Reasons for Freelancing

When the participants were asked about why they chose to freelance in the first place, the answers were unanimous. They all expressed wanting control, autonomy over time, and the option to do other things. In addition to that, a few mentioned that they disliked the office culture because it took away freedom or stifled creativity. Similar dissatisfactions were shared by the highly skilled professional contractors in the Kunda et al. (2002) study, many of whom started contracting in the first place because they were fed up with having to answer to others. As a point of interest, there is a comparison to draw to the Granger et al. (1995) study, where freelancers are split into four categories based on how they ended up as freelancers/self-employed. The four categories are described as follows: Refugee, those who are pushed into self-employment and would take up post again as a full-timer if given the opportunity; Missionary, those who go into freelancing of their own volition, drawn by the entrepreneurial aspects of it; Trade-off, those who opt to freelance so as to have more time for non-work priorities without taking complete break from working life; and Convert, those who eventually come around to the idea of self-employment after an amount of exposure to it. According to these categories, essentially all of the participants could be classified as missionaries, with the possibility of one convert. All participants had chosen to go into freelance translation because they wanted to, or because it had simply fallen upon them. There were no respondents who were forced into doing freelance because they were made redundant from a previous position (refugees), none entered into it with the notion of turning back (convert), and none stated translating for the reason of being able to pay greater attention to the

non-work aspects of their lives (trade-off). The following two responses sum up the collective sentiment:

I never liked working for other people, companies, I’ve heard about some jobs out there, I just couldn’t do the 9-5. (Respondent #11)

and,

I am not cut out for in-house work. I think it has to do with character too, I do not like people telling me what to do, I like the freedom to spend my time how I want, I want a very measurable sense of achievement, and room for creative input. (Respondent #1)

This matches up with the statement “(p)rofessionals aspire to be innovative, learn new skills, and stay current in their profession” (Rassuli, 2005, p. 706).

Evans et al. (2004) also list dissatisfaction with traditional employment as the second most listed answer to the question of why contractors get into contracting in the first place. None of the participants in this study expressed any dissatisfaction in dealing with translation agencies or clients, although it was noted that for a relationships to be good the lines of communication should always be open and clear between all of the parties involved in a job.

Interestingly, for many of the participants being a freelance translator is their first job, and one that was entered into voluntarily; not a single participant expressed any

interest in leaving the freelance field for something more permanent. This separates them from all of the categorizations put forth by Granger et al. (1995), a precondition for which was previous full-time employment with a higher organization. Having freelanced at the very outset also lines up with the finding that a career as a contractor is more likely for workers who are either just starting out, or are have been in the workforce for a very long time (Bidwell & Briscoe, 2009). The participants of the current study do not really fit conveniently into any of the pre-existing classifications. As a group of freelancers with freelance translation as their first and only career path, and without previous full-time employment, they may warrant a category of their own. Keeping in line with Granger’s classifications -- refugee, missionary, trade-off, convert -- the term ‘pilgrim’ might be a suitable one for the type of self-employed that the participants of this study embody, meaning someone who is determined at the outset of his or her career to pursue freelance work.

To a certain degree there seems to be a conflict in the ideals of the participants of the study. On the one hand, they expressed the desire to work essentially a normal, steady job, something akin to the common 9-5 routine, and on the other, they want to be in control of the conditions surrounding their work, particularly concerning when and where it takes place, among other things. Or put another way, they started freelancing in the first place because they wanted to be free, but at the same time really desire the stability and tempo typical confined to a ‘regular job’. Many recognized this as wanting to have cake and eat it too, but were willing to keep their autonomy at the price of stability. And essentially, that is the freelance translator’s trade-off, autonomy for stability. It is summed up nicely by Platman (2004) who says, “The paradox of freedom was that

release from organizational restraint was, itself, restraining, since individuals were now responsible for their own welfare” (p. 592). Among the translators here, though, the book translators come closer to finding the balance between autonomy and stability. Many book translators mentioned that they became steady after one to two years of working in the industry, and that subsequent to said point in time issues of feast and famine became non-issues. It is the document translators who seemingly have to buy autonomy at a much higher price. Theirs is a lot that can be summed up in a rather oxymoronic tag: steadily unsteady.