Despite having recently lost my job (technically I resigned, but that was really a case of rat abandoning sinking ship) and been made effectively homeless by the credit crunch, I have more reasons to be cheerful than most of my colleagues in educational publishing.
This morning 15 people were made redundant in the London office of the company I do most of my freelancing for. As the day passes more and more round robin emails with short ‘goodbye, stay in touch’ messages keep dropping into my inbox. They don’t say much but from phonecalls with various folk I gather the atmosphere is awful. Lots of managers meeting behind closed doors, lots of desks being hurriedly cleared.
For me, however, things are looking up. In fact, I’m currently working on three separate projects for three different departments of the same company. Because I don’t take up desk space, because I’m happy to work on short-term contracts with no guarantee of future work, because I don’t require holiday or sick pay, PAYE or benefits, but I’m perfectly plugged in to the company culture and know the products inside out, I’m the perfect choice in a situation like this. I know some of my freelance colleagues are suffering as publishers stop outsourcing but I wonder if this will start to reverse as more and more in-house staff are made redundant. Someone has to take projects forward and freelancers are the cheaper, safer option in this type of climate. (Of course, there’ll be a complete freeze on hourly rates, if not a drop. SfEP minimum rates? Nice idea, but not a chance.)
Image taken from here.
However, the main benefit of having been credit crunched is that I now have a perfectly legitimate excuse to look people in the eye and say grimly: ‘You know nothing of the crunch’.
The Crunch
The Looniversity sent this round to staff:
“Financial Issues
As with the global financial turmoil, this is going to be a difficult period for [redacted]. We are awaiting the outcome of the pay agreement. There is no freeze on posts, but vacancies will continue to be carefully considered.”
WTF? (Yes, copyedit that.) It’s not as if they’re selling anything or there’s going to be a shortage of troubled adolescents needing to be kept from running with scissors.
The sudden arrival of a large number of students that occurred just recently does seem to have taken management somewhat by surprise I must say, in spite of the fact that it appears this sort of thing might be expected around about now judging from past experience.
C’mon Johnny. It takes an awful lot of oil to get from one side of George Square to the other, and judging by the fact that you bought me a cup of tea the other week, they’re obviously paying their staff too much.
I asked about this and apparently the Government has decided to be mean about giving out money. I guess now the oil and gas is running out they simply don’t have the cash to splash.
I have a job interview next week with yet another Looniversity Dept., so when I told my current boss he came out with some very sensible comments about how I could come across better at an interview. I pointed out, `That doesn’t really sound like me, does it.’ He had to admit he was being unrealistic given the raw material.
You know I’ll do whatever I can for you Bureauista. Admittedly, getting much past buying you a cup of tea once in a while will likely stretch my talents and resources to the breaking limit but it’s not for want of being a Bureauista fan as you well know.
I suppose there is some value in having a Legitimate Reason to Whinge, which you can indulge as needed. It’s like a free pass. But you don’t seem much like the whiny type, so perhaps… maybe you could rent it out.
That’s too deep for me. This is the intarw3bz.
LRW – Legitimate Reason to Whinge. Like it. Dunno about renting it out though. Might have to work on the business model for a while.
Nice blog. Welcome to the freelance world. As you say: SFEP recommended rates? Not a chance! (Indeed, never in 20 years in my experience!)
Hey Juliet, Thanks for the compliment. This is my second ’bout’ of freelancing. Despite the generally crappy rates, it seems oddly stable in comparison to paid employment in the publishing world. In the past six months I’ve seen several editorial managers either resign or be fired, usually after months of stress-related illness – and the money’s just as rubbish as it is for freelancers. As for the bullying … ugh, glad to be back in the nice world of working in my pyjamas and going to the cinema in the afternoon instead of a pointless meeting.