Reply to: Does anyone freelance?

[ladymuck]

I tend to use freelancer when I'm trying to get across that I'm someone to hire for project work, not BAU. Some clients think a contractor is just an overpaid temp so I will drop in things like "I've been freelancing for x years" or "as a freelancer, I've worked with similar clients who..." in interviews to reinforce that I'm not from Office Angels but am actually an independent resource for hire.

When in the company of people who know what we on CUK think of as contracting then I'll just say contractor.

To me, the two terms are interchangeable but I switch depending on circumstances and what I want the audience to think.

[ladymuck]

Microsoft

FTFY

[Lance]

someone who writes a piece of code, tests it, debugs it, all without a contract or requirement from a client or any payment/deposit, and then goes to market to see if anyone will buy it as-is, without any support or fixes.

Microsoft 1990s

[WTFH]

I suppose there’s a more basic way of looking at it: do you sign a contract to deliver a specific project or individual piece of work? If you’ve signed a contract to do that, then you are someone who takes on work based on signed contracts.

Someone who drives is a driver.
Someone who codes is a coder.
Someone who skis is a skier.
What would be a valid term for someone who contracts?

The funny thing about freelance photography is that most photographers get signed contracts before they go on shoots. A freelance photographer is one who goes out without anyone having agreed to buy the photos, then after processing them, they try to sell/licence the finished images to whoever they can. So, the equivalent for a coder would be someone who writes a piece of code, tests it, debugs it, all without a contract or requirement from a client or any payment/deposit, and then goes to market to see if anyone will buy it as-is, without any support or fixes.

[cojak]

This https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and...nt/freelancing does it for me. I always think of self-employed photographers when freelancer is mentioned.

These days I freelance direct to companies for day walking events. I would have a contract to supply my services, but I need and have the qualifications and insurance in order to do this.

[malvolio]

Let's go back to basics... In our world:

A Freelance is basically a worker for hire to any client that requires their services and expertise in an engagement that has been formally defined with a range of suitable agreed conditions. They may work outside the client's organisation (like I used to) or inside, either individually or as part of a wider team.

A Contractor is basically a worker for hire to any client that requires their services and expertise in an engagement that has been formally defined with a range of suitable agreed conditions. They may work outside the client's organisation (like I used to) or inside, either individually or as part of a wider team.

I hope that clarifies things...


Outside our bubble in the real world, a freelance is usually someone in the creative arts or media working for multiple clients and a contractor is any one person or organisation that works primarily for someone else under an agreed contract. For example, most MPs (being largely ignorant people) think contractors build things like walls and ships. OTOH the MOD call anyone working for them who is not directly employed by them a contractor, be that me building a service desk or Ernst & Young delivering a £2bn programme of work.

Or to put it another way, your basic premise is rather badly flawed.

[Protagoras]

No need to contrive definitions.

Freelancers originally worked in teams; in those days the teams were called armies.

I believe that the term first appears in Ivanhoe [Scott, 1819].

[ladymuck]

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/freelance

[gables]

This https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and...nt/freelancing does it for me. I always think of self-employed photographers when freelancer is mentioned.

[d000hg]

Typically a Freelancer would be external to the company/team and a contractor work alongside, but realistically the terms are interchangeable. In the UK there is a suggestion a freelancer is doing smaller pieces of adhoc work (like RentaCoder) and a contractor is on a longer stretch and therefore more 'serious' but that seems local culture. For instance some broadcasters (who are inside IR35) describe themselves as working freelance, and in other countries the terms have subtly different implications.

[Paralytic]

Am I wrong?

Yes.

[WTFH]

If you are paid per hour worked, you are a contractor, if you are paid for an outcome, then that's a freelancer.

But I guess to many its just a word choice thingy.

It's your word choice, and I notice you're not mentioned teams in this reply.

If someone is taken on by a company to deliver part of a project - i.e. the outcome is the project delivery - are they a freelancer in your eyes, or because the project takes several months, do you say they are effectively an employee?
When I take on a role, it is to deliver a particular project. It's not to be an extra bum on seat. I agree what the desired outcome is, and estimate how much effort is required to deliver that. There will be an associated approximate charge from my side to do that.

Now, if you are paid for an outcome, with no agreed rate up front and no billing plan, then you're either delivering work for 6 months or more unpaid, where you absorb all the associated expenses, etc, and then submit one single invoice at the end. Either that, or you're submitting invoices in a way to generate payments to you before delivery of the outcome.

And if you work through an intermediary - e.g. a consultancy firm - then you're definitely NOT a freelancer

[jamesbrown]

Wrong about what exactly?

About your naïve, mechanistic, essentially made-up definitions. Even within the UK, "contracting" is understood very differently by the average poster on CUK and the general public, so I don't know how you imagined such a distinction between "contracting" and "freelancing" could be made with a straight face.

[CodeCobbler]

They are basically synonyms although "contracting" in the UK tends to be understood by the general public as synonymous with the building trade and, around here, primarily IT.

Contracting is essentially any fixed-term contract for work (whether fixed price for fixed deliverables, time and materials for fixed deliverables or time and materials) that is not a contract of employment (which could be indefinite or fixed term). Freelancing is basically synonymous with this, but probably has a slightly more bohemian flavour or set of industries in the UK, like finger painting.

Also, contracting as understood in the UK is pretty different from contracting as understood in other jurisdictions. Either way, your understanding is wrong.

Wrong about what exactly? Both work to a contract. So your definition is also vague.

For years I never understood the difference, to me it was always just one word or another. Yet I believe a lot of people (US, EU) consider these different.
Now I understand the key difference is in the contract terms.

If you are paid per hour worked, you are a contractor, if you are paid for an outcome, then that's a freelancer.

But I guess to many its just a word choice thingy.

[jamesbrown]

They are basically synonyms although "contracting" in the UK tends to be understood by the general public as synonymous with the building trade and, around here, primarily IT.

Contracting is essentially any fixed-term contract for work (whether fixed price for fixed deliverables, time and materials for fixed deliverables or time and materials) that is not a contract of employment (which could be indefinite or fixed term). Freelancing is basically synonymous with this, but probably has a slightly more bohemian flavour or set of industries in the UK, like finger painting.

Also, contracting as understood in the UK is pretty different from contracting as understood in other jurisdictions. Either way, your understanding is wrong.