Why They Stopped Freelancing

Fifteen Years of Watching Freelancers Return to Employment

I have been freelancing for about 15 years now.

When you keep doing this long enough, you start to see people you once worked with as fellow freelancers gradually become company employees again, one after another.

These were people who used to say that being an employee was too restrictive.

They left in search of freedom, only to return to employment in the end.

Life can be rather ironic.

When Health Changes the Meaning of Stability

The first person was an acquaintance who had been freelancing for a long time.

When I spoke with him after a long gap, he had become a company employee.

The reason was that his health had broken down.

For freelancers, when you stop working, your income stops too.

Health is not an asset. It is revenue itself.

His income probably went down after becoming an employee.

Even so, I think what he wanted was not higher compensation, but the reassurance that a fixed salary would be deposited into his account every month.

What feels boring when you are young can become the most valuable thing as you get older.

When Family Makes “It Will Work Out” Harder to Say

Another person was a freelancer I used to know a little.

He spent money freely and lived as if tomorrow could take care of itself.

Even when work dried up, his usual line was, “It will work out somehow.”

I happened to run into him again last year.

He had become a company employee.

The reason was marriage.

That was all.

When you are alone, “it will work out somehow” may be enough.

But once you have a family, that phrase stops carrying the same weight.

When you have people to protect, you start choosing stability over freedom.

That is not because you have become weaker. It is because your responsibilities have increased.

Freedom Also Means Carrying Everything Yourself

Freelancing is a free way to work.

You can choose when and where you work.

You can also turn down jobs you do not want.

In exchange, whatever happens, you have to absorb it yourself.

If projects disappear, that is on you.

If you get sick, that is on you.

If the economy worsens, that is on you.

These days, even if AI pushes rates down, that is on you too.

Rather than calling it freedom, it may be more accurate to call it a lack of guarantees.

That is why more people return to company employment as they get older.

When you are young, freedom is attractive.

But once you start thinking seriously about your health and your family, the value of stability suddenly looks much larger.

Why I Am Still Freelancing

Then I turn the question back on myself.

I do not have children.

My spouse also works.

There is no doubt that this is part of why I can still continue freelancing.

If I had children, and if the entire household depended only on my income, I probably would have become a company employee long ago.

“Because I want freedom.”

I am not stylish enough, or stubborn enough, to drag my family into an unstable life for that reason.

So when I see people return to company employment, I do not think they lost.

Their priorities in life simply changed.

And I have not continued this far on ability alone.

I was healthy.

I was fortunate in my family circumstances.

I have been helped by that kind of luck too.

Freelancing is not a simple world where you can survive on skill alone.

Freedom is not something you obtain entirely through your own power. It only becomes possible when the environment around you helps support it.

That said, this is also a very Japanese way of looking at employment.

In many other countries, even full-time employees can be laid off without much hesitation.

From that perspective, being a company employee may not be so different from being a freelancer after all.

People working overseas have it hard in their own way.