Personal experience: how I became a precary and how much I earned from it

And about the same number want to join them. According to a survey by the NPF of Sberbank and the Rabota.ru service, 72% A third of Russians refused to switch to freelancing, adult active citizens dream of giving up their work in the state and taking up freelancing. And this despite the fact that the British economist Guy Standing in his book "Precarious" put the precariat just one step above the beggars and opposed them to successful white-collar workers who receive all labor guarantees.

Freelancing, informal or part-time employment, temporary hacks - all these are forms of precarious work, in other words, precarious work. The term "precarious" arose by analogy with "proletariat", only the English word precarious ("unstable", "not guaranteed") formed the basis. This class is made up of people who constantly work in the format of temporary or part-time employment.

What the precary does not have:

stability, confidence in the future;
no labor guarantees;
pensions, unemployment benefits, sick leave;
a clear range of responsibilities;
the established salary twice a month.

In general, the situation is extremely precarious. Why is it so desirable for many? I realized this from personal experience, but far from immediately.

When, after the next decree, I tried to go to work, it turned out that no one was waiting for me with open arms, and I myself did not really want to remember the working day strictly from 8:00, endless planning meetings and requests to quickly finish the task "for that guy" … But three children had to be fed with something, and I buried myself in advertisements for remote work.

How I made 10,000 rubles a month

For the first six months, my income did not exceed 10,000 rubles. Sometimes I received expensive articles for 5,000 each, but more often I managed to get orders for posts in social networks for 700–800 rubles.

Money "for pins", of course, pleased me, but did not even cover a third of the necessary expenses. Moreover, these orders did not go in a dense crowd at all: about a million users are registered on the Weblancer.net exchange alone, and if at least one tenth of them are copywriters, one can imagine the scale of competition. By the way, many of my colleagues have checked in there.

Margarita, copywriter

In my 3rd year, I suddenly stopped having enough of an increased scholarship. In search of a part-time job, I came across an article like "How to make money on the Internet", and in it - on copywriter exchanges. Well, I started writing on Etxt.ru. At first, as I remember now, 3 rubles per 1,000 characters. Then - wow! - 10, 20 and even 40 rubles.:)

I must say, I was lucky that I did not get on the freelance exchange, but without it there were enough "interesting things". One customer promised to pay on Friday, and then it turned out that he meant the last Friday of the next month. Another found fault with the style for a long time and complained about my lack of design skills, the third liked everything, but as soon as I started talking about payment, he just disappeared.

How I started to feel ashamed of my job

Working “when there is an opportunity” turned out to be convenient in its own way, but this type of employment required the development of skills that I did not have: bargaining, looking for customers, clearly planning my day. And although Standing, in my opinion, slightly exaggerates the colors, it soon became obvious: irregular employment has a number of unexpected disadvantages.

When the middle daughter was asked at an interview at school: “Who does your mother work for?”, She replied: “She writes something … it seems.” I blushed. It was difficult to add anything sensible. It is much more difficult for a freelancer to answer such a question than for an employee whose job title is recorded in the work book. “I program a little bit”, “I draw pictures for people on the site”, “I write for money” - at a certain moment it becomes more and more embarrassing to say something like this, especially if you are not surrounded by remote colleagues (and they do not surround you, that is why they are freelancers), but ordinary people.

Margarita, copywriter

At first, it seems that freelancing is all about pluses. Work whenever you want. Where you want. As you wish. And in general, what kind of work is it if you can sit in your pajamas and drink beer? At first, the cons are invisible, but they accumulate.

Social isolation. Maybe there are cool copywriters who have time everywhere and take everything from life. But I, an introverted freelancer, have dramatically dropped out of all social circles. I met someone else, but all my friends have regular jobs. They can't hang out with me all night in the middle of the week. And I can't see them on weekends, because on Saturday and Sunday I always write. The feeling of isolation intensified when I moved to another city where I didn't know anyone. I just sat within four walls and wrote articles. And where are all these trips when you want to?
Lack of stability. There are good orders - cool, I'm chic. No - I climb into the stash or take on any work. Even regular clients sometimes disappeared because of a crisis, a change of leadership or they themselves had a vacation.
Growing anxiety. What if no more orders come in? What if a terrible illness overtakes me and I cannot write? And if my pension is not normal when I grow old? And if I just sit my life at the computer?"

How I tightened my belt and increased my income

I realized that I absolutely do not like to wake up from the customer's messages, and not from the alarm clock, think over the terms of reference while preparing breakfast and utter a text while brushing my teeth. A new task can arise at any time, and it will most likely need to be completed urgently. The boundaries between work and free time are completely blurred.

The entire class of precarians exists in the regime of a young mother, who sleeps and eats at those moments when the child does not need her (read: the employer), and never has time free from any worries.

But these disadvantages still do not outweigh the pros. Precarious work develops flexibility of thinking, and this is what ultimately is the key to survival for any rational being. In addition, such work provides an opportunity to try yourself in different fields of activity and develop "soft skills". The main thing is to find the right balance between stability and freedom.

Having reached point X, I found the strength to refuse one-time orders. I sat with almost no money, but stubbornly looked for a permanent customer. Found it on the second try in a thematic group on Facebook. After a month of probation, when it became clear that we would work together, she completed additional training in copywriting, although she had 10 years of work as a journalist and a couple of higher educations behind her shoulders. Gradually, they began to trust me more and more work, and after six months, the income increased fivefold.

Now my salary is equal to that of a production editor of a local publishing house, only I spend much less time at my workplace. Not to mention the fact that you do not have to spend several hours on the road, but in the realities of modern megacities this is essential. Instead of shaking in the subway or electric train, I, as a precary, can at this time walk with my son in the park or cook soup.

How I Envied My Freelance Colleagues

Many freelancers - programmers, translators, designers, copywriters and other specialists - have been working in this mode for more than 10 years and are not at all going to come back to a permanent position, because their free employment gives them the opportunity for professional growth, financial prospects and additional free time.

Julia, journalist and editor

I worked in the office for 22 years - in the top publications of my time. I was an editor and for a long time thought that freelancers were employed by those who were not hired. Once I discovered that for the salary for which I was hired, I do 4-5 times more than agreed, and when there are mass layoffs in the company every six months, the feeling of stability disappears. And accordingly, the meaning in office work is lost too.

I wrote on Facebook that I want to freelance. Many began to dissuade, but others immediately offered remote work with a partial load. Literally a couple of days later, I wrote a letter of resignation.

For two years now in free flight. The main advantage is that I no longer work simply "out of loyalty to the company": any line I pay is paid. And this affects not only profit, but also self-esteem. Revenues increased by about 50%. It turned out that in the office I did too much for free.

Very often, a freelancer earns much more than an officially hired employee who works from call to call, and it's not even about professional qualities, but about geography. An employer from Vyatka simply cannot pay as much as the owner of a company in Moscow. As a result, it is profitable for the latter to hire a freelancer from Vyatka, because he can pay him half as much as a resident of the capital. The remote employee will be happy too, earning three times as much as their hometown peers.

And if a freelancer from Vyatka strains, becomes fluent in English and fulfills orders for foreign customers, then soon he will receive an order of magnitude more than before.

Denis, copywriter

After five years of office work, he bought a car for $ 3,500. After seven years as a freelancer, I have a three-room apartment and vacation twice a year.

To be honest, I am still far from such heights. But I firmly learned that working with Moscow customers is much more profitable.

What is the bottom line

Pros of precarious work:
- You get more and you work less.
- Free schedule and the ability to adjust it to your personal needs.
- You are forced to develop.
- If you don't like the customer, you can refuse to work with him.
- You are not connected by geography and you can work even with Canadian clients, even with Hollywood, sitting in the village with your grandmother.
Cons of precarious work:
- There are no labor guarantees.
- There is no stability.
- It is necessary to have not only basic professional skills, but also many additional ones.
- There is no community of colleagues.
- Relatives believe that since you are sitting at home, you must simultaneously complete a bunch of chores.
In fact, the precariat is about development. A new round of evolution always does not come from a good life, it means that the time has come for a turning point. And it depends only on us whether we survive or become a relic of the past, like dinosaurs. But also the crisis is also additional opportunities. And it is the Precarians who are the people who are at the forefront of progress. Scary, but there is every chance of winning the social jackpot.