I read an article on Medium that spoke about the rising trend of Hikikomori in the United States. Being an Indian resident, I could still relate to everything that was spoken about them in that article. I replied to the author telling her that life in India has gradually become unbearable over the years, and that I myself might have unintentionally and unassumingly turned into a Hikikomori. That comment received a lot of claps as many Medium’ers could feel my sentiment, and made me feel that I’m not alone with such an outlook.
However, it later occured to me that we “stay-ins”, whether as freelancers, Hikikomoris, and people not following the traditional 9–5, 40 hour work week, play a very vital role in the everyday lives of people working traditional jobs.
I know that many Hikikomori’s don’t leave their homes at all. Some don’t even leave their homes to go grocery shopping. Similarly, there are many freelancers who do commute to their clients workplace 2–3 times a week (or more) like regular 9–5 folk to collaborate with them on certain work projects. There are many freelancers who also work on traditional work schedules, the 9–5, forty hour week like everyone else.
So very naturally, the points mentioned in this article won’t apply to all freelancers or Hikikomoris uniformly.
Here’s how freelancers and Hikikomoris make their contribution to society in rather inconspicuous ways:
Early morning and late evening rush hours
Since we freelancers aren’t in a rush to be anywhere early in the day, we aren’t taking out our vehicles and joining hordes of others on the roads on the way to work early in the morning. That’s one less car or motorbike on the roads, or one less person crowding the subways and buses, which means a significant amount of road/public transport space is spared for everyone else to get to work freely.
And especially if one uses a car, one less car makes a big difference on the roads right?
Freelancers, self-employed individuals, and those on WFH mandates from their companies aren’t taking out their vehicles first thing in the morning or late in the evenings, therefore greatly contributing negatively to the increasing mass of vehicles on the road during rush hour every day.
In fact the traffic situation got so bad at one point in my city, that the government had to step in to ask corporate offices and industries to have staggered work timings and rotational holidays so that employees aren’t all congregating on the roads at the same time, creating traffic snarls and gridlocks all over the city.
This was back in 2016, when they only requested IT companies and industrial units to have staggered work timings:
Today, they’re asking schools to have flexible timings too:
Looks like the problem of traffic and congestion just doesn’t seem to go away no matter how much public transport infrastructure is upgraded or how much companies and industries change their work timings.
Constant power surges and blackouts due to conventional job timings
Since we have nowhere to be at 9 in the morning, there’s no feverish and frenzied rush hour happening in our homes.
We aren’t switching on geysers, coffee makers, toasters, sandwich makers, and all those other power hungry devices to get ready for work and reach office on time. This greatly reduces the demand on the overburdened grid that keeps failing during the early hours of the day because of the bulk usage. In India, since everyone happens to be turning on geysers and water pumps at the same time, there is usually a power surge (and subsequent outage) in the mornings as the grids are overburdened and just not able to take the load.
Unless we have a pressing need to be somewhere early in the morning, we freelancers aren’t adding to the burden on the grid, greatly freeing up resources for those heading to their day jobs.
Similar to the request to have staggered work timings in order to reduce the load on the city’s transportation infrastructure, the power corporation in my city sent out a circular to the chamber of commerce and industry requesting them to have staggered holidays at their companies so that all industries aren’t consuming power at the same time.
Long lines at grocers, banks, and other government services
Since we have the entire day to run errands, we can conveniently schedule our office work, administrative, and housekeeping chores in such a way that it doesn’t clash with the mainstream office going crowd. I’m not adding to long lines at grocery stores, banks, and government offices by visiting them when everyone else is.
By deferring my grocery visits to late mornings or early afternoons, I greatly reduce congestion at supermarkets and don’t add to long queues during rush hours. This helps make shopping a pleasureable experience not only for myself but for everyone else too.
Even the burden on department store assistants and billing clerks is significantly reduced when customers stagger their visits throughout the day instead of all at once, which creates immense pressure on them attend to so many customers at once, or to scan barcodes and bill items faster.
Leisure and fitness activities
Since I have nowhere to be early in the morning, I usually schedule my runs at the lakeside trail next to my house sometime between 10 and 12, which is closer to the afternoon.
