I’m not a “creator” or “gig-worker” — I’m a freelancer

Self-employment is more than delivering meals or acquiring followers on Instagram.

Photo by Laura Chouette

Why is a freelance career still difficult to describe? Are we so stuck in the 1950’s paradigm of employment that some people can’t fathom alternative career paths? Or, even worse, we lump all freelancers into the same trendy terms of gig workers and content creators?

When asked what I do, I say “I run my own design business”. Otherwise, if I say I’m a freelancer, I risk having conversations like this:

“So you’re a gig-worker. Do you drive for Uber?”
Um, nope.

“Ah, then you must be a youtube creator or influencer!”
Sorry, not even close.

“Then how do you make money?”
Is it really that hard to imagine that I provide valuable services to clients who pay me in return?

First the “gig economy” and now the “creator economy” have blown up in the media to the extent that people believe that’s all that freelancing is. Those are the choices for self-employment.

Except, they aren’t. And those of us who’ve built real freelance careers don’t want to fit into those narrow flavour-of-the-month boxes. So where did these terms come from, and how are they different from more traditional forms of freelancing?

The gig economy

The term “gig economy” was coined in 2009 by Tina Brown (former New Yorker editor) describing side hustles or work with no fixed contracts. Think Uber drivers, meal deliveries, and people who moonlight through platforms like Upwork and TaskRabbit.

The gig economy promised you could “be your own boss”, but that was a facade hiding a way for corporations to take advantage of cheap casual labour without benefits or reliable pay. It made the “race to the bottom” of global marketplaces even worse, as it standardised gig-workers into replaceable commodities.

The gig economy, despite its downsides, is still growing, with a market forecasted to reach $455BN by 2023. But its shine wore off long ago when it didn’t live up to the hype for workers: