The grass is always greener on the other side

This article is a short personal piece that attempts to explore the circumstances and triggers behind moving from employment to the freelance world and back again. It highlights some pitfalls and high points along the way and illustrates the pros and cons of each status. I like proverbs, little common-sense truths ... and this one sums up the freelancer versus employed dilemma better than most: Whether to remain freelancing, or conversely, remain employed, is a dilemma that will affect many of us during our medical writing career. It is a dilemma because each has its own pros and cons, and the pros tug at you from the other side almost all the time. Believe me, I have been doing this for over 30 years, and it doesn’t change. When you are working as a freelancer, you worry a great deal about the next project; you long for the assurance of a predictable income and regular time off. When you are employed, either in the agency or industry arena, it is hard not to feel tied and to long for the freedom of being your own boss. Of course, there are lots of other pros and cons and it seems that for almost every negative, there is a positive, and this almost equal balance makes the dilemma even worse (Figure 1). Moving in either direction is not difficult in these days of internet, talent spotters, and the seeming insatiable appetite for good writers. LinkedIn is a great resource and a little time spent ‘hunting’ through contacts and networks is time well spent, even though it might feel like spying. This is my potted story and within it I hope to illustrate some of the pitfalls and some of the golden moments; neither is better, they are just different. I cannot offer advice; we are all different. We have different needs, pressures, and pulls. Moving from employment to freelance and back again simply reflects the ebb The grass is always greener on the other side: Freelance vs employed, experiences from a seasoned medical writer 30 | March 2019 Medical Writing | Volume 28 Number 1 Gurton – The grass is always greener on the other side and flow of our lives at the time. I first became a freelancer as a result of circumstance rather than design. I was working in a big pharma company which had just been taken over by an even bigger company, and relocation was on the agenda. This coupled with an attractive voluntary redundancy package made it a ‘no-brainer’ for me, particularly since I had promises of work from many colleagues. A year in, I was working from home, inundated with jobs, thoroughly enjoying my freedom, and earning what seemed to be a shed-load of money! It is interesting to note that daily rates for freelancers have barely risen since then – 28 years ago! I think this has two drivers; there are many, many more of us around, and there is less money in the marketing and medical departments of big pharma today. So, we get comparatively poorer and, because of strong competition, there is an increasing pressure to excel. The learning and challenge of freelancing I continued happily as a freelancer for some years, expanding my network, building my reputation, and trying my hand at more and more types of writing. I worked on training programmes, product monographs, resource kits, public relations pieces, advocacy materials, abstracts, manuscripts, presentations, posters, etc. And I worked in many different therapeutic areas from Figure 1: The freelance vs the employed seesaw Freelancing Employed Less