Yes, you guessed it right.
That’s the time when the 9–5 folk have usually vacated the trail and are already on their way to work. The trail is free of congestion and there’s plenty of space to run. That means one less person on the trail for them to sidestep or bump into during the early morning trail rush hour, and a free, empty trail for people like me. A win-win situation for everyone!
Same thing for going to the gym or swimming pool. Both are almost empty in the afternoons. No need to wait to use machines at the gym, no dealing with sweaty equipment, unruly people, and entitled morons who don’t re-rack their weights. No headbutting anyone in the pool.
Weekend, festival, and long holiday travel
Most freelancers and self-employed individuals seldom feel the need to travel as they already live their dream lives. However when they do travel, it usually isn’t on major holidays or festival weekends, where the entire world and their grandpa crowds the airports, bus terminuses, and railway stations to make a beeline out of the city.
Since we’re free to get off work whenever we feel like (and that “off” could also be a workation), we don’t need to specifically wait for festivals or long weekends to travel. Since we’re bound to our work only by our deliverables and not “hours logged in”, we are free to travel whenever we want and whenever it is most convenient to do so. This brings immense relief not only to us, but also to the extremely overburdened transport system which usually sees stampede kinds of situations during festivals and long weekends.
Chaos and confusion prevailed at the Kempegowda International Airport last year due to a sudden surge in travellers owing to the year end holiday rush and lifting of Covid-19 restrictions:
Even if we had to be at our hometown for a particular religious festival, we could depart much earlier in the week, say a Wednesday or Thursday, as opposed to the officegoing crowd who can only log out of office on a Friday evening, greatly eliminating all the stress and frustration that comes with mass holiday travel.
No surge fees in cabs. No crowded buses. No frustrating queues at departure gates and baggage check-in counters, no bustling crowds at lounges and boarding gates.
Going to the mall or movies
I can take a leisurely stroll in the mall and scan all the products at my own pace. No waiting in long lines for changing rooms, or for someone to move ahead to check out a particular product. I can gladly indulge in that much needed retail therapy I’ve so badly been waiting for all week long. No weekend crowds or hordes of people to crowd surf your way through, no unending waits at the food court for your food to arrive. Finding parking is easy as pie, as is getting salespeople to help you with a particular product.
I can also catch a movie during any of the odd weekdays when the theatre’s empty and the cost is almost half than that of the weekend’s. This greatly reduces the burden on staff handling huge crowds who throng theatres over weekends to catch a highly anticipated movie or their favourite blockbuster franchise.
As you might have guessed, everything else in the movie watching pipeline becomes smooth and effortless. There’s no one else in line to purchase tickets, which means I don’t have to wait in long queues. There’s no crowds at the popcorn stands, which means I get only the best and freshest version of popcorn.
And lastly, what can I even say about the movie experience?
One has to experience it to see the difference for themselves. There’s an astronomical difference between watching movies on the weekdays and weekends. No crowds to fight your way through to your seat, no need to lift your legs for late arrivals disrupting your experience with their noise and mobile phone torches as they make their way to their seat. No one making disruptive sounds in the theater or the constant beeping of cellphone notifications in your ears. None of that crowded weekend stuff!
Why even book a Gold Class ticket when the entire movie watching experience during an odd weekday afternoon is a Gold Class experience in itself?
Final Thoughts
I know for a fact that most of these benefits tend to be those of a population that predominantly works 9–5 jobs, that have family obligations to attend to, and the fact that my city isn’t a tourist hotspot. There are many other touristy cities in the world where the Nine to Five isn’t the dominant way of life, and that are so thickly populated and filled with crowds during all times of the day, whether it is during weekends, weekdays, holidays, or festivals. Some are so badly overrun by tourism, that encountering large crowds during the day, whether a weekday or weekend, is an inescapable reality for the locals.
Is there a difference between working a conventional job and being a freelancer in your city? Or is there traffic and crowds during all times of the day regardless of when one chooses to head out?
Do let me know in the comments bar to the side.